Athletes or Artists?
Normally we associate biomechanics and footwear
with athletes, where the study of the science relates to
movements and interaction of the lower anatomy with
shoes during sports performance. Pathomechanics is
often the extreme of athletic movement. It is the term
used in sports medicine that determines the etiology,
diagnosis and treatment of overuse injuries. However,
this terminology frequently refers to another athletic
endeavour where foot and ankle injuries are often
career threatening – professional dancing. Injuries
incurred by dancers have much in common with
sporting injuries, but they are usually not identical.
When an avid runner is diagnosed and treated for a
typical overuse injury, such as progressive tibial stress
syndrome, it is not uncommon for the pedorthist to
inquire as to the brand of footwear currently being
worn. Running shoe brands such as Nike, New
Balance, Asics, Adidas and Brooks have become
household names. Certainly, most of the major
sports categories, such as court, turf shoes, hiking
and skating have features that are familiar to footcare
professionals. Not so in a comparative evaluation of
specialized ballroom, ballet, tap or show dancing
shoes. Even Capezio, the largest and best-known
dance shoe brand – based in New York City, is little
known outside of specialized dance suppliers and
dance studios. There is a choice of at least fifteen
ballet shoe makers in the U.S. alone, the most popular
being, Bloch, Gaynor Minden, Sansha, Grisko, Leo’s,
and Capezio. As in the specialized sports, such as
tennis or soccer, where major brands offer specialized
categories of shoes, dance shoe categories also vary
from ballroom to jazz, ballet to tap and Flamenco to
clogging.
Unlike sports shoes that are predominantly
manufactured in China and distributed worldwide,
dance shoe makers are truly international. With
limited production quantities in demand, dance shoes
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are manufactured in such diverse countries as Russia,
Australia, U.S.A., Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Brazil
and England.
The biomechanics applied to footwear is not
exclusively dominated by the sport shoe industry.
An increasing number of dance shoe makers, along
with orthopedic and comfort shoe manufacturers,
are paying more attention to biomechanical footwear
testing and new materials. The Freed family is still
deeply involved in improving its English ballet shoe
business and Eliza and John Minden of Gaynor
Minden Inc. in New York City have both added
biomechanical design features and new materials
to their ‘en Pointe’ models. Italian-born Salvatore
Capezio, the founder of the New York dance shoe
company that bears his name, actually took a
ballerina for his wife. Now that’s really being married
to the job.
Almost as specialized as sport shoes, dance shoes must
have the same unique performance characteristics as
in most sports disciplines to cushion and withstand
strenuous athletic movement. However, unlike
sport shoes, dance shoes must be aesthetically
pleasing to the eye and/or subtly disguised as
everyday or character footwear to fit the scene.
The major categories of dance are: ballet, jazz/
swing, tap, ballroom, Flamenco, clogging, modern,
lyrical and character or specialized show models
(think Cat’s paws, as in the Broadway show “Cats”).
Cheerleading and aerobic footwear are probably the
closest crossovers between sport and dance shoes.
The standard for the aerobic dance model has been
developed with a split-sole, high-cut design with
flexible midfoot waist (first introduced by Capezio).
Both Nike and Capezio make shoes for cheerleading
and specialized niche brand Nfinity from Atlanta GA
has built its brand solely on the category.