Monday, September 9, 2013

I Can't Not Buy Pink Shoes

Have you been watching So You Think You Can Dance this season? As a tap dancer, I am super excited that not only is a tapper in the finale for the first time in history, but I'm also glued to any tap routine that's performed. In seasons past they're few and far between.

In last week's performance show, finalist Aaron danced with all-star Melinda, in a fantastically emotional routine the likes of which you don't often see in tap. Tap is typically more of a "happy" medium — think Gene Kelly, Bob Fosse, Gregory Hines — so it was a nice change of pace.


I love this routine. And even more than that ... I LOVE MELINDA'S PINK TAP SHOES AND I NEED SOME OF MY OWN.


Screen grabs from the YouTube video.

I couldn't find an e-mail address on her website, but there WAS a link to her Twitter feed, so I sent her a tweet to get more information on them. She told me they were Capezio K360. Capezio is a common dance shoe brand, so I figured with that information, they wouldn't be too hard to find. Heck, my current tap shoes are Capezios!

Though I have no idea what style number. I'm pretty sure I've had these since high school.

The first bit of bad news is that on the Capezio website, the K360s are $300*. Booooo. The other bit of bad news is that despite being able to find K360s in various corners of the Internet, none of them are the pink ones!!!

I have a deal with Matt that once my business reaches certain goals, I am going to buy a pair of designer shoes as a way of rewarding myself. But if I can find the pink tap shoes, I might rather buy those. THAT'S HOW SERIOUS I AM.

I'm not the best at online shopping, but I've made the rounds and have had no luck. :( Any ideas of places to search for these? Would you take tap classes? And are you going to watch the SYTYCD finale tomorrow?

*Just FYI, if you were considering taking dance classes, tap shoes come in a lot of different price points, depending on the style (slip-on, lace-up, character heels). I don't want the price of this specific style to deter anyone from taking classes. You can usually find adult tap shoes between $60-$80 on the low end, and children's shoes as low as $30. I've tried shoes from Bloch, Capezio and Coppola. It doesn't look like Coppola is that common anymore, which is okay by me, since their soft-toe shoes break WAY too easily. I would recommend both Bloch and Capezio, though obviously I've been using Capezio for approximately the last decade.

7 comments

  1. Oh hai there Cat Deely, I'd been wondering what had happened to you, but what is going on with your hair?


    I love tap dancing, I love the way it sounds - I did a bit as a child in a ballet-and-tap sort of way, but that was when I was like 6. I really should look it up again, I imagine it's great exercise!

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    1. Absolutely you should! (And Cat has been wearing some pretty kooky stuff this season, on and off her head!)

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  2. Many many years ago I had a pair of tap shoes for my (10 year old?) dance class, but they were not nearly as cool as those pink ones! Hopefully you find them and maybe even the price might go down slightly?? :P
    Why are the most beloved shoes always so expensive? I'm partial to Doc Marten's and they're over 100!

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  3. Those shoes are amazing! I have a thing for pink shoes in general. I wonder if you could paint a pair of old shoes. I've seen furniture tutorials where fabric is painted, but I don't know if it would hold up on shoes that get a lot of action.

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    1. I thought about that. I'll have to do some research. It just makes me think about the time in high school when I had tan tap shoes, and I needed to have black ones for a competition we were going to, so my mom and I colored my shoes with Sharpies!

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  4. I think I'm going to order a pair too. Dancing Fair sells these. I'm going with GS1s. They are cheaper and more comfortable to me, but they also sell the K360s. I might be too late in sharing this but thought I'd pass that on. :)

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  5. DUDE! Definitely not too late! This is the first place I've even seen customization options. Thanks so much for sharing!

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