<p>to soozievt…I am new to all this “theatre/dance” lingo, but I am learning quickly! I know this thread started about audition outfits, then warped into “shoes” and I have a shoe question. My D will be entering a BFA MT program in the fall, and she has some character shoes we got her at the local dance shop for her shows in high school. She says they are comfortable, but I am now questioning if she knows what comfort is…lol. She only wore them for rehearsals working up to a show and then the show itself…and of course she will be dancing everyday in her major at college…SO, should we invest in some of the wonderful shoes I hear being described or should we wait until she reports to school in August to see what they have to say? Thanks! And where do we get these wonderful shoes…don’t know if our local dance shop carries them…do you know if the size is true enough for them to be ordered on-line? Thanks…again.</p>
<p>theatrelovr…perhaps your daughter should wait until she gets to college. Is your daughter a dancer? Regular character shoes in a show are truly just fine. These LaDuca shoes are better for DANCING. As I said, prior to college, when my D was in shows and needed character shoes, she had regular ones. When she danced at our dance studio almost every day in all styles of dance, they did not dance in heels ever. When she got to college, the dance classes at her college (Tisch/CAP21) for freshmen did not require heels and so she used her jazz shoes, ballet shoes, and tap shoes (she had split sole jazz and tap shoes). She really did not use her character shoes. When it became an issue is when in the actual dance classes (not shows) required heels, there is a major difference if you dance in the LaDuca brand character type shoes than in regular ones. They are made much better and also more for dancing as they have a split sole. My D had bought split sole heeled tap shoes (I forget when that was…maybe freshmen year of college). But for jazz dance (or theater dance), regular character shoes are not nearly as nice when you are used to split sole shoes. </p>
<p>So, IF your D’s DANCE classes in college require heels, then yes, LaDuca’s are way easier to dance in than regular character shoes. If your D just needs shoes for shows where she doesn’t dance much, a regular character shoe will suffice just fine. So, she can wait and see if she needs heeled shoes for dance classes or not or if she has dance roles in productions. Those are the things where LaDuca’s would really make a difference. </p>
<p>LaDuca is a brand. You can even get them online (look them up). But they are expensive! Then again, if your kid is gonna be in a four year program, they will be used a lot and also perhaps in summers and after graduation. You likely can look up where they are sold in their own stores. My kid was living in NYC and there is a La Duca store there and that’s where she got them. No way could she get them here in Vermont! 
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<p>I don’t think a local dance shop carries them (I could be wrong…others should chime in)…as I think you have to get them through LaDuca. Be ready for sticker shock! :)</p>
<p>(sorry I can’t recall if they run true to size…hope others will chime in…I think my D got them about four years ago and I just do not recall and she also bought them in NYC without me)</p>
<p>I just looked it up for you…here is a list of retailers that carry LaDucas and there is a link on this page for additional stores…</p>
<p>[The</a> First. The Original. The Only. LaDuca Shoes. The ultimate in dance shoes. If you want to be a dancer, you want to be in LaDuca Shoes. Keep one step ahead. LaDuca Shoes.](<a href=“http://www.laducashoes.com/laducaretailers.htm]The”>http://www.laducashoes.com/laducaretailers.htm)</p>
<p>Thanks for the great advice…I will take it and wait until school starts to see what she needs for her dance classes…
Also thanks for the link…so many shoes!!! But I know…if your feet hurt, everything hurts!!!</p>
<p>The issue isn’t so much comfort but with dancing, a shoe that has a flexible sole like LaDucas is much easier to dance in than a regular character shoe. </p>
<p>Same with tap dance oxfords. Ones with a split sole allow for greater ease in tap dancing than those with a stiff sole.</p>
<p>Thanks! We will keep all your advice in mind when it is time to buy shoes!</p>
<p>We drove to the just outside of Philadelphia location…and ended up getting exactly the same size as her street size! But for the price it was worth it to me to make the drive because I just didn’t want to be guessing on shoe size and have to deal with mailing shoes back and forth.<br>
