I’ve worn some toe shoes (the pink ones) in my time, which have heavily plaster-reinforced toes. I have always been curious about the “ghilies” of your second photo, used in Celtic dancing. How do they work?
I’ve worn some toe shoes (the pink ones) in my time, which have heavily plaster-reinforced toes. I have always been curious about the “ghilies” of your second photo, used in Celtic dancing. How do they work?
Former dancer?
En pointe ballet steps require specially reinforced shoes (as you indicate). The second shoes are
ghillies, worn by men and women in
Scottish Country Dancing, and
Highland Dancing. These are soft shoes, with no reinforced toe. It would take an amazing dancer to dance
en point in these. In SCD women more often wear a ballet type shoe without the reinforcement needed for
en pointe. Very good dancers sometimes bring their feet into the position shown in my post, but not while the feet are bearing their weight.
Both types of dance are done throughout the English speaking world and
beyond. Both types of dance are fairly standardized, with the standards of Highland Dancing being generally higher, since it is competitive, solo dancing, while SCD is primarily social and not competitive. SCD is usually a great deal of fun and not so much hard work.
Here is a sample of very glitzy SCD with a moderately high standard of dance done at some BBC event. Best viewed with high speed internet, though with time and patience you can use dialup, then replay. IIRC it's a Glasgow dance team, and should have very good dancers, but I would say the men seem a bit "wet" and do not have the "presence" of strong male dancers.
You don't have to be Scottish or have a partner to do SCD. Check out Scottish Country Dancing on YouTube and Freepmail me if you'd like to know more.