Guide: Dance Footwear

Dance footwear can facilitate the dancer’s performance, enhance aesthetics, and protect the dancer from injuries. However, dance shoes can potentially put the dancer at risk of developing an injury from the shoes themselves (blisters), from ground reaction forces applied to the body during jump landings, or from altered mechanics or gait due to the structure and nature of the shoe.

There is a wide variety of footwear in use in the dance world.  While many types of shoes are primarily used by one particular genre or style of dance (like pointe shoes in ballet), dance genres are not always clearly delineated, meaning that your patient may face many challenges from many different types of footwear (ballet companies will perform pieces in character shoes, sneakers, or even barefoot). In fact, some ballets will place some dancers in pointe shoes, others in ballet slippers, and still others in character shoes. Some dancers may even have to switch types of footwear during a show (sometimes even in the middle of a piece).

As a clinician, it is important to understand the differences in dance footwear when evaluating a dancer’s injuries. This guide overviews the most common types of footwear in dance.

Ballet Slipper

What it is: Ballet slippers (also referred to as “ballet shoes”) are made of either leather or canvas and have an elastic strap that crosses the dorsum of the foot. The choice of material is usually based on the dancer’s preference, but the price difference (leather is more expensive but lasts longer) may play a role, especially for younger dancers with growing feet. Most young dancers use canvas shoes because the leather shoes are stiffer out of the package and, therefore, harder to work in (for pointing the foot). However, some dancers feel that canvas shoes provide less traction than leather shoes.

Shoes are available in Full Sole or Split Sole options, selected by the dancer’s preference (for young dancers, this may be influenced by the teacher’s preference or by what the older dancers in the studio wear). A split sole has 2 reinforced spots on the bottom of the shoe located under the ball of the foot and the heel, with no stiff material located in the arch.

Ballet shoes are available in black, white, and flesh/pink, but for performances, they can be dyed to match the costume and/or tights. Dyed shoes shrink slightly and are stiffer than non-dyed shoes.


Who wears it: As the name implies, these shoes are worn by ballet dancers. They are considered the basic shoe for ballet, are the shoes that males wear, and are what women wear when they’re not dancing on pointe.

Pointe Shoe

This is a very brief overview of pointe shoes. They are complex and varied in design. Additionally, dancers have their own individual routines of banging, gluing, sewing, stripping, and breaking the shoe before they consider it ready to wear. All of these variances, coupled with the fact that so many things can (and do) go wrong with pointe shoes, make pointe shoes unlike anything else you’ll ever encounter in a sports medicine setting. Due to all of this, pointe shoes require a great deal of detailed attention. This will come later in an upcoming article.

What it is: Pointe shoes are made of satin, cardboard, leather, and plastic (sometimes), and have elastic bands sewn onto them by the dancer to hold the shoe onto the foot. Satin ribbons are also sewn onto the shoe (again, by the dancer) and are primarily used for aesthetics (however, ribbons can occasionally contribute to lower leg tendinopathy).

Pointe shoes are designed to provide a flat surface for the shoe to stand on while the dancer’s foot is fully plantarflexed (allowing them to stand directly on the ends of their toes).

Pointe shoes can also be dyed to match a dancer’s costume or tights, and they also feel stiffer and smaller when they come back from the dyer.


Who wears it: Pointe shoes are almost exclusively used by advanced female ballet dancers. The question of when to start a young ballerina on pointe shoes can be a very touchy subject. Most of this stems from the fact that current recommendations based on science and medicine may contradict what today’s current teachers experienced when they were young dancers beginning pointe work. Additionally, there is no hard evidence to support these recommendations; they are simply considered Best Practice right now. Much more information about deciding when to advance ballerinas to pointe work will be discussed in a future article.

Pointe shoes are also worn by men in specific instances. The ugly stepsisters in Cinderella are danced by men in pointe shoes (and they intentionally move awkwardly and have “ugly feet” by ballet standards). Additionally, there are some all-male ballet companies who tour the country performing both male and female roles, with the dancers performing the female roles in pointe shoes.

Jazz Shoe

What it is: The term “jazz shoes” can be used to describe a wide variety of shoes. However, the most common types are a soft leather shoe and jazz sneakers.

Most jazz shoes, including sneakers, are split-sole to allow for the amount of foot flexibility that’s desirable in dance.

Contrary to their name, jazz sneakers are not nearly as stiff as the generic sneakers you can buy at a shoe store (in some cases, you can fold the shoe in half).


Who wears it: Jazz shoes are most often worn during jazz dancing, but they can also be worn during modern dance pieces or in musical theater. Type of jazz shoe often depends on the choreographer or teacher, rather than the dancer’s personal preference, however, dancers can select from a narrower range of options within jazz shoe categories (teachers typically do not specify a particular shoe that must be worn).

Tap Shoe

What it is: Tap shoes have a stiff, traditional sole with some kind of a heel. The shoe’s upper is traditionally leather, but it can also be synthetic or canvas. Most men’s tap shoes resemble tux or suit shoes with slightly thicker soles (and metal plates, obviously). Most women’s tap shoes are actually character shoes (see below) with taps under the forefoot.

