Now they look seriously odd.

just asked mum - she says (joking i think) closed toe in ballroom in case your partner steps on your toes. But her proper answer is sandals in latin for foot action pointing toes etc whereas the ballroom shoe gives much more structured support and less flexibility in the toes

Please do! The heel height thing is interesting and reflects elsewhere too - Generally ladies wear flats for Lindy (unless performance) and heels for Balboa (partly due to the athleticism of Lindy). When dancing Balboa, heels definitely help to get the weight in the correct place (and the dance is led almost entirely by weight changes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fiX-Jog8Uc

Your heels in ballroom need to be SOLID in the whole structure of the shoes, because you use them far more than in Latin.

Ha! Very pragmatic! So I guess flexibility in the toes is not a priority for Ballroom?

Yes that makes sense. I have attempted the legendary heel turn in my dance shoes (just to see if I could/what it felt like etc.) and it didn't feel like the shoe was happy.

That's it. And the backward drag steps and heel leads need to be confident.

just added that parentd reckon the sandal gives more flexibility in the foot and toes, years ago most dancers wore silver or gold latin shoes as the norm black mainly worn in lessons these days (though some have worn them on SCD) they are not normally worn in comps these days since an article by Hazel Fletcher (former world latin champ and judge) about how black shoes give an ugly foot line, the nude shoe cam about later and now seems to be the latin colour of choice

I'd agree with that. The latin shoe gives you a bit of 'spread room' in the toes to fine tune the feet, and the sole is flexible and very 'close' to the floor.

to a point it is needed in ballroom but not to the same extent as latin having a sturdy shoe with a sturdy heel is the main thing required in ballroom

It depends on the dancer.

For me I used to love to dance in barefeet as I did a lot of modern and lyrical with barefeet growing up it feels natural for me to dance like that and I love it, I love being able to point my toes without anything there.

One time I had forgot my latin shoes and my teacher said point blank I wouldn't be able to do the rumba and samba without my shoes, I said of course I could and not to worry, well he was pretty amazed by how I could still do it without the shoes.

To me there is no risk to the feet dancing barefoot, as someone suggested, there's more possibility to injure the foot in shoes.

'Zactly! I took one for the team and rewatched the Mark and Karen Rhumba in slowmo and they are definitely wearing fakebarefootshoes. Karen's are a better colour to match her legs than Mark's (but I assume they probably coloured the top straps with the fake tan to get them to blend in). I think Karen has the kind on that have individual toe holes and Mark has the kind with a triangular top.

Karen type: http://www.dancinginthestreet.com/Ca...Tan-Foot-Glove
Mark type: http://www.dancinginthestreet.com/Ca...H07-FootUndeez

When I was googling for examples I read this (paraphrasing) on another forum "Beginners need dance paws to spin because they haven't built up enough calloused skin on the ball of the foot yet". Bleurgh. Dancing = not glamorous.

I agree with them about the black shoe. But I guess years ago you could have any colour you liked so long as it was black.

I guess that means ballroom dancers don't suffer shoe envy. I spend half my time at milongas looking at ground level, lusting after the many pairs of coloured and sparkly shoes. I don't think it helps the dance particularly but it is such a good excuse for buying completely impractical shoes.

Betty, you made me laugh

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Why Pasha? In heavens name why? Can he just not choreograph a nice showdance. He always does rubbish ones. And now feet too.

She's my favourite

Learned something from this thread.

My dance nights used to start off in heels but end up walking home with them in my hand

That's the mark of a good night in my world.

I always assumed heel leads in ballroom vs toe leads in Latin were a big contributor to the design of the shoe.

I seem to remember Vicky Gill hinting that they used to refuse coloured shoes (black especially) as they 'show up' flaws in the footwork. I love the nude golds, with the occasional red tango shoe

Sounds just like me I love being barefoot

Mark was definitely wearing these, or something very like them, in the training footage on ITT.
I was too traumatised by his "chimp backing into the goalmouth" move to watch the dance again, maybe someone braver can have a look. But as he was wearing them in training it would make sense that he did in the dance too.

Yes he was wearing something like this in his dance

I just cannot dance ballroom in latin shoes at all, I find I do not have the same amount of control through my feet and toes as I do in ballroom shoes. The ballroom shoes are far more supportive. I would never ever wear black for ballroom, way too heavy looking for feet. As you say, flesh coloured ballroom shoes are the most popular, white for white dresses though.

Understand what you mean, but we don't want to emphasise these steps as they can look heavy. Backward "drag" steps are more of a releasing of toes with the heel brushing the floor lightly, and with heel leads, the heel just needs to "purr" across the floor. An obvious placing of the heel is not elegant and will look heavy and you will hear it.