Charleston Shoes - What to choose?

From Han Christian Andersen’s Red Shoes to Cinderella’s glass slippers, dance shoes have often been imbued with magical qualities. So how important is it to get the right shoes when dancing the Charleston? Whilst in many dance forms just bare feet is fine, The Charleston really does require the right footwear. 

The main reason shoes are so important in Charleston is so you can swivel the feet; the foot swivel is a defining characteristic of the Charleston style so non-grip shoes are a must. Back in the day dance floors were waxed and offered a lot of glide, modern dance floors and studios are smooth but not slippy. The dilemma then is getting shoes which offer some glide but not so much that you end up kissing the floor with your bum. Another thing to consider is how much support the shoes offer the foot, if you have weak ankles or collapsed foot arches you will need more supportive shoes.

So here is the low down on shoes we know and love and the pros and cons of each …

Greek Sandals – Cheap, light, strike a good balance between grip and slide. The down side is they don’t offer much support and they definitely aren’t outdoor shoes, so save them for the dance studio and you’ll perfect your swivel in no time.

Jazz Trainers – More on the grippy side but offer good support to the foot, super comfy and hardwearing.

Jazz Shoes – Light and good for swivel, again they offer limited support but one up on Greek sandals.

Toms – These fashion shoes are very popular in the Lindy Hop scene. They are a solid pair of shoes, good on swivel but the soles don’t offer great flexibility.

Character Shoes – A lot of dancer find a bit of heel is actually quite helpful. I’m a big fan of character shoes but would advise going to a dance shop and getting ones which are a really good fit, if the feet are in any way sliding within the shoes you will feel unstable.

Fashion Shoes – Well its luck of the draw but some of the best shoes people have showed up to class in have been bought in Charity Shops – Win! Often in the style of pumps or brogues the best ones tend to be made of softish leather and with leather soles which offer glide.

For a list of recommended shoes, take a look at our shopping list here: https://mycharlestondance.com/shoes

Happy Shoe Shopping!

Fiona

Move of the Week: The Hitchhike

You will never be without a lift with the hitchhike move, a travelling step which uses the classic thumb signal for hitching a ride.

The footwork is a simple step behind, so your travelling backwards. Its good to start by stepping back and bouncing. You need have a small pulse in each step you take.

Once you are comfortable with the pulse, add the swivel to your footwork. Each time you step back lift the heels out and when you place the foot, bring the heels in to create the swivel motion.

Interestingly a few of our students said they learnt to swivel through practicing this move.

Once the feet are moving in the right direction you can add the arms. When you travel, the same arms as leg is moving. So when you bring you right foot back, lift your right arm over your shoulder. The arms are moving as if your wiping your back with a towel.

You can also stylise the move by gently tilting the head of each move.

Charleston Move of the Week: Squat Charleston Variations

Last week we started to look at Squat Charlestons and we thought this one was worth another look as there some great ways to combine single and double kicks with arms.

The key to remember with this move is to keep your knees bent and you start with your feet in a wide second position. Each time you kick your leg, you are kicking to your side rather in front of the body. Your feet are always flexed and never pointed.

In terms of your arms, you can do them in to style: Either crossing in front of you on the single kicks with pushes over the left leg or in a swaying motion from side to side.

To stop you from falling over, you must engage your core. 

How We Built MyCharleston

Dance brought us together when Elena stumbled into Fiona’s dance class on a cold January evening back in 2013. Within just 20 minutes we had a connection and were planning our first performance. Neither of us could have imagined that this newly formed friendship would lead us to teach thousands of people to dance, to become world record breakers and create our company, MyCharleston.

Elena and Fiona's first photoshoot in 2013.

Our business is a partnership characterised by our energy and passion which has been enriched by having two distinct personalities with a shared vision: Creating a successful dance company.

