A couple of weeks ago, I had a big scare one night after dance practice. I was sitting in the changing room, winding down and taking my shoes off, and as I removed my right shoe, it quickly became apparent that during practice, my big toe on my right foot had gone completely numb. And despite massage, stretch, etc., it remained that way for a couple of days! The doctor did some x-rays, and confirmed nothing major was wrong (I didn’t feel any pain, so I didn’t expect a break), and agreed with my assumption that it was due to the circulation from that part of the foot being cut off on a regular basis while dancing in my new competition shoes for extended periods of time (my old competition shoes recently broke during a practice session, and Brian at Take the Lead DanceWear helped me, with no questions asked, into a higher quality pair for only the price difference between them; he even took 20% off the new pair, as that was the sale he was running at the time!). So over the course of a few hours of practice each night, the lack of blood flow would lead to swelling, which then eventually, after doing this every night for a couple of weeks, led to the nerve going numb under the pressure.
As a result of that scare, I’ve been looking around for a pair of ballroom/latin practice shoes. I’ve tried on six pair so far, and none of them have fit quite right. The whole reason I’m searching for practice shoes in the first place is to have a comfortable shoe with a perfect fit, which I can wear for extended periods of time, day in and day out, without slowly causing injury to my feet (as dancing 20+hrs per week in competition shoes has been doing), so I’m just not able to settle for something that doesn’t fit right.
Brian has been a huge help in the process of searching for the right shoe; he even paid out of his own pocket to have one company priority mail a couple of pairs of a type he doesn’t normally stock for me to try on. Unfortunately, despite Brian’s best efforts, the perfect practice shoe has so far proved entirely elusive to my oddly shaped feet. I have a long foot (Size: 10US, 40EU), a wide ball, a tall arch and a high in-step, and with all of that, a relatively narrow heel… I have also recently developed fairly… formative… ankles (with all the new muscles sprouting up in that area!), which can make wearing anything with a low volume ankle fit or strap difficult (though this part really only applies to competition shoes, not practice shoes).
Brian has suggested that I visit his competition to see if they have anything that will work for me… failing that, we might just have to get really creative! He has a few ideas; but secretly, I am really hoping that the practice shoe fairy comes to the rescue, leaving something perfect under my pillow tonight! 🙂