Laducas

You don’t need Laduca’s when you’re 14.

That could literally be the start and end of this article but I will elaborate.

Please also notice the use of the word ‘need’ - I don’t ‘need’ Chanel Foundation but I like it, so I use it. So if you’ve got the money go ahead.

But this is more for the parents I’ve heard taking credit cards out to purely fund a pair of shoes that their twelve year old is going to grow out of.

Laduca boots for ‘theatre jazz’ classes are a trend. A £375 trend.

Here are some of the arguments I hear for the boots…

‘But they help keep your ankles strong’

• I’d recommend strengthening your ankles without a compressed boot before you even dance on relevè let alone in a boot.

‘She can wear them when she gets a professional job’

• No. A professional job will give you pair of shoes they want you to wear. Unless your in Moulin Rouge or Hamilton it’s likely these won’t be boots, but maybe T bar shoes so going back to point one, I’d recommend strengthening your feet and ankles for all sorts of heels

The next are my personal thoughts on them…

• Worn wrong (with coloured leggings or long shorts) can make your legs look super stumpy.

• If you don’t have foot articulation in a bare foot (aka strong ballet technique or modern technique) your feet will look like flexed, sickled pigs trotters in a pair of boots.

• You’ve really got to be able to pirouette on releve before you even dare put one of these on…

• Tweens wearing them just looks overly sexuallised.

• No you don’t always win if you have the boots, not doing a you know who, but my kids have won jazz sections being the only bare foot dancer…

So why the trend? What’s the pull? Well they’re better than a a character shoe for sure. The cool kids are wearing them so we all know what happens when cool kids wear something (cue Mean Girls quote) and yes they’re a rite of passage I guess. ‘Getting your first dance heels’

What my take on buying them…

I’ve bought a pair for one of my assistants as a 21st birthday present as she stepped into her professional career.

They’re suggested on college uniform lists - makes sense at 18. The feet have stopped growing.

Heading to pro level open classes (16+) they’d be a useful additional for you to feel part of the world. I know of a couple of girls getting a job this summer to go buy themselves a pair.

If you do have them, please name them. I’ve seen them get so mixed up at college. And please, please wear them for the whole class, train in them so you can dance in them.

Oh and unless you’re in the oldest group of my summer school, I ban them. Make the impact with your craft not your outfit…!