There are two kinds of shoes that are worn in Irish Dancing: hard shoes and soft shoes. The hard shoe is similar to tap shoes, except that the tips and heels are made of fiberglass, instead of metal, and are significantly bulkier. The first hard shoes had wooden or leather taps with metal nails. Later the taps and heels were changed into resin or fiberglass to reduce the weight and to increase the footwork sounds. This is the main feature of the Irish dance hard shoe – it is all about the sound. These shoes are responsible for the unique tap sound of Irish dancing.

The soft shoes, which are called ghillies, are similar to a ballet shoe minus the hard toe and the ribbons for laces. Ghillies are only worn by girls while boys wear a black leather shoe which resembles a black jazz shoe with a hard heel. These shoes are worn during the dances that do not require the tapping sound that is the strongest feature of Irish dancing.

Irish dance shoes are usually hand made and can be purchased directly from the manufacturers. There are also quite a few web sites that offer online purchase of Irish dancing shoes.

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