Intro to Irish Dancing – Shoes

so Irish dancing uses two types of shoes
the first shoe we’re gonna look at is
the soft shoe the soft shoe is kind of
like a ballet slipper except that it’s
made of leather and we use laces instead
of ribbons there’s also no heart oh it’s
completely soft all the way through and
is really flexible to dance in so when
you’re starting to learn Irish dancing
you’re always going to start by learning
in your soft shoe dances that are
performed with the soft shoe are reels
Jake slipped chicks which are just
dances at different tempos so the next
year we’re gonna look at is the hard
shoe these shoes are usually performed
when dancing trouble jigs hornpipe
stripper wheels and traditional sets so
the hard shoe consists of two tips there
is your heel tip and the front tip it’s
made of fiberglass and originally it was
made with wood and nails but as you can
imagine that’s really not too
comfortable so now they’ve also changed
the sole and it makes it a lot more
easier to go up on your toes and more
flexible again the treble jigs hornpipes
traditional sets are just different
tempos and the treble reel is actually
mostly performed in Lord of the dance
and Riverdance that’s usually when
they’re in their line formation and all
doing the big clicks in the front and
the fast trebles that’s usually where
you’ll see a trouble reel