VERO BEACH — When aerobics instructor Lisa McKnight needed new shoes to teach in, she ordered seven pairs online and ended up returning six. That wasn’t the case recently while getting ready for a new ballet class.
Heading back home to the island, she stopped on Miracle Mile. Still in her workout clothes, she slipped her foot into sandpink slippers – three styles, two colors, in leather and canvas – in a brand new bricks-and-mortar dancewear shop.
Tutus 2 Pointe Shoes is the first such shop in Vero – at least as far as any dance moms can remember.
Shop owner Christie Marone, a Vero Beach resident for nearly five years, has been driving to Melbourne or Stuart to outfit her three school-age daughters, dancers since toddlerhood.
“When we lived in Tampa, I had a place like this I could shop at. But sometimes it’s at the last minute. If they tear a pair of stirrup tights before a recital, you can’t wait for a new pair to be shipped. You need it now.”
From tutus to bootie shorts to tap shoes, Marone keeps an ear to the ground for local dancers’ needs.
She also stocks men’s dancewear for a growing number of boys (and at least one strapping competitor from last year’s Dancing with the Vero Stars).
There are character shoes for musical theater and folk dancing. There are glittery pink strappy high heeled ballroom shoes, kitten-heeled tap shoes, pointe shoes, ballet flats, and split-sole dance sneakers that let a dancer twirl without twisting an ankle.
For bunions and blisters, an entire rack of gel inserts, cotton padding, lamb’s wool and tape.
Marone studied the market before opening three weeks ago. She was incredulous when a sales rep flippantly told her there was “not much dance in Vero Beach.”
“Are you kidding me?” she replied. “Have you looked around at the studios? Dance is huge in Vero.”
Indeed, Vero’s dance programs have expanded drastically in the past decade.
The advent of Indian River Charter High School’s dance program, a component of the Visual and Performing Arts division, now includes dozens of students, both boys and girls.
Riverside Theatre has greatly expanded its dance program with the arrival of Adam Schnell as director of dance three years ago.
Dance Space, the town’s largest studio, has more than 200 students. Artistry in Motion has another 120; Vero Classical Ballet has around 60.
Each student may take multiple classes, each needing danceware.
“I’m trying to provide a quality product at a reasonable price,” says Marone.
With her own daughters dancing, she knows how quickly costs add up.
Advanced ballet students often buy two pairs of pointe shoes at a time, at $75 a pop, and outgrow them or wear them out in a single season.
With competition dance teams, ballroom dance studios, gymnastics classes, and fitness clubs offering dance as exercise, Marone is doing a dance of her own just keeping up with demand.
Prior to opening, she passed out flyers at all the studios, meeting with operators to find out their requirements.
Now, when students walk through the door, she already knows the parameters down to colors and styles for different levels of study.
“Vero is very serious about dance,” she says. “Dance Space is the only studio that does a caramel tap shoe. Everybody else does black. Riverside does a lace-up jazz shoe. Everybody else does slip-ons.”
Being informed helps her stave off annoying returns.
When a grandmother asked for white tights for her granddaughter’s class, Marone hesitated.
“I think you mean ballet pink,” said Marone. “Nobody’s using white. They just look white when they’re on.”
Until now, Vero’s bunheads routinely commandeered the family minivan for treks to Melbourne or Stuart, the closest dance stores apart from a small selection at Scott’s Sporting Goods.
Over the years, as the ranks of dancers swelled, the start-of-semester and end- of-year recital shopping sprees changed to include mail-order catalogues and eventually websites.
“Online, they may get a little break on the price. But if they have to return it, by the time they pay re-stocking fee and shipping, they’re no better off,” says Marone.
McKnight recalled ordering two sizes of a full-length unitard online not realizing they couldn’t be returned.
“It turned out they stretched like crazy and I needed the small,” she says with a shrug. “If you order online, forget it, you’re stuck with it.”
Taking time out from her regular job running the office of her husband’s medical practice, McKnight says the new ballet class will be the first time she’s worn ballet shoes since she was 14.
At last Marone brings out a new shoe called the Fission, a sleek-looking hitech hybrid, part ballet slipper, part gym shoe, with laces and elastic.
McKnight loves it. But she’ll have to come back, it turns out.
“It sold out just in the last week – to the ladies in your ballet class,” Marone tells her.
Tutus 2 Pointe Shoes is located at 524 21st St. in the shopping center where the Fresh Market is located. The number is (772) 257-6085.
