The Dance Primer

Dancers often fall into the trap of owning too many shoes. On top of shoes for every day, you could end up with dance practice shoes, social dancing shoes, performance shoes, shoes for slick floors, shoes for slow floors - and more than one pair of each. Fortunately, for the beginning dancer, there are dance-shoe hacks to use before you’re invested enough to shell out the money for your top notch Aris Allen’s.

• Buy socks instead. I’ve only seen this done in North Carolina, but I don’t know why it hasn’t caught on elsewhere. Buy a sturdy pair of booties, the kind you wear in shoes to make it look as if you’re not wearing any socks at all. Rather than buying them to fit your feet, buy them a size too big and wear them OVER your shoes. You’ll get very slippery action, without the cost of shoes. Plus, you won’t have to pull the usual Mr. Roger’s change your shoes routine at the beginning of the dance. (I found these hot pink booties I wear over sneakers sometimes. Yes, I get strange looks when I wear them.)
• Duct Tape  on the bottom of your shoe works as a make-shift dance shoe.
• A leather purse and strong glue. Trace your shoe, cut out and glue.
• Hire the shoe repair guy to do the above step for you. It will cost more, but often, you get what you pay for.
• Give in and buy the shoes. It will make you look like a dancer (see #4 on this post). Be careful to pay attention to fashion, though. Your wing-tipped Blyers may scream newby, unless you’ve been dancing since back in the day with the Steven’s Sisters. (Hey, I’m not knocking Blyers. I own a pair of their wedges.)

That’s my little list of shoe tricks. What works for you?

*Photo: Me dancing in pink socks over sneakers.