Dance shoes

Thing Two has outgrown her dance shoes. 

Our children’s above-average height combined with extreme slenderness presents a challenge when it comes to fitting shoes and clothes.  The dance teacher (a wonderful instructor and otherwise very patient and kind human being) has in fact thrown up her hands when it comes to finding dance shoes for Two.  So I am on my own. 

We have lots of things locally but a dance outfitter is not among them.  I must utilize the Interweb.

Now, street shoe sizing bears little to no resemblance to dance shoe sizing.  Finding the correct fit requires one first to convert the child’s street size to an adult street size through a complex mathematical calculation which varies according to the manufacturer. 

Next one either adds or subtracts sizes depending on how each brand’s size compares to street size. 

And of course it works differently for ballet and tap, so I get to go through this exercise twice. 

Two’s aforementioned aspect ratio complicates this even further.  We can easily find shoes of adequate length, but they are designed for feet twice the circumference of hers.

Thus it becomes so complex that it requires a NASA engineer to figure it out, but we don’t have those locally either.

What I have ordered is Bloch women’s size 4 Narrow split sole ballet shoe with drawstrings and elastics that hopefully will hold it in place securely enough that she won’t fall flat on her face executing her next pirouette, and a Sansha women’s size 9 (!) Medium T-split lace-up tap shoe. 

They will arrive later this week, whereupon we will try them on, shake our heads, send them back, and start over again.

Is it too early for a glass of wine?