Tap dancing mainly wears special shoes with iron palms, and uses flexible steps to strike a variety of rhythms on the wooden floor. Its form is eclectic and it is a very free dance form. Many dancers in history are constantly enriching the forms of tap dancing. There is a very vivid saying: No maps on the taps, which means tap dancing has no restrictions like maps.
Some early documents recorded that dancers were barefoot. Soft shoes were not used until 1924 when girls danced reels, jigs and slip jigs. Soon, male dancers also began to use soft shoes, but in the 197s they abandoned them. At this time, hard shoes have gradually matured in style and technology. Dancers use glass fiber shoes with hollow toe and heel. This change in material allows dancers to nail buckles on their heels and make a loud sound to create a drum-like rhythm so that every audience can hear their melody. This change has also affected the emphasis and content of many dances (previously, dancers would put coins between the bottom and toe of shoes to increase the sound effect). Dance shoes are the basis for Latin dance. We should start from several aspects: the size of shoes, the height of heels, the thickness of heels, the angle of heels and so on.
1. Wrong size of shoes: Many people choose a pair of dance shoes with proper tightness and comfortable feet, and generally buy a size to wear when shopping in peacetime. This is very wrong. Reason 1: Professional Latin dancing shoes belong to soft-soled shoes. In the process of dancing, we need to keep the instep off (press the instep). When the instep is off, our feet will shrink in, so we feel that the shoes will become bigger. On the contrary, choose shoes one size smaller, and you will feel comfortable when your instep collapses. Reason 2: Everyone's feet are different, and dance shoes need to be very heel-to-heel (this is jargon, which means that when dancing, the heels and feet need to be integrated together). So we need to buy shoes one size smaller (some girls will even be 2-4 sizes smaller). We will feel a little uncomfortable when we wear them for the first time, but when we wear them for the third time, the shoes will be stretched and just fit. The correct way to choose shoes: don't buy hard-soled shoes, you must buy soft-soled shoes that can collapse the instep; When buying shoes, you should choose dancing shoes that are smaller than the ones you usually wear when shopping. When you wear it on your feet, your toes must be beyond the toe (it is convenient to hold the floor with your thumb).
2. The viewpoint that the heel is wrong in height and thickness: When many beginners choose dancing shoes, they will choose a pair of shoes with low heels and thick heels, because that kind of shoes can stand stably and are not easy to hurt their feet, so that is the choice of many people, which is also wrong!
reason one: because Latin dance needs to focus on the soles of the feet, the middle of the feet and the back to move back and forth, especially when moving forward, it needs to focus entirely on the heels and then push people forward with the fastest speed. Girls' calf strength is not as good as boys', so girls should choose a pair of 2.5-3-inch shoes, which will be much easier and labor-saving when moving forward.
reason 2: 2 1/2-3 inch shoes can make girls stand on the broken palm completely, which is very helpful for the vertical axis of Latin dance.
reason 3: Latin dance requires dancers to focus more on the inside. If you choose a pair of shoes with thick heels and short heels, you can stand still even if you stand at the wrong center of gravity. Over time, your center is definitely wrong. 3, the angle of the heel is the most easily overlooked place: the angle of the heel I think is a problem that many people will not care about, this is a very important selection link! ! When the heel is not worn, it inclines inward rather than vertically. Let's take a look at the following pictures. When people step on it, the heel will move vertically. If it is vertical when they are not worn, the heel will be put aside backwards after stepping on it, and the heel will be unstable. 4. How to choose the color of shoes: Many people don't understand how the popular color of Latin dance shoes is red, and the trend of color change is due to the change of the color of black oil. During the Latin dance competition, players have to paint black oil (also called palm oil), which makes the skin look a healthy dark color, so if you are a contestant, you should pay attention to the color of palm oil painted by yourself when choosing the color. Only a well-matched color will make the leg lines look more slender. Black shoes can only be worn with black clothes or darker clothes, and they should be worn with black fishnet stockings.