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Ghillies (dance)
Encyclopedia
Shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function...
s used for several types of dance. They are soft shoes, similar to ballet shoes
Ballet shoes
Ballet shoes, or ballet slippers, are lightweight shoes designed specifically for ballet dancing. They may be made from soft leather, canvas, or satin, and have flexible, thin soles. Traditionally, women wear pink shoes and men wear white or black shoes...
. They are used by women in Irish dance
Irish dance
Irish dancing or Irish dance is a group of traditional dance forms originating in Ireland which can broadly be divided into social dance and performance dances. Irish social dances can be divided further into céilí and set dancing...
, by men in Scottish country dance
Scottish country dance
A Scottish country dance is a form of social dance involving groups of mixed couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns according to a predetermined choreography...
, and by men and women in Highland dance
Scottish highland dance
The term Highland dance or Highland dancing is used today to refer to a style of athletic solo dancing which developed in the Gaelic Highlands of Scotland...
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Ghillies are also sometimes known by a variety of other names that include: ligh shoes, pomps, pumps, and soft shoes.
Appearance and materials
Ghillies are soft shoes, almost always made of a supple leatherLeather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
that forms to the foot. They use laces which criss-cross the top of the foot and are tied together similar to a sneaker. Most dancers use laces, (required in competitions), although some ghillies do utilize elastic. Some dancers will also wrap the laces/elastics around the soles of the feet. The soles usually stretch across the entire bottom of the shoe (full-soled) and are made from leather. Some ghillies, however, are split-soled, with a leather sole under the heel and under the ball of the foot. Ghillies are most commonly black, although other colours (such as red, green, and white) are manufactured. White ghillies can be dyed a variety of colours to be used for costumes specially choreographed dances.
Scottish ghillies
Scottish ghillies are used by men and women for Highland dancing, and by men for Scottish country dancing. They are almost always black, although they often feature coloured stitching and eyelets. Highland ghillies, for Highland dances, generally need to be a bit larger than the foot, due to being worn with thick socks or hose; for National dances they should fit snugly as they are worn with thin socks or stockings.Irish ghillies
Irish ghillies are used by women in Irish dancing, whereas men wear reel shoes. Unlike Scottish ghillies, the Irish version rarely feature coloured stitching, and they use loops in the leather, as opposed to eyelets, for the laces. Irish ghillies are also available in a solid sole and a split sole.Comparison with ballet shoes
Like ballet shoesBallet shoes
Ballet shoes, or ballet slippers, are lightweight shoes designed specifically for ballet dancing. They may be made from soft leather, canvas, or satin, and have flexible, thin soles. Traditionally, women wear pink shoes and men wear white or black shoes...
, ghillies are generally made from leather, and have similar soles. Many dancers who start in Highland or Irish dancing will first use ballet shoes, as the cost is considerably lower.
The most easily recognizable difference between ballet shoes and ghillies is that ghillies use laces to fasten them to the foot, whereas ballet shoes generally use an elastic across the ankle. Also the laces are very long, and are wrapped around the ankle and foot before tied. Other differences are that ghillies do not have a string/elastic around the edge of the shoe to tighten them, and the soles of ghillies are not usually stitched on, but glued on.
Other uses
- Ghillies, or ghillie broguesBroguesThe Brogue is a style of low-heeled shoe or boot traditionally characterized by multiple-piece, sturdy leather uppers with decorative perforations and serration along the pieces' visible edges...
, are also a type of shoe with laceLaceLace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...
s along the instep and no tongue, especially those used for Scottish country dancing. Although now worn for dancing and social events, ghillies originated as a shoe that would dry quickly due to the lack of a tongue, and not get stuck in the mud because of their laces above the ankle. - In a perhaps more recent and certainly competing shoe-related use, Ghillie has also been used to describe laced shoes where rings or loops that project over the tongue are attached to the upper as an alternative to the use of eyelets punctured in the upper; this style is often seen on athletic shoeAthletic shoeAthletic shoe is a generic name for the footwear primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise but in recent years has come to be used for casual everyday activities....
s. - Ghillies can also be used for other forms of dance, such as lyricalLyrical danceLyrical dance is a fusion of ballet with jazz and contemporary dance techniques.You can also get lyrical gymnastics which is gymnastics to music. It has a dance influence to it....
.