There is a less expensive option for a flexible character shoe and that’s the Capezio Broadway Flex. It’s about $60 on-line and is a very nice shoe, and a great improvement over the basic stiff character shoe.<br>
If you wear ballet slippers often, and consistantly have that banana curve pointed foot at the end of your line, you’d appreciate the ability of the La Duca’s to make that same ballet slipper type of point. But if you don’t point your feet now, wearing La Duca’s isn’t going to help any.</p>
<p>So for those of you who were, at the time of college auditions, very strong dancers, with years and years of ballet and jazz (or parented such a person!), did you wear heeled shoes at all during the dance phase of the audition? Or did you see other strong dancers in heels?</p>
<p>classicalbk, if I remember correctly, as it has been several years, my D has the Capezio shoe you mention as her heeled tap shoes. She had been tapping in a flat tap shoe, with a split sole prior to college but when she needed heeled ones, she did find that Capezio one that has a split sole and liked it. And it is a cheaper alternative to LaDuca’s. However, she eventually got LaDuca’s for her dance/character shoe and has the Capezios only as a tap shoe.</p>
<p>I cross posted with you. </p>
<p>When my D did college auditions, she did not dance in heels. I don’t know what other kids did, sorry. She was an advanced dancer who had trained her whole life and as I wrote earlier, our dance studio did not have dancers use heels and so she danced in regular dance shoes for college auditions. If I recall, she likely danced in jazz shoes (flat, split sole, bootie style, no laces). She also brought ballet shoes. Some programs auditioned in ballet and in jazz. For example, at UMich, they did a ballet barre first.</p>
<p>I’ve danced my whole life, and wore ballet shoes or jazz shoes to the audition. The only time I ever came across anyone wearing shoe like laducas wasn’t until I went to Summer Stock auditions. Let your child dance in what they feel is most comfortable to them. If they havent worked in them they might not feel comfortable just changing into heeled shoes to dance in. Plus if you do Unified auditions, as I did in Chicago, you’re dancing in carpeted rooms. Not floors specific to dance floors.</p>
<p>Strong dancers for us seem to wear various shoes to auditions. Some wore heals, most wore jazz shoes.</p>
<p>As I recall, my D wore jazz shoes at some, heels at others, depending on what they were doing.(If the instructor/leader had on heels, she followed suit.) Of course, since she is “height-challenged”, she often feels that anything that will get her past the 5 foot mark is a plus.</p>
<p>Thanks to all on the shoe advice…my D’s character shoes are the Capezio ones and she says for now they are comfortable, but once classes start, we may need to make a change if she needs heels everyday for class. It’s nice to know there are some options</p>
<p>Any recommendations for boys jazz, ballet and tap shoes?? All he owns now are Irish Dance shoes!!!</p>
<p>For unified’s, is it a hindrance dancing on carpet, especially if there is a Ballet combination? I feel like there would be, at least for me personally.</p>
<p>I think dance shoes for auditions are a personal choice. Whatever the student feels most comfortable and confident in should be the deciding factor. My D has a closet full of dance shoes but opted for a well-worn pair of leather pedinis for most of her auditions. They are sort of a cross between ballet shoes and jazz shoes, so they worked well for both barre work and jazz or MT combinations. She also took tap shoes for every audition but often was asked just to “tap” in her pedinis. They could spot “good feet” for tap that way quickly and it clearly saved time.</p>
<p>As for dancing on carpeting at Chicago unifieds, some schools actually held at least the dance portion of their auditions at the Lou Conte Dance Studio near by. Another school had a very small dance floor square brought in for their auditions. Dancing on carpeting is not good!</p>
<p>Anne, yes, Pedinis. Good idea. Thanks for the reminder.</p>
<p>I was looking on the Discount Dance Supply website, and they had a pair of flexible character shoes from Bloch that had really good reviews, and were selling for about the same a the Capezio ones. Does anyone know anything about them?</p>
<p>The new t-strap? A few kids who are dancers used them in D’s most recent show and liked them.</p>