The tap shoe is most notably distinguished by the metal plates that produce the sound that give the shoe its name. These plates are located under the forefoot and heel (high heeled tap shoes only have a metal plate under the forefoot).


Who wears it: Tap shoes are worn by men and women of all ages. Dancers begin wearing tap shoes as soon as they start taking tap classes.

Most professional performing opportunities for tap dancers come in musical theater, novelty/specialty shows, or Vaudeville-style shows. Therefore, most tap dancers also perform at least one other style of dance, meaning that they must dance in at least one other style of shoe.

Irish Dance Shoes

What they are: Irish dance shoes come in 2 styles: soft and hard.

Soft shoes called ghillies are worn only by girls and are lace-up leather shoes that basically wrap around the foot. Soft shoes for boys are called reel shoes and are similar to a soft leather jazz shoe with a thick heel to accommodate the audible heel clicks required by the choreography.

Hard shoes, called jig shoes, have thick and stiff soles with thicker heel and toe portions made of fiberglass. The shoe’s upper is also significantly stiffer than ghillies (which are practically a pile of leather when not being worn).


Who wears them: Irish dance shoes, like pointe shoes, are exclusively worn by dancers in the genre for which the shoe was developed. While both soft and hard Irish dance shoes are similar to other types of dance shoes, they are only worn during Irish dancing.

Character Shoe

What it is: “Character Shoe” can be a catch-all term used to describe dance shoes that are designed to look like street shoes. Some people consider tennis shoes worn while dancing to be character shoes, as well. If a dancing role calls for a specific type of shoe that doesn’t fit into any other category, it is often considered a Character Shoe (I’ve provided medical coverage for a ballet that required dancers to wear cowboy boots – one pair even had taps).

For women, most character shoes are high heels (typically 1 ½” - 3” heel height) with straps across the talocrural joint or across the dorsum of the foot. Some high heeled character shoes use a piece of flesh-colored elastic in place of these straps (the flesh-colored elastic holds on the shoe without changing the appearance of the shoe from the audience’s point of view). Some character shoes have a small amount of color-matching elastic (or flesh-colored elastic) between the sole of the shoe and the upper just proximal to the forefoot/heads of the metatarsals to attempt to accommodate for the stiffness throughout the rest of the shoe. Shoes can also have twisty shanks/soles: picture grasping a shoe in both hands, with one hand over the forefoot and the other at the heel, now picture twisting your hands in opposite directions as though you’re wringing out the shoe. Character shoes with twisty shanks (some ballroom shoes are like this, too) will have anywhere from 50-90 degrees of motion total between the two parts of the shoe.

For men, “character shoe” can sometimes mean they are dancing in tux or suit shoes. Sometimes, these are shoes that have been specifically designed for dancing, but at less-well-funded organizations, the shoes are the exact same shoes that the average person would wear with a suit or tux.


Who wears it: Character shoes can also be called Lyrical Shoes or Lyrical Dance Shoes because they are often worn during lyrical dance performance. Character shoes are most often worn during musical theater performances, but they are also used extensively by dance and ballet companies. As mentioned previously, character shoes can have metal plates added to the soles to become tap shoes.

Athletic Shoe

What it is (for dancing): There is a wide variety of athletic shoes/sneakers that dancers can wear for performing. This variety includes shoes specifically designed for dance that look similar to the average athletic shoe and “off the shelf” athletic shoes that were absolutely not designed to meet the demands of dance (like Converse All-Stars). Unfortunately for the well-being of the dancer, athletic shoes in dance are often selected more for how they fit in with the costume or look/feel of the show than for the supportive factors of the shoe or the function and design of the shoe (to allow for flexibility and provide shock absorption).

Who wears it (in dancing): Athletic shoes are most often worn during hip hop dance and in musical theater.

Foot Undies (and Dancing Barefoot)

What they are: Foot undies are very thin pieces of fabric that barely cover some or all of the bottom of the foot. The half-foot style is most commonly used, but full-foot coverage is available. They are designed to protect the skin on the ball of the foot from contact- and rubbing-injuries while still giving the appearance to the audience of dancing barefoot (although they are available in a variety of colors and designs as well). Additionally, foot undies keep the audience from hearing the foot’s skin squeaking on the stage during turns and slides. They also prevent slipping on the stage due to sweaty feet.

Some foot undies have a small amount of grip/padding under the heads of the metatarsals. Many dancers prefer this, since it more closely resembles the grip and feel of the stage floor provided through ballet slippers.


Who wears them: Barefoot dancing is most common in modern and lyrical styles of dance, although ballet can call for it as well. Modern and lyrical dancers use foot undies more commonly than any other style of dancer.

Often the choice to use foot undies (versus dancing barefoot) is not the dancer’s. If a piece requires barefoot dancing, most choreographers/teachers won’t allow dancers to rehearse wearing foot undies. They believe that the dancer’s foot needs to “toughen up” through dancing barefoot in all rehearsals to prepare for performing barefoot.