You’ll want to invest in ballroom shoes as soon as it’s reasonable to spend the bucks, within a few months at any rate. If you have jazz shoes, by all means use them. Lacking that, anything without a rubber or rubberized sole that you can stay in will do.
male: two types are availaible, with two different finishes. Shoes can be choses in pleather, leather of suede. That is personal preference. Mens ballroom heels are lower than latin heels, and are also wider, which gives you more support when you have to do technique steps like heel leads or heel turns.
female: Females ballroom shoes are closed shoes, and are usually made with a satin finish. The heel is also important, as the technique for the lady requires a lot of heel leads, rises and falls and heel turns, which to me is impossible to do without a stroing shoeheal.
Defiinitly not jazz shoes - particularly for a woman as you spend 80% of your time going backwards -you ned a narrow heel to turn on (Im assuming interntional style here but suspect American style is similar) 2″ heels are OK 21/2″ are more common: I find the cuban heels to be harder to turn on because of the resistance - particularly when you are learning a heel turn as a lady - dont be discouraged its a hard move to get right!
Check out cheap danceshoes here
when i was a beginner, i wore low character shoes. then as i advanced, i bought real Latin heels and wore them. I think character shoes are the best and then when you get better, get real ballroom/ latin dance shoes.
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
You’ll want to invest in ballroom shoes as soon as it’s reasonable to spend the bucks, within a few months at any rate. If you have jazz shoes, by all means use them. Lacking that, anything without a rubber or rubberized sole that you can stay in will do.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 pm
This all depends if you are male or female…
male: two types are availaible, with two different finishes. Shoes can be choses in pleather, leather of suede. That is personal preference. Mens ballroom heels are lower than latin heels, and are also wider, which gives you more support when you have to do technique steps like heel leads or heel turns.
female: Females ballroom shoes are closed shoes, and are usually made with a satin finish. The heel is also important, as the technique for the lady requires a lot of heel leads, rises and falls and heel turns, which to me is impossible to do without a stroing shoeheal.
Hope that helps.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Defiinitly not jazz shoes - particularly for a woman as you spend 80% of your time going backwards -you ned a narrow heel to turn on (Im assuming interntional style here but suspect American style is similar) 2″ heels are OK 21/2″ are more common: I find the cuban heels to be harder to turn on because of the resistance - particularly when you are learning a heel turn as a lady - dont be discouraged its a hard move to get right!
Check out cheap danceshoes here
September 25th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
when i was a beginner, i wore low character shoes. then as i advanced, i bought real Latin heels and wore them. I think character shoes are the best and then when you get better, get real ballroom/ latin dance shoes.