Weekly · bring your own heels · everyone welcome
Heels Dance Classes in Sheffield
Our heels dance classes in Sheffield teach the thing nobody ever teaches you: how to genuinely move in a pair, rather than survive a night out in them. Ankles and calves first, then the walk, then choreography that happens to be danced three inches off the ground — an hour a week, city centre. £10 for a single class, £32 for a four-week block.
Book a first heels class
One message and you'll know when to turn up.
The heels class lands once a week in a city-centre studio. If you're unsure what shoe to bring, say so in the message — that is the question we answer more than any other, and there is no wrong answer to start with.
- £10 single class · £32 for the four-week block
- Everything is taught flat first, then in the heel
- Evening and address emailed straight back
The essentials
- Where Sheffield city centre studio
- When Weekly, evening — sent by reply
- Length One hour
- Level Beginners upward
- Ages 17 – 75
- Partner Not needed
The class
A strength class in better shoes.
What a heels class in Sheffield is for
Most people have owned heels for years and never been shown how to stand in them, which is why the first stretch of every class is ankles, calves and core — unglamorous, and the reason nobody limps out. After that it becomes a dance class: the walk, the pivot, the drop to the floor and the rise back out of it, all of which behave differently once your heel is off the ground. It is the most-asked-about style on our Sheffield timetable and the one people put off longest, usually because they assume everyone else can already do it. Nobody can, and in any case every single person in the room is watching their own feet rather than yours.
They can't. The room is full of people on week one, and everything is taught flat before it is taught in the shoe, so you always know the material before you add the height. Ages start at seventeen and go a long way up. It is open to anyone who wants to dance in a heel, and the class has never asked why. Bring a pair you own — a block heel with an ankle strap is the friendliest first choice, since it spreads the weight and stays put through a turn. If a pair pinches after twenty minutes they are the wrong pair to dance in, however good they look on a night out.
Inside a session
Conditioning, then the walk across the floor, then isolations, then the week's slice of choreography — run flat, run in heels, then run properly with the music up. Flat shoes for the journey home are a good idea. We lend no footwear, sell nothing and supply no props, so what you dance in is what you brought. Plenty of this class also takes commercial for the choreography practice, and one or two have used the walk on the way down an aisle before a first dance. Bring water, and turn up prepared to laugh at yourself for the opening quarter of an hour.
Four weeks off the ground
From holding the wall to holding the room.
A block tends to build in this order. Ankles decide the pace, not the calendar — nobody is pushed higher than they're ready for.
Standing up in them
Ankle and calf conditioning, weight placement, and the discovery that balance in heels is a strength problem rather than a nerve problem.
The walk
Crossing a floor in a straight line, at tempo, without looking down. Simple to describe and the single most useful hour of the block.
Down and up
Turns, level changes and getting to the floor and back with control — the moves that look impossible from outside and aren't.
The routine, in heels
The month's material danced full out in the shoes, with everyone rather surprised at what their feet turned out to be capable of.
What you keep
What heels does to the rest of your week.
Some of it useful. Some of it just fun.
- Ankles strong enough to stop rolling on cobbles
- Calves and glutes that did not come from a machine
- A walk that works in trainers too
- Balance you'll notice on the stairs
- Shoes at the back of the wardrobe brought back in
- Posture that stops you folding at a desk
- A routine you can pull out at any wedding
- One hour a week of pure, unembarrassed swagger
Heels, answered
Everything people ask about the shoes.
Ten answers on heels dance classes in Sheffield, mostly about footwear, because that is mostly what people ask.
1Do I have to bring my own heels?
Yes — we don't lend, hire or sell shoes. A block heel is the sensible first pair because it spreads your weight and forgives a wobble; stilettos can wait until your ankles have a few weeks behind them.
2Can I do the class in trainers?
You can, and a fair few people spend their first week that way watching what the shoes are actually doing. Every section is taught flat before it goes into the heel, so nothing is lost by waiting a week.
3How high should the heel be?
Lower than you'd think. Two or three inches on a block is plenty for months, and an ankle strap will keep the shoe on through a turn when a court shoe simply won't.
4Is heels the same as burlesque or commercial?
It shares music with commercial and attitude with burlesque, but the subject of this class is the shoe: walking, turning, dropping and rising in one without holding your breath. The routine is the excuse; the technique is the point.
5Will this ruin my knees and ankles?
Not when it's taught in the right order, which is why conditioning comes before anything travels. You can sit a section out or swap back to flat shoes at any moment, and nobody will pass comment.
6Do you have to be a woman to take a heels class?
No. It is open to anyone seventeen or over who fancies dancing in a heel, and always has been. Nobody is asked to explain themselves at the door.
7Is a heels class realistic if I have never danced?
None. Beginners make up most of the room, and the walk that opens every class is taught identically whether you trained for years or have never done a class in your life.
8What does a heels class cost in Sheffield?
£10 a class if you'd rather keep it casual, or £32 for four weeks in a row, which brings each hour down to £8. No membership, no contract, nothing to cancel afterwards.
9Where in Sheffield does heels run?
Central Sheffield, easy to reach after work or from either university. We email the address along with the evening, so you are never working from a listing that has gone out of date.
10What else should I bring with me?
Flat shoes for getting home, water, and something over your knees if floorwork bothers you. Costumes and props are not provided and are not needed — clothes you can move in will do.