Dancing Barefoot (final, for now)

Capezio Footundeez Full Body

I did say in a previous post that I was expecting a pair of these, and that I would review them as soon as I’d had a chance to use them. Well, the chance came last week, and I have to say that these appear to have nearly all the advantages of their older brothers the Footundeez, without any of the problems. I’ve worn these at home, and again during practice. I never needed to adjust them at all, they stayed well in place, without the twists I’d experienced with the standard FU.

There are two problems I can identify, and that prevent me from switching to these as my permanent dancing shoes:

• dirt: the floor where we practice can have some extra dirt piled on it, depending on the day; after a single use they were FILTHY, and requiring a thorough wash by hand using stain remover and a brush, and my toes were in a similar state.
• sizing: unlike the standard FootUndeez, which come up to XL for sizes 8-9, these only come up to a Large, suitable -in theory- for sizes 7-8; sadly, this size is NOT good if you’ve got wide feet, and they will feel quite tight, at least until they get some wear and stretch a bit, or at least that’s what I hope.

Therefore, my current plan is to keep these at hand, use them at home for a few hours at a time to try to stretch them, and keep them as a viable option for short performances where I know the floors are going to be clean or where standard slippers might not work right (i.e. grass). Alternatively, I might have to check whether they’ll be suitable to put on a shoe stretcher to do the job.

The “barefoot” feel is really good, while having everything covered, so if you just cannot dance with shoes but for some reason need your feet covered, these are the best option I’ve used so far. They are also brilliant if want your feet covered but have any condition that require your toes to be free (i.e. ingrown toenails or hangnails) or simply prefer to “grip” the floor. Or if you want to work on your toe posture and prefer looking at your feet directly instead of having the points masked by slippers.

Overall, I would recommend getting these provided your feet are not terribly wide or they fit well within the brand’s sizing; they are comfortable and useful for certain circumstances, and I would think almost everybody could do with having a pair in reserve.