On Your Toes: Foot Care for Dancers

A dancer has no more important tool than their feet.  Keeping your feet in tip-top shape is important to your form, your performance, and your foot health. What what are the most important items for foot care for dancers?  Here’s a list:

For Blisters: Blisters are a part of every dancer’s life, whether due to ill-fitting shoes or just rehearsal.  There are a few things that are essential to keep handy in case of blisters:

• Moleskin: use this to prevent rubbing that causes blisters, or cut a hole in them middle to cushion an existing blister.
• Bunheads Jelly Toes are a great wrap for the pinky toe (or any toe, really) to prevent blisters
• Bunheads Blister Dots, if you often get blisters and want more cushioning than moleskin can provide.

For General Foot Care:

• Nail clippers — remember that you want to cut your toenails straight across to prevent ingrown toenails. Clippers do this far better than scissors can.
• Nail polish remover — while nail polish is great for special occasions, dancers should remove polish for rehearsals and performances just in case something happens under the toenail, such as a bruise.  Keep some nail polish remover and cotton pads in your bag just in case (plus, you can always use it on your fingers if you’ve forgotten to take off your bright purple polish before a performance!).
• A pumice stone— while callouses are great if you’re on point, if they’re rough or feel bumpy when you dance, you might want to file them down a bit.

For Pointe: 

• Bunheads Ouch Pouch or Lambswool: If you are on pointe, you’ll need some cushioning. Gone are the days where you had to stuff the toe of a stocking with lambswool (though you can still do that if you like!). Bunhead has several toe pouches that feature a gel lining, how much gel depends on how much padding you like or how much coverage you want: Original, the new & improved design with more coverage in bunion areas, a sleeker shape, and a pointe-shoe friendly cut, Jr. if you have wider feet or if you only want your toes cushioned, and pro if you prefer gel only on the tops and tips of toes, but not underneath.
• Bunheads Spacers: these allow your toes to recover from soft corns, as well as prevents toenails from cutting into adjacent toes.  The spacers come in three sizes (Demi, Super and Regular) that allow you to align your toes and prevent bunions. A must-have.

For other dance shoes:

• Bunheads Gel Metatarsal Pads: these provide cushioning to the metatarsals, and will fit any sort of dance shoe from character shoes to jazz shoes.  You can even slip some into your favorite high heels when you’re not dancing!
• Capezio Ghost Straps: these are great for when you have to dance in shoes that might not be made to dance in– they may be strapless heels or another specialty shoe.  Your audience won’t be able to see the clear plastic, and you’ll feel confident that your high kicks won’t end with a shoe in the pit.

General Bag Items:

• Athletic tape, for taping toes, cushioning blisters and more
• A small pair of scissors
• Needle and thread that matches your shoes
• safety pins

These items can be found at Manhattan Wardrobe Supply. What are your favorite items to stash in your dance bag?