Must Have Shoes For A Dancer (Ballet)

In this blog post, I will give a few of my dance sources and supplies to your consideration, this post will be categorized into 5 dance styles: Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary and Hip Hop. And i will also separate what you need from beginner to professional. Also, I will provide links to my recommended dance shoes via affiliated links, not all are affiliate, but some are, just a disclaimer. I hope you enjoy, and if you want to support me, purchase through my links (some might include discounts!!) and help a girl out. THANK YOU!

PS. Since I am from Hong Kong, the prices will be in HKD currency. For USD, multiply the price to to 0.13, For Pound Sterling, multiply the price to 0.099. For RMB, multiply by 0.89. For NT, multiply by 3.87. For AUD, multiply by 0.19. For Peso, multiply the price by 6.53.

Today, we will be discussing the foundation to all dance styles, Ballet

For Ballet, there are a lot of shoes I would like to recommend, ranging from age, examinations and level.

I do hope that there are a few moms out there who are reading this blog wanting to enroll their child into dance classes, most of the time, the school would provide Ballet slippers for your child. But I would like to provide a few links for your consideration.

Girls: Pink Ballet Slippers

Boys: Black Ballet Shoes

There are a few variations, from canvas to satin and leather, from split soles to full sole.

My personal favorite would be canvas split sole, because it's easier to point your toes and it is more elastic, while the leather is less flexible and tends to get uncomfortable for your child.

HKD$30.50 - HKD$38.30 YEREN Ballet Shoes, Canvas Dance Shoes for Girls, Children's Ballet Yoga Practice Dance Shoes (Toddler/Little Kid/Big Kid)

HKD$30.50 - HKD$38.30 YEREN Ballet Shoes, Canvas Dance Shoes for Girls, Children's Ballet Yoga Practice Dance Shoes (Toddler/Little Kid/Big Kid)

Now as your child grows older, you will probably enroll them into the RAD (Royal Academy of Dancing) Ballet Examination (This is the general ballet examination, there is also CSTD, ISTD, ABT, some might not even take exams, some might follow the Vagnova method or other training systems.)

Let's use my personal experience, I was a ballet teacher for a year and started ballet when I was 13, and for graded examinations, we would have to buy cow leather full sole ballet slippers (hence my experience of discomfort, but it was a requirement), pink for girls, black for boys.

HKD $93.80 - HKD $161.60 Bloch Dance Women's Dansoft Full Sole Leather Ballet Slipper/Shoe

HKD $93.80 - HKD $161.60 Bloch Dance Women's Dansoft Full Sole Leather Ballet Slipper/Shoe

At around Grade 3-4, we were instructed to cut off the elastic band around the ankle and replace them with satin ribbons, and you will be using that kind of shoes until you reach Grade 8/Intermediate Foundation.

HKD $39.10 Bloch Women's Double Face Soft Ribbon

Apart from starting, starting from Grade 1 to Grade 8, RAD ballet exam also has a character dance section, and for that you would need a pair of character heels for girls and oxford character shoes for boys.

HKD $156.30 - HKD $164.10 DANCEYOU Canvas Character Dance Shoes with Elastic Strap for Women/Big Kid/Little Kid

HKD $298.50 Boys Oxford canvas lace-up character shoe (Childrens sizes).

After graded examinations, RAD has vocational exams for dancers who want to carry on as a professional ballet dancer. This is where pointe shoes are required.

There are a few brands to choose from, depending on your foot shape, strength of the shank and type of soles other variables.

I would recommend Bloch, Grishko, Capezio and Freed. Bloch and Capezio for beginners, Grishko and Freed for more advanced students.

Unfortunately, I am not that advanced with pointe shoes knowledge, therefore I believe I have no place in recommending you specific pointe shoes. However, here is a link I found online with more information here. What I do have is the amazon link to this products. (Which I am affiliated to, if you are interested in purchasing. It would be great to help a girl out financial so that I can keep producing content. Cheers!)

Russian Pointe Rubin

Capezio Ava

Grishko Nova

I would like to mention that I have a pair of favorite ballet flats that I use every single ballet class for 3 years and am planning on purchasing the same pair in the future.

HKD $191.60 Bloch Dance Women's Pro Elastic Canvas Split Sole Ballet Shoe/Slipper

It is the BLoch Women's PRO Elastic. It is a canvas half soled ballet flat with no elastic knot. I am rather lazy and I do not like tying the knot where the knuckle of the toes are, it is so hard to adjust, this pair of ballet flats have no requirement to adjust it, it's elasticity is amazing, it is great for turning and feet articulation and I'm just obsessed with it.

Summary For Ballet: In short, for girls, you are required to wear ballet slippers from a young age, you will start wearing characters heels at the age of 7, and will start pointe shoes at around 11 to 13. For boys, you will wear ballet slippers (in the color black, white or brown), and require to wear character shoes at the age of 7.

I do hope that this blog post is helpful for moms, dancers and teachers. I may not have a lot of information to provide, but I honestly wish that I had these articles to read when I was younger. As I always say, "A little step at a time to reach that uphill climb."

Until Next Time My Fellow Humans!

AnnabelleLYN