What type of dance shoes should you wear for competition?

Depending on the height of your partner, ladies can buy a 2 or 2 and 1/2 inch heel for competition dancing. Most often, ladies will wear a shoe with a satin finish, as this adds a bit of shine and elegance, which helps to complete the look. Men often wear a 1 inch patent leather shoe, which again adds that look of class.

Tan coloured shoes are often the colour of choice for ladies.  This is because the tan shoe acts as an extension of your leg, as the colour tends to blend into your skin tone.  You can either buy the tan coloured shoe direct from the manufacturer, or you can buy white satin shoes and dye them to match their specific skin tone (or your tanned competition skin tone).  As an alternative, you can also dye the white satin shoes to match the colour of your costume for a more complete look.  However, make sure you study your own body-type and determine what look would be the most suitable for you.

Joel & Clara's Pick

After trying out many different makes and models of shoes, Joel and Clara have chosen to wear different brands of shoes for competition, practice and teaching.

For competition, Joel wears Freed style "6692P".  It is a patent leather shoe that seems to fit Joel's narrow, flat foot. Clara, on the other hand, has a very wide forefoot and a narrow heel, which makes it is very difficult to find a shoe that fits properly.  For competition, she has chosen to wear Supadance style 1016 in a regular fit.  This shoe isn't perfect for her, but it seems to provide the best toe-box to heel width ratio for Clara's foot.  Clara especially likes the design of the Supadance flared heel, so she has chosen to wear this style for competition and shows.

For practice, Clara often wears Freed style "Roma" in an extra wide fit.  It comes in a 2 inch heel, which is much better than the typical coaching shoe, as it's closer to the heel height of the competition shoe.  The Roma is made of leather and is a lace-up shoe, which makes it slightly more comfortable and offers more stability to practice in.  For coaching, Clara wears either the Capezio canvas shoe or the SupaDance coaching shoe.

As a side note, when Joel and Clara are training for competition or shows, they do not practice in their practice shoes exclusively.  As you get closer to competition, you should practice more in your competition shoes.  The differences in heel height, shape and feel of the shoes can make a significant difference when you get to the competition floor.  Thus, you cannot practice in one type of shoe and then only put on your competition shoe when you get to the competition venue.  You MUST practice in your competition shoe as well, so that your feet, body and partner get used to the competition conditions.