The success of our relationship is as much about our differences as our similarities. One thing we have in common is we are not shy to speak in public, in fact we love it! We both have drama degrees and when we arrived at the NatWest Accelerator in Brighton (a business programme to support SMEs), we won the pitching competition on the first day. While many people hate public speaking, we are in our elements when talking about MyCharleston.

Wining the Pitch Challenge on the first day of joining the NatWest Accelerator, 2016.

Leading dance lessons for 200 people at Brighton Fringe 2017.

Apart from our love of the limelight, we are quite different, but this works because we can be the ying to each other’s yang.  Elena keeps Fiona on task and answerable to deadlines. Fiona pushes Elena to step outside the day to day business and focus on the future vision.  Sometimes we do struggle to see things from the other person’s perspective because we are both passionate, strong women. Thankfully our senses of humour are completely aligned and this has always got us through tense moments. Teaching dance and creating 1920s events leads to some ridiculous situations and we would not have come this far if we didn’t both see the funny side.

Elena and Fiona in the studio ready to teach.

Dressed in costume ready to perform.

People quickly recognise that Elena has the business brain, she is considered in making decisions and can structure her time to achieve tasks. Her five years’ managerial experience in the marketing industry has given her so many useful skills for running the business, from project management, to web editing and running marketing campaigns. Her creativity and talent for marketing is so effective that when we looked to enhance it, marketing consultants they said there was little we could do to improve our social media campaigns.

Fiona loves working with people, she is a strong communicator and will work hard to nurture the talent she sees in others. She is excellent at designing content for dance courses and training teachers.  Her experience as a documentary maker for BBC means she can bring our product to life. The first video we made went viral and as a company we recognise video marketing is a huge part of our success.

Together we are creative, enthusiastic, analytical and supportive bringing out the best in each other and, in turn, our work.

Move of the Week: The Hitchhike

You will never be without a lift with the hitchhike move, a travelling step which uses the classic thumb signal for hitching a ride.

The footwork is a simple step behind, so your travelling backwards. Its good to start by stepping back and bouncing. You need have a small pulse in each step you take.

Once you are comfortable with the pulse, add the swivel to your footwork. Each time you step back lift the heels out and when you place the foot, bring the heels in to create the swivel motion.

Interestingly a few of our students said they learnt to swivel through practicing this move.

Once the feet are moving in the right direction you can add the arms. When you travel, the same arms as leg is moving. So when you bring you right foot back, lift your right arm over your shoulder. The arms are moving as if your wiping your back with a towel.

You can also stylise the move by gently tilting the head of each move.

Move of the Week: The Charleston Scarecrow

This week we are covering one of the most iconic Charleston steps from the Roaring 20s: The Scarecrow. There is a great step to throw in whilst dancing and works particular well with Charleston kicks and a basic Charleston step.

Over the years, the basics of the step have always stayed the same. To start this move you need to kick your right leg on the diagonal towards the front left corner of the room and then slide the same leg back towards the back right corner of the room. After the sliding motion, you need to bring both legs together, contract in and pose like a scarecrow by popping your legs, bending your arms and relaxing your neck. Use your core to really strike a pose!

Once you have posed you then need to kick back of the position with your right leg to restart the kicking and sliding motion so you can repeat the sequence.

Below is some great original footage of the Scarecrow before by Al Minns & Leon James which was filmed 1950s/60s.

Move of the Week: The Shimmy

This week we are breaking down the shimmy, a simple yet confusing move that sometimes throws our students in class. The key things to remember when learning to shimmy is the movement comes from your spine and shoulder blades not from your chest.

The shimmy is not about trying to make your chest wobble, it's about moving your shoulder blades to create the movement. Imagine you have a broom running up your spine and you are trying to grab hold of it with your shoulder blades. Keep your weight in the centre and engage your core to keep control and flow to the step. Remember do not let your chest collapse in.

This is a great move to mess about with, so try it around the house or next time you are out dancing!

Charleston Move of the Week: Squat Charleston Variations

Last week we started to look at Squat Charlestons and we thought this one was worth another look as there some great ways to combine single and double kicks with arms.

