What to wear for adult ballet classes: Ballet shoes

Questions about what to wear, which shoes to choose, and how to do your hair are very common when you're starting adult ballet - whether you're a male or female. This guide will hopefully take some pressure off and make your decision-making easier and calmer. Remember: While ballet is a highly aesthetic dance form, when it comes to training, it's really about how much effort you put into it in the studio rather than what you wear.

When doing adult ballet, you can wear (almost) anything

Let’s start with shoes

Shoes are likely the most important part of what you'll need for ballet classes as, obviously, all the exercises are on your feet. Whether you’re male or female, the considerations will be the same.

Do I need ballet flats for adult ballet?

If you're going to do only one class for fun and never go back to it, you can get away with just socks or bare feet (some studios don't allow socks). You'll have, however, a much better experience wearing ballet flats when doing classes more regularly.

Ballet studios have either special Tarkett or wooden floors. With socks, it can get quite slippery and with bare feet, not slippery enough. Ballet flats have thin leather soles that provide the right amount of grip so you can focus on the class without feeling you're in an ice-skating ring.

As the price ranges between $5 and $50, it's likely an affordable investment.

Brand

The main criterion for choosing your shoes should be comfort and safety. There is a range of brands to choose from: Capezio, Sansha, So Danca, Energetiks, MDM, Bloch and some more. Each of them will tell you their shoes are the best but it's really about what you like, what suits your foot and last long enough so you don't need to keep buying a new pair every month.

Material

Ballet flats are made either from canvas, stretch canvas, or leather. They'll either have a split sole or a full sole.

Spil sole or full sole?

It is somewhat easier to stretch your foot in a split sole as a full sole gives a bit more resistance. Professional dancers mostly wear split soles but they also have very strong foot muscles from their long-term professional training. For an adult ballet dancer, there is some benefit to starting with a full sole so you develop more strength. Again, go with what feels the most comfortable and you can always try something else next time you're buying a new pair

An example of a leather split sole and full sole ballet flat

Size

This is probably the trickiest part. Your shoes should fit just right. And that’s not helpful at all as that will be very different for everyone. Your shoes should feel sort of like a firm sock (on your foot), or a glove (on your hand). They shouldn’t be too wide as it will make it less stable when balancing but also not too narrow as your foot should be able to maintain its natural shape and be squished.

The same goes for the length. Don’t look at the size numbers at all - these are really just a guide to finding an approximate size in a box before you can try anything. Also, all the brands use different sizing anyway. You shouldn’t have excess fabric in front of your toes, or behind your heel. Your foot would be moving back and front and the shoe would be slipping off. The shoe will fit differently if you’re trying/wearing it with a sock, or tights or barefoot. Make sure to try the shoe the way you’ll be wearing it in the studio.

No matter how many shoes and sizes you try, you can still get it wrong. And you’ll only find out when you take them ‘for a spin’. Don’t despair. Remember the size and make sure you try something different next time.

In-store or online?

For the first pair, you're definitely better off visiting a physical store and trying several brands/styles on. Given the vast differences between individual manufacturers, it could be very difficult to get the right size. After you have found your style, remember the style, colour, and size (including the width) and you can keep re-ordering online.

Colour

This is really a personal choice. There are white, black, pink and nowadays a range of skin tone colours to choose from. In general, a shoe that matches the colour of the leg makes the overall leg line look more consistent and aesthetically pleasing. So if you’re going to have bare legs, match your skin tone if you wear tights, match those and so on...

However, you will find dancers wearing white, or black ballet flats regardless of what they wear on their legs. Once again, if you feel good, go for it.

Note on point shoes

Point shoes are connected with ballet like kangaroos are with Australia. However, if you're starting ballet you'll unlikely need them for a long period, if ever. 

While point shoes look beautiful on stage, they also require a lot (sorry, A LOT!) of strength and focused training to a) look pretty, and b) dance in them safely. The list of possible foot injuries from point shoes is endless if you start too soon and as feet have a lot of intricate bones and ligaments, you want to prevent any injury if at all possible. 

If you've done ballet before, point shoes may be a consideration but it should be assessed on a case-by-case basis with your teacher and potentially a physician as well.

What next?

You should now have a clearer understanding of what to look for when choosing ballet flats. Head to your preferred ballet shop (search engines can help) and find a pair of comfortable flats.

Keep an eye on the blog as we tackle other parts of the ballet outfit.

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Did you know that in the Czech language, ballet flats are called 'piškoty'? It's the same term used for biscuits that used to be shaped like the full-sole ballet flat. For some reason, it also sounds a lot like the Italian 'biscotti'...