Go Go Boots Trivia Quiz

Answer: No

Night clubs, raves, casinos, and other night-life party spots bring revelers in by promising a good time - and go-go dancers help with that. Generally professionals (although some establishments do have amateur nights), go-go dancers move to the beat of whatever music the venue plays, entertaining the crowd and getting them in the mood. Go-go boots (or variants with even higher heels) have been a part of female go-go dancers' wardrobes since the profession's beginnings in the 1960s, when the boots were first starting to become fashionable among clubgoers.

Go-go music, meanwhile, is a type of funk music that developed in Washington, DC, in the late 1960s. With an emphasis on percussion and a syncopated beat, go-go has certainly inspired its share of dancing - but "go-go dancing" was already taken by the pros.

Answer: Leather sole

The leather sole of a character shoe is perfect for spending hours on a wooden stage, which is easy to do when you consider rehearsals, matinees, and evening performances! It's just not tough enough, though, for harsher outdoor environments; asphalt and cobbles will soon destroy the sole. So, as with many other dance shoes, it makes sense to change into character shoes at the theater, along with the rest of one's costume.

Men's character shoes keep the same type of sole, but are otherwise dead ringers for ordinary oxfords. In either case, it's generally easy to add taps to a character shoe, so one pair can be a surprisingly flexible tool.

Answer: Flamenco

Flamenco comes from the Spanish region of Andalusia, and encompasses guitar playing (el toque) and singing (el cante) in addition to dancing (el baile). Expert flamenco dancers have mastered a very technical art form, with tight control of the arms and body. In addition to fancy, percussive footwork, dancers in many flamenco styles enrich the music with castanets and with hand-clapping.

Special flamenco shoes are generally worn by female dancers; their male counterparts opt for heeled boots, instead.

Answer: A ballerina

From a distance, a pointe shoe looks simple, dainty and elegant, wrapped in satin and held on by ribbons that curve gracefully around the ankle. In reality, though, this is one tough shoe, and without it ballerinas wouldn't be able to dance en pointe (that is, on tiptoe) for scene after seemingly effortless scene. First, the toe of the shoe contains a hard paper box that surrounds the toes of the dancer, supporting them and providing a flat surface to balance on.

Then, there's a shank that runs down the length of the shoe, adding rigidity to the sole to support the foot even in an upright position. Those beautiful ribbons (along with a hidden elastic band) have a serious job to do, too: it's not easy to keep a shoe snug against your foot without the assistance of gravity, and the ribbons and band ensure a tight fit with full support.

It takes dancers a lot of work to become fully accustomed to their pointe shoes, but many of ballet's most distinctive choreographies would be impossible without them.

Answer: South Africa

For more than a century, mining - of gold and of diamonds, for example - has been a mainstay of the South African economy. During colonial times, and afterward in the age of apartheid, white mine bosses enforced very strict rules for the black miners - and the rules tended to focus much more on social control than on worker safety. Gumboot dancing is said to have evolved as a system of communication among the miners - the boots were part of their regular working gear, to cope with partially flooded tunnels.

A gumboot troupe at work is a wonder, as stomps, claps, and bells mix to form a larger rhythm. It's easy to think of these work boots as clumsy things, but they aren't clumsy at all on the feet of a gumboot dancer.

Answer: The split-sole slipper lets you bend your foot through a larger range.

Both split- and full-sole slippers fasten fairly tightly with elastic - the slippers are supposed to move with the dancer's feet, after all! They're also both flats, with no heels or platforms to increase the dancer's height; the soles have to be thin if standard ballet moves are going to be possible. For a full-sole slipper, the sole is all in one piece, lending stability and slightly increased support to the foot.

The sole of a split-sole slipper, by contrast, is in two pieces, which allows the dancer more freedom to bend her or his foot. With a two-piece sole, the heel and toe of the shoe can move much more independently. Even with a split-sole ballet slipper, though, you can't do the tiptoe dancing that's become symbolic of ballet - that takes an even more specialized type of shoe.

Answer: Wood

Wooden shoes were traditional footwear in the Netherlands for more than half a millennium. They're durable even when you're walking around wet and muddy streets, and they're sturdy enough to provide solid protection for your feet. And, with everybody wearing wooden clogs, they're also convenient for folk dancing! The hard ash-wood soles make it easy to tap out a rhythm on just about any surface - although of course it takes hard work to do it well.

Other strains of clog dancing - often using a shoe with a wooden sole rather than a shoe made entirely of wood - grew up in England, Wales, and the United States. In fact, clogging may have helped inspire tap dancing! Wooden shoes may be rare these days, but they've been very fruitful for folk dancers.

Answer: Highland dancing

Highland dancing takes its name from the Scottish Highlands, where it was born. Demanding and technical, the dances are usually done to the music of bagpipes, and can be performed by men or women - though women have come to dominate the style. The ghillie calum, or sword dance, is one of the more famous varieties; a pair of swords lies in a cross on the dance floor, and the dancer must move around the swords without touching them. Highland dancers step on the balls of their feet, their movement aided by the soft, supple leather of their ghillies; beginners sometimes use ballet shoes, with their elastic fasteners, as a cheaper alternative. In competition, though, the fully laced ghillie is essential.

Ghillies also turn up in Scottish country dancing (generally on men's feet) and in Irish dancing (generally on women's feet).

Answer: A bare, human foot

Lots of dancers want to appear barefoot, either for the overall aesthetic effect or because they need to maximize their gymnastic flexibility. However, it often isn't very pleasant to actually dance barefoot for a significant amount of time, especially when the routine is physically demanding, or the floor or stage has some imperfections.

A foot thong is a compromise. It's essentially a fabric piece on an elastic band that slips over the toes to give some padding and extra traction to the ball of the dancer's foot. Generally, a dancer will look for a foot thong in a color close to his or her skin tone, so that the footwear will blend in and preserve that barefoot look - but it's also possible to get decorated varieties that add extra visual intrigue to the routine.

Answer: Metal plates screwed into the sole

These plates are called "taps," and a tap shoe has two: one for the heel as well as one for the toe. They can be attached to ordinary shoes - usually oxfords or sneakers - with screws or with glue; screws are generally preferred by connoisseurs because you can alter the sound a bit by tightening or loosening the taps.

This is important because tap dancers can make quite a loud sound that dominates the music - in fact, in many numbers there's no musical accompaniment besides the shoes themselves.