Slip proof my jazz boots?

Question

I am in a musical and had to buy new jazz boots for the costume. I am worried that I might slip or fall onstage because jazz shoes are so slippery. I have heard that there is some powder you can put on your jazz boots to keep them from becoming too slippery while onstage. I think it is resin or rosin or rosen? Where can I get some of this stuff and would it come off on the carpet before getting to the stage? Do I have to reapply it each time I go onstage?

Answer 1

I'm not certain what exactly jazz boots are, so I may be giving you bad advice, but as a person who sometimes buys shoes with slippery bottoms, I know that most shoe stores sell little pads that you can apply to the bottom of your shoe that give them traction. They just stick on with a self-adhesive and I think they're about $2 or $3. Also, I've heard that scoring the bottom of your shoes can help. (Meaning use a sharp object to drag lines across the bottom, creating deep grooves. Probably a shoe repair place would do it for you if you wanted.)

I've used rosin before, but that was for a violin bow. Might work on your shoes, too. You can buy that at any music shop. Or maybe try what surfers call "sex wax," which they use to make their surfboards less slippery.

(I'm not a dancer, though, so this could be all wrong.)

Answer 2

The slickness of your shoes is a matter of taste.
Some dancers like dance rubber, a good shoe maker can glue them to the bottom of your shoes.
Still other like suede, not as sticky and stiff as dance rubber.
Rosin is used in classical ballet.
To use rosin you need a small box on the side of the stage, about 2' x 2' and 3 " tall, before you go on stage you step in the box and crush the rosin into your shoes.
I have not seen jazz dancers use this.
If your jazz boots are the elastic side Bloch's, I would recommend suede for a first timer.

Answer 3

having worked on Cats for a year i found that the dancers wanted their jazz shoes soled with rubber, you can by stick on rubber soles in places like Woolworth's altho depending where you are you could take them to a cobblers and get a thin rubber sole put on the resin is usually used by ballet dancers