Dance Shoe History

Soon, a stiffer shoe became standard, the thinking being that it would be easier for dancers to get up on their toes with a more rigid shoe. This was achieved with two complementary techniques—first, using thick, unlined and inflexible pigskin for the uppers and second, by adding a second layer of thick belly leather to the insole, creating a double sole resistant to bending at the arch when on pointe.

The effect of this rigid construction was a very stiff shoe that, while supportive, offered significantly more weight and less comfort to the dancers, who were required to spend hours upon hours breaking in these shoes before they could be worn for practice or competition. This form of construction, tingles and all, endured through the 1980s and into the 1990s.

Meanwhile, the dance shoes for other styles of professional dance, such as ballroom, jazz, and ballet, had begun to adopt new technology like foam insocks for padded comfort, Cambrelle linings for moisture wicking, toe blocks for increased foot support when going on pointe, and heel padding to help reduce blisters. And it is from these developments that Corr’s Irish Dance became the first U.S.-based company to introduce external dance shoe design and technology to modern Irish Dance shoes manufacturing.

When Julian Wild founded Corr’s Irish Dance in 2001, new technology and changes to the regulations governing shoe size and material by the Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha allowed for greater flexibility in shoe design and comfort. Certainly the shoes had come a long way from their basic oxford origins, but, Wild says, most shoes he was seeing seemed to be a decade or two behind the types of professional shoes seen at the level of Broadway or West End productions. So, he decided to found a company of his own that would borrow and adapt these new technologies and apply them to Irish Dance shoes. And he knew what he was talking about.

Wild was born in Lancashire and is third-generation Irish-British on both parents’ sides and Corr’s itself is named after his mother’s Irish maiden name. From an early age, he was immersed in music and dance, with his mother working as a dance instructor and his father running a dance supply retail and wholesale business. His godfather was the son of Frederick Freed, who founded Freed of London, founded as a ballet shoe company in 1929.

Eventually, Wild himself would follow in the family business, working as a professional dancer in the 1980s in London on the West End. During the evenings, Wild would dance on stage, but during the day, he would hang around the Freed shop to learn the business and design process for shoemaking.

“I knew how the dance shoes were made, how they ought to be made, what made certain dance shoes better than others, because I was surrounded by dancers, I taught dancers, I was taught by dancers, I worked with dancers. And they will always tell you how they feel about a particular product,” Wild says.

By the time his dancing career was coming to an end in the late 1980s, Wild took this broad knowledge base to America with his new wife and began selling dance shoes wholesale around the Northeast, as well as doing fittings for the American Ballet Theatre.

“I remember when I saw my first ever pair of Irish hard shoes. I was in a store in Rocky Hill, Connecticut just after Riverdance, but before it was really in the national consciousness. And I knew straight away that these shoes that I was looking at had nothing to do in the way they were made with any of the shoe companies I was importing for other styles of dance,” he says.

“It was like there were two worlds. There was the regular dancing shoe world with all these different companies like So Dansa or Block or Capezio, and then there was these Irish Dance shoes,” he says. “I could see straight away that these Irish Dance shoe companies hadn’t borrowed anything from the new innovations and technology.”

Thus, Corr’s was born. He changed the uppers to a more flexible cowhide; he added padded linings with Cambrelle, padded insocks, a leather board insole, more refined arch support, and heel pads. He also noticed that the new CLRG-approved fiberglass tips found in other brands shared a common complaint: they were easily chipped, cracked, or split, and, even when they didn’t, the tips would wear down very quickly, requiring near constant replacement for the frequent dancer.

“My thinking was if you made these tips dense enough they wouldn't need to wear out. They wouldn't need replacing and dancers wouldn’t have to spend the money to have them replaced plus shipping. But also, if they’re denser and they don’t wear out, I can make them smaller and reduce strain on the foot,” he says.

“Because the thing is it's not about how much cubic volume the tip takes up, it's about the sound of the tip. You won’t be impeded by the cumbersome nature of the tip itself. And, the denser it is, the better sound it creates over fiberglass tips. It’s going to be louder, it’s going to be crisper, it’s going to be sharper. And this has nothing to do with the cubic volume of the tip itself. It’s all to do with the density as it hits the floor.”

Soon, Wild landed on creating a plastic resin compound for the tips and heels that is seven times denser than fiberglass, a standard maintained to this day.

“I wanted to make a comfortable shoe that protects the dancer’s feet. I wanted to be the guy that dancers trusted because we’re the same. We’re from the same history of being dancers. I wouldn’t want to make a shoe that by default or by neglect hurt the dancer’s feet.”

Wild innovated almost annually for his first several years in business, and is credited with introducing the first split sole soft and hard shoes to the U.S. market, allowing for greater arch support and, in the case of hard shoes, making it easier to go on pointe. He also noticed that some manufacturers still had rounded tips, forcing the dancer to assume what is referred to as “taco toe,” where the weight is not distributed down the foot onto the toe, but the foot curves, creating dangerous conditions that could injure the tendons and muscles of the foot. Other shoes had flattened tips, now common, that were angled at over 90 degrees from the toe of the upper. Wild knew from his ballet years that for this style of shoe, the angle should be reduced to at least 85 degrees, making it easier to go on pointe in such rigid shoes. This is now still the industry standard across multiple manufacturers, pioneered by Wild and Corr’s.

Today, Corr’s offers a single sole and split sole Irish Dance hard shoes, as well as a number of soft shoes for beginners and professionals alike, drawing from the traditions of shoe design from other dance forms that allows for greater safety and comfort, without sacrificing the historic roots of Irish Dance shoes.  

----

Did you know you can now read IDM's monthly edition online?  And, it is absolutely FREE for subscribers to access their online edition with extra bonus content! Logon to this website with your email address. If you are an active subscriber, you will see the word SUBSCRIBER pop up in your toolbar, once you login.  From there, click to read our current issue (visit our customer service page for help if you experience any hiccups)!

If you do not currently receive IDM monthly,you can now order either an online or print subscription on our shop page! Click here to see all of our subscription options!  

Did you know you can read the current 52 page issue of IDM online? We have all editions from 2018 thru the current issue available for purchase. Those who wish to see more interactive content and want to save on the postage can subscribe to the online edition for only $5.00 per month (billed quarterly). Back issues are sold by the year.

BONUS FOR PRINT SUBSCRIBERS: In addition to receiving their PRINT edition in the mailbox at home, print subscribers also receive FREE access to the ONLINE edition by logging into their account on www.irishdancing.com.

Check out the newest ONLINE subscription and PRINT subscription options here.

----

Return to our homepage HERE to read more Irish Dancing News!