I’ve only gone bowling a few times in my life (outside of Wii Sports, that is), so the concept of dancing in bowling shoes was a bit foreign to me. I didn’t know much about bowling shoes. I knew some people danced in them, but I had the picture of the classic rent-a-shoe in my head with the thin leather sole that I never found to be very comfortable. Granted, over the years, I have seen many people dancing in those for their classic and quirky 50’s style. However, these shoes never seemed like something I wanted to dance in all night long.

Recently, Timmy and Rochelle showed me their bowling shoes and told me about the deals they got. So based on their good word… and the fact another pair of my teaching shoes where wearing out… I headed over to Brunswick Lanes in Apopka where they have a bowling supply shop. The shoe selection certainly shattered my perception of bowling shoes. Styles ranged from classic, to tennis shoe-like, to skate-shoe (Vans) like. All shoes, even the classic styles, had good padding and support (unlike the rent-a-shoe in my mind). Brunswick carried Dexter brand bowling shoes. I’m familiar with this brand as I have bought their street shoes in the past to dance in and they have a track record for lasting a long time. Bowling shoes already have a suede leather bottom which is perfect for dancing. However, most do not have suede on the heel and some only have suede over the ball of the foot. The heels are made of a slick rubber… but still, it is rubber. This concerned me a bit. Some of the more expensive styles even had removable suede sections so you could walk outside. A very cool feature, but I wondered how the removable suede would stand up to the wear and tear of dancing.

So here is the best part… the price! Shoes started in the low $30 range (possibly lower on a few models) and maxed around $70. For swing dancing, the low end models seemed more designed for the job. Now normally, you would spend this much on shoes and have to pay another $20 to $30 to have them chromed with suede lather. The bowling shoes already have the suede leather (although not over the heels), so this is a savings of possibly 50% on a pair of dance shoes. With this in mind, I got two pair to try. A tennis shoe like pair for teaching and a more classic looking pair for dances.

So how do they dance? Sunday, I taught for over three hours and did a demo dance in the tennis shoe pair. They were very comfortable and after three hours dancing and moving around, my feet didn’t feel tired. The suede was slick and great for turns. I’m use to dancing in full chromed street shoes, so the rubber heels took a bit of getting use to. They didn’t stick as bad as I thought they would, but it is enough to make you a little aware. Previously, I was concerned that the heels would catch during multiple turns and there would be a risk of torquing a knee. This wasn’t a reality when dancing since the slick rubber didn’t catch that much and only tended to “slow” when it did. Overall, the rubber heels didn’t have any major impact on spins. However, it did impact flat footed slides and this is something I had to adjust for. On the tennis shoe pair, the suede leather was bordered by a little bit of rubber that caught a small amount on “shuffle” type footwork such as in Shag and Balboa. I imagine this won’t be an issue with the more classic looking pair since the suede goes right to the edge.

Overall impression: Good! Time will tell how they wear, but initial impressions are that bowling shoes offer a lot of bang for the buck as a dance shoe. I think the little quirks it has by not having suede over the whole sole would go largely unnoticed by all but the more advanced dancers. This makes bowling shoes an excellent deal for those first starting out who may not want to invest much in dance shoes. I may have the heels chromed on mine, but it sill is less than having the entire shoe chromed and still results in a deal. Keep in mind, bowling shoes are very casual in style, so it may be hard to find a style for the more dressy occasion (especially for the ladies).

Update: After looking at the bottoms of the bowling shoes, they don’t have suede leather. It seems to be more of a tightly woven felt.  Still great for dancing, however, I wonder if it will last as long as suede leather.

It’s been a little while since we’ve updated the blog, so I thought I would post an update on what we’ve been up to.

As we mentioned before, we’ve consilidated most of our group classes to Sunday afternoons. So far, this has been working out really well. We now have more time free on weeknights to do private lessons and relax (imagine that!).

Now that we’re starting to get more free time, I finally posted some of my photos from the TICO air show online. I hope to complete posting the photos from our fall Yellowstone trip soon.

Planning for the 2007 Gulf Regionals is well under way. We should have more info about that online soon.

Pop culture has the simple formula “swing = aerials” stuck in their mind. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen couples attempt aerials on their first night out dancing. Fortunately, it has become an uncommon site in recent years. To watch someone untrained toss or get tossed into the air is quite simply scary. Aerials and tricks are a fun part of swing dancing, however, this article hitting national news today should be a warning. Know what you are doing before both of your feet or your partner’s feet leave the ground! Learn the basics of the dance first. Then learn all the ins and outs of the trick you are trying to attempt (including all the safety aspects). Aerials and tricks are just that… tricks. They never involve brute force “lift and throw”. For any move involving both feet leaving the ground, make sure you do them with a partner you have practiced the move with beforehand. Most ladies don’t like to find themselves suddenly airborne on the social dance floor.

Back before Dawn and I started Flyin’ Footwork, we worked with a group called WBC. This was the group that originally started both the swing dances at UCF and Whirl & Twirl.  Natch (a co-member of WBC) recently dug up some interesting trivia in the old records. For years, Dawn and I have had trouble jogging our memories to remember the exact date of the first swing dance at Whirl & Twirl.  Well, now we know. The records show the date was 3/2/02 and 35 people were in attendance. With the last dance having over 170 people out, I would say Orlando has come a long way! Notice the date is off the normal schedule. I think it took us a time or two to settle into 2nd Saturdays. With a little more digging, we found that the Friday night dances at UCF were started on 2/23/01. On that night, 37 people were present.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Natch! This is great to add to the local dance history!

As one of life’s odd little coincidences, there were a total of three couples at Saturday’s dance with the name “Rob & Dawn”. Neat!

Back in the 1930’s and ’40’s, in many areas, it was quite taboo to steal someone else’s killer dance move(s). Usually these matters were resolved with a step outside or a walk back behind the building. As the fierce local competition to be the best dancer faded away, so did the taboo of picking up other people’s moves. Over time, sharing moves and steps has been generally accepted to be good for dancing and the dance. In computer terms, think of it as Open Source for dancing. It spreads the dance and helps it grow. The advent of video, has triggered an explosion of sharing in the dance community. Its all been viewed as good, until now…

The inventor of the Electric Slide has copyrighted the dance and is flexing his legal strong-arm against what he views as copyright violations and examples of “bad dancing” (read more). Could this be the start of a trend? A modern day equivalent of “stepping outside” for a sue happy society? The sad thing about all this is that there is very little to gain from it, but the already fragile dance community has a lot to loose.

Well, I guess it could be worse.