To dancers, feet are like a prized car that must be cared for, protected, and maintained to keep their usefulness and get them where they want to go. For adult Irish dancers whose feet have pounded the ground more than the younger dancers, foot care is critical. Take the time to prevent foot problems and learn how to care for such setbacks.
Irish Step Dancing is a dynamic, high impact dance form, The extraordinary leaps and kicks of the dancers places a tremendous amount of force on the lower extremities, especially on the foot and ankle and with each foot containing 26 bones, 33 joints, 19 muscles, and 57 ligaments there is a lot going on down there.
For example, one report found that a popular Irish Step Dance moved called The Rock Step put the ankles under pressure 14x the body weight of the dancer, which is greater than the forces experienced by jet fighters.
Most Irish Step dancer injuries result from overuse. Some of the most common Irish Step Dance foot and ankle injuries include: stress fractures, ankle sprains, Achilles tendonitis (inflammation of the Achilles tendon, the band of tissue that connects your calf muscles to your heel bone; this tendon is used when you walk, run, jump or push up on your toes), plantar fasciitis (inflammation of a thick band of tissue that runs across the bottom of the foot and connects the heel bone to the toes), and of course the dreaded blisters.
Good quality dance shoes are always going to be the most important item for any Irish dancer withers its ghillie soft pumps or Hard Jig Shoes. We at Ryan and O’Donnell, truly believe that with our latest range of Hard Jig and Soft Pumps we have got the best shoes for all Irish dancers.
By studying athletics footwear, we have revolutionized the Irish dance scene with our Nylon compound heels and tips now drastically reducing the weight of the shoes, to our exclusive Noene shock absorbing insoles which reduce the shock impact by up to an amazing 92% drastically reducing the stress on the dancers’ feet.
On the inside of the Hard Jig shoes and soft ghillie pumps we have reduced and used flat stitching to help reduce space for friction and rubbing between the foot and the shoe, which means fewer blisters.
Both our Hard Jig Shoes and our Soft Pumps also include a higher heel cup and extra eyelets both adding to the secure fit, loss of slippage and more control over the foot in general.