The Ballet Shop Blog

This being our ninth year of operation (hear hear!) we are now opening our doors to the new website designed for The Ballet Shop. We are of course, still improving, so please bear with us if the site is not fully up to scratch yet. We have a number of products that already were featured on our old website, but we are adding more as we go along.

We have a wide selection of ballet shoes, pointe shoes, jazz shoes, sneakers, leotards, jazz pants and all that you need for dance class. This year we have also introduced some new flamenco items and we plan to introduce some ballroom items as well.

We are also in the process of introducing fairer shipping rates based on the weight of your shipment, and, even more importantly, ou will now be able to pay by Paypal besides the usual credit card facility.

The Ballet Shop - inspired by dance!

In our efforts to bring you a better service and a better selection of products, while making your ballet shop experience worthwhile, our website is temporarily down while we work on creating a new one. This site will be more user friendly and will bring our special offers to the fore - so you do not have to look for them.

If, meanwhile, you require any dancewear, you can use our ebay shop or send an email to: theballetshop@onvol.net

The ballet shop is pleased to add a new category to its website - the Discount Corner.  In this corner we feature discounted items, that are available as clearance sale or at introductory prices. We will be trying to keep this section as dynamic as possible.  We are currently in the process of clearing out some old stocks to make way for new fashions, and wish to give you the maximum benefit of this exercise.

In Malta, we find that velvet leotards are popular only in winter because of the extreme heat from May till about mid November. Hence, we are offering these items at a discount so that Maltese dancers can afford to buy them at a cheaper rate, and then afford another one for the summer months. Dancers living in colder countries can benefit from this discount, while it lasts. Colours available are generally black or burgundy, and the leotards have a lining. Among the models available are the Velvet Turtleneck Leotard and the Ballina in Velvet. We will be uploading more, and keeping you posted…. keep an eye open!

If you make bulk orders, we are willing to give bulk discounts. For us, bulk orders mean that you have at least 5 of the same item, and a minimum order of EUR 200. We are of course willing to make other discounts - just send us an email on theballetshop@onvol.net to enquire about the available discounts

We are pleased to announce that the leather tip kits for pointe shoes are now EUR 3.00, instead of EUR 4.00. We also promise to reduce shipping to EUR 2.00 (EUR 3.00 if outside Europe) when we send them to you, because they are a very light item. If you combine these tips with another item, we will of course not charge you for their postage! So get on your pointes with these lovely tips, that offer a great non-slip for the tips of your pointe shoes!!

We are introducing a new category of shoes at the Ballet Shop  - teacher’s shoes.

We do not promise to ALWAYS have these shoes in stock, but generally delivery is quite fast (if the item is available), and then we can forward to you.

We are also introducing the Sansha Astoria ballroom shoe. This is a closed ballroom shoe, generally available in black patent leather with a suede heel, but other materials are available.

For the moment we have placed on ebay the three items that we do have available. We will shortly introduce them to our site - watch this space !!

Owing to some changes within the organisation, Palkett is now exclusively run by The Ballet Shop.

We are of course, very sorry to see Elvia of Limelight Costumes step out of the scene. However this is not a final farewell - Limelight Costumes (and indeed, Elvia herself) will continue to supply some of the excellent dancewear we provide - namely all of the uniforms of College of Jazz Dance, and a number of other uniforms and dancewear items as well.

In the coming weeks, our customers might note a change in our marketing policy. While Palkett will continue to remain the traditional retail outlet, and TBS will continue to be our website operation, we are trying to merge the new image as a single entity.

We are happy to welcome any suggestions that you may have, or indeed any queries as to our operations. Business will continue as usual.

Current opening hours are Monday and Thursday 17:00 - 19:00 or by appointment. We are very happy to accommodate you if you are unable to come during our opening hours. During exam periods and peak periods, we plan to open more often. Please watch this space for any changes in opening hours.

We want to wish our esteemed clientele a very merry Christmas (though this is a bit late) and a happy new year. To our dancers, may the new year bring delightful successes!!

Meanwhile we must advise that the Sansha pendants range is no longer available. This is unfortunate, but Sansha has chosen not to manufacture them any longer.

Good news for members of Dance Council (Malta)! After we have been approached by Dance Council, we have agreed to give a discount to purchasers who are members of the Dance Council in Malta.

Students get a 5% discount over our fantastic prices.

Teachers have