Last week I had a great Monday lesson and as always threw the dance gear into the washing machine - my black leather flats were in the bag so why not.... what can go wrong ! (Hot wash and quick spin). On Thu I went to a studio in London (Pineapple) for a basic drop in lesson- (great teacher recommend!)Suddenly when on demi I noticed my turns were not turning as well.At the end of the lesson I looked down and saw the stitching had all turned rotten and the glue had become unstuck - despite having all the regulation gear - my shoes looked more like soggy cardboard with my toes sticking out.The moral of this story is :Best to have two pairs in your bag - and Guys - read the label before doing the wash !

Sometimes the ballet dancers at my studio amaze me - there's one of the girls in the pre-teen ballet class that about all that's left to her shoes is the elastics, and she keeps truckin'. I always wonder how you guys can do it!

When I was in college, my favorite pair of jazz shoes were falling apart and patched with duct tape. Those shoes lasted me a long time!

I wouldn't wash dance shoes. Except, maybe canvas ballet slippers. Even then, don't put them in the dryer.

kk~

When I take class with the preprofessional division I notice that duct tape on ballet slippers is considered fashionable by the kids! Every now and then our teacher gets disgusted and tells everyone to clean up their act, but in a couple of weeks the duct taped slippers reappear.

Cleaning slippers? I say, why bother? A new pair is cheap enough when the old ones get too disgusting, and I don't know of anyone who actually sniffs the things!

We used to cut up our old flats and use a really smelly glue called cow gum to glue patches over the holes, you could give an old pair of shoes at least another two weeks of life with that stuff.

I have washed Irish Dance softs to shrink them,( not in a machine though ) they don't pre shrink the leather when they make them and after a month or so the shoes are two sizes too big for you

When I was growing up, it was a badge of honor to have holes in your ballet slippers. I still have my shoes from 30 years ago but my husband made me buy new ones when I started dancing again. I have since bought 3 pairs. They sure don't make them like they used to.