The key to remember with this move is to keep your knees bent and you start with your feet in a wide second position. Each time you kick your leg, you are kicking to your side rather in front of the body. Your feet are always flexed and never pointed.

In terms of your arms, you can do them in to style: Either crossing in front of you on the single kicks with pushes over the left leg or in a swaying motion from side to side.

To stop you from falling over, you must engage your core. 

How We Built MyCharleston

Dance brought us together when Elena stumbled into Fiona’s dance class on a cold January evening back in 2013. Within just 20 minutes we had a connection and were planning our first performance. Neither of us could have imagined that this newly formed friendship would lead us to teach thousands of people to dance, to become world record breakers and create our company, MyCharleston.

Elena and Fiona's first photoshoot in 2013.

Our business is a partnership characterised by our energy and passion which has been enriched by having two distinct personalities with a shared vision: Creating a successful dance company.

The success of our relationship is as much about our differences as our similarities. One thing we have in common is we are not shy to speak in public, in fact we love it! We both have drama degrees and when we arrived at the NatWest Accelerator in Brighton (a business programme to support SMEs), we won the pitching competition on the first day. While many people hate public speaking, we are in our elements when talking about MyCharleston.

Wining the Pitch Challenge on the first day of joining the NatWest Accelerator, 2016.

Leading dance lessons for 200 people at Brighton Fringe 2017.

Apart from our love of the limelight, we are quite different, but this works because we can be the ying to each other’s yang.  Elena keeps Fiona on task and answerable to deadlines. Fiona pushes Elena to step outside the day to day business and focus on the future vision.  Sometimes we do struggle to see things from the other person’s perspective because we are both passionate, strong women. Thankfully our senses of humour are completely aligned and this has always got us through tense moments. Teaching dance and creating 1920s events leads to some ridiculous situations and we would not have come this far if we didn’t both see the funny side.

Elena and Fiona in the studio ready to teach.

Dressed in costume ready to perform.

People quickly recognise that Elena has the business brain, she is considered in making decisions and can structure her time to achieve tasks. Her five years’ managerial experience in the marketing industry has given her so many useful skills for running the business, from project management, to web editing and running marketing campaigns. Her creativity and talent for marketing is so effective that when we looked to enhance it, marketing consultants they said there was little we could do to improve our social media campaigns.

Fiona loves working with people, she is a strong communicator and will work hard to nurture the talent she sees in others. She is excellent at designing content for dance courses and training teachers.  Her experience as a documentary maker for BBC means she can bring our product to life. The first video we made went viral and as a company we recognise video marketing is a huge part of our success.

Together we are creative, enthusiastic, analytical and supportive bringing out the best in each other and, in turn, our work.

3 things to expect at your first Charleston class

One of our most frequently asked questions is 'What should I expect at my first Charleston class and is dancing for me?' If you are on fence and what to find out more about adult dance classes in Brighton & Hove. Lewes, Worthing and Portsmouth we have asked our teaching team to give you a 30 second overview of what you will learn in a Charleston course and why our students keep coming back.

Meet Fiona

Fiona, our Creative Director, guarantees that not only will you have learnt the basic Charleston step in just one tune but you will get the chance to learn to Charleston dance to great music and lift your mood!

Meet Elena

Elena has been teaching alongside of Fiona for the past four years and her number one tip to what to expect from class is that the Charleston is a fun and easy dance which you will learn really quickly so you will pick up a new dance skill in no time and within 6 weeks have learnt a routine.

Meet Rachel

Rachel is our Worthing Charleston dance teacher (fun fact: also Fiona and Elena's first ever pupil in 2014!) Her top piece of advice that the Charleston is very accessible so you can put your own style into and has is it a really joyful type of dance you will have fun whilst learning.

To join any of our upcoming Charleston dance courses with Fiona, Elena or Rachel check out our classes and workshops page!