Lee's Reviews of Things Swing

Dancing Shoes

• Bleyer's Rock and Roll shoe: Of all the dancing shoes I've tried, these are my very favorite. They fit like a glove (the size chart at DanceStore.com really works), and the Bleyer "Special Sole" with the "spin spot" gives great performance on the widest range of floor surfaces. It requires a separate insole to have enough cushioning.
• Bleyer's Charleston shoe: The black and white Charlestons are awesomely stylish looking shoes, with a heel, in contrast to the flat-soled Bleyer Rock and Roll. I have found, however, that the Bleyer "Swing Sole"---which is a dense foam synthetic---is more finicky than the Bleyer "Special Sole", tending to grab the floor enough to twist my knee on many floor surfaces.
• Leo's Giordano Swing-Jazz Shoe: $32.25. I had to try a variety of these shoes before finding the size that fit my foot properly. They are narrow on the toe and wide around the middle of the foot. Unfortunately, the combination of hard heel and flexible suede leather sole cause the front edges of the tops of the heels to dig into the foot. Every kind of insole I tried failed to prevent the foot from developing pain bordering on injury after a couple of dances.
• Brunswick Bowling shoes: My dance teacher recommended these shoes, since they have a suede leather patch on the front of the soles that allows good spinning, and are cheap at $25 in any mega-sporting goods store. These aer the shoes I use when a dance happens to be on concrete or asphalt---they perform fantastically, with deep cushioning to protect against joint injury on hard surfaces. On regular dance floors, though, the rubber half of the sole has too much friction and can twist the knees. On asphalt, the suede half of the sole can take any level of abuse---in fact, they like abuse---keeps them soft.

Videos

• Killer Diller
• Hellzapoppin'
• X and Deybra
• Steven Mitchell
• Frankie Manning

CDs

• Lavay Smith
• Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bumbs
• Bill Elliott