Ballet Dance Shoes
Find Your Perfect Fit

Ballet dance shoes are definitely one of the MOST important supplies for your precious ballet feet... if not THE most!

Dancers spend hours on their feet and practice every week to perfect their footwork. You absolutely have to maintain your feet and look after them, so your dance shoes are an essential part to dancing to your best.

There are many types of shoes for ballet dancers.

The most important are your soft ballet shoes and of course your pointe shoes.

As well as this, ballet dancers will also wear character shoes in your classes.

Or even dance sneakers and tap shoes if you do other dance styles too.

Here is a list of ballet dance shoes you will certainly need when you study ballet or dance for several years. Well, I definitely owned at least one of these shoes in my lifetime as a dancer! -

Ballet pointe shoes
Ballet flat shoes
Demi-pointe shoes
Jazz shoes
Character Shoes
Tap Shoes
Dance Sneakers

So, lets start with your soft ballet shoes. This is what you wear everyday in ballet class from the very day you started ballet, and right until the end. Whether you are a toddler ballerina, or a big star ballerina... you will wear ballet flat shoes!

You may also see more advanced dancers wearing soft blocks as ballet flat shoes. At my school we called them soft blocks, but they can also be more formally known as demi-pointe shoes. They are like pointe shoes but without the strength in the sole.

I started wearing demi-pointe shoes when I was about 13 or 14 to get my feet more strong for pointe shoes. The ballet teachers at my vocational dance school said we had to wear them at this level, because it made our feet work more for pointe.

The soft blocks were definitely not as popular with my class and most of us would have done anything to wear flat shoes again!

The reason why is because soft blocks are just not as comfortable nor as flattering for the feet and they also cost more to buy... No pain, no gain!

However, when the budget just gets too much, you can make soft blocks out of your old pointe shoes.

All you have to do is take out the sole of the shoe and really break in the box so they are softer. Many of us did this at school, as it saved both money and time to keep sewing more shoes.

Ballet pointe shoes are what most people are fascinated by though. People just seemed to be amazed that we can dance on our toes! Yet although professional ballerinas make it look effortless, it is actually very tricky to master.

One major thing that can absolutely help your dancing on pointe, is the fitting of your shoes. If they are too small, too narrow or just do not fit you correctly it can really affect your dancing.

Click here! to learn how to survive in your pointe shoes and make sure you are fitted correctly.

When you have pointe shoes that feel almost perfect, it can make a surprisingly big difference to how you dance.

return from Ballet Dance Shoes to Ballet Dancers Guide homepage or alternatively back to Ballet Dance Performances