For our series Ask A Dance Teacher, we asked ballet teacher Johanna Hadley some common questions about ballet training.
Our question was, “Do ballet shoes have a left and right?”
Johanna says:
Ballet shoes don’t have a left and right – they’re both made identically. I will admit that when you look at a brand new pair of shoes, sometimes one looks like it would fit better on the right and the other better on the left, but this is just the way the material is falling.
What the dancer needs to do is to mould the shoes to their right and left feet so that the shoes fit better.
How do I make my ballet shoes fit better?
I always advise my dancers that when you buy a new pair of ballet shoes, you need to put an ‘R’ and ‘L’ in your shoes. This means that you’re consistently wearing the same shoe on the same foot. The heat from your feet then moulds the shoe, and after wearing the shoes a few times, you’ll see a change in the shape of your shoes. So the best way to make your ballet shoes fit better, is to wear them to dance where they will gradually mould to the shape of your feet. It’s surprising what a difference wearing the same shoe consistently makes to the shoe and its fit.
