Ballet Shoes

Ballet shoes, as the name suggests, are used by ballet dancers for learning ballet. Sometimes also called ballet slippers, they are soft and used till the wearer’s bones are ossified and the muscles strong enough to use pointe shoes. Dancers wear these ballet slippers at the beginning of the lesson, for warm-up exercises. For the floor exercises, they switch to pointe shoes. Ballet shoes are made of leather or canvas, whereas ballet pointe shoes are made of satin or canvas.

Leather ballet shoes are durable and provide more warmth to the feet, even in cold conditions. High grain leather shoes are generally worn by women or girls. They are rather expensive but one of the most flexible and comfortable types of ballet shoes. Canvas ballet shoes, on the other hand, are worn by men or boys; they are affordable and have a good fit, allowing the foot to "breathe". However, canvas shoes wear out easily. Both these types of ballet shoes use either a split sole or a full sole construction. The split sole allows the dancer to form a better arch, providing more flexibility to the foot. The full sole construction is more suitable for pointe shoes as it provides proper arch support while dancing en pointe.

Ballet shoes are available in many colours, of which white and black are the most common. Ballet shoes are meant to be worn for learning ballet dancing; however, they are not necessarily used for that purpose alone. For instance, wedding ballet shoes can be worn to weddings without the need to perform a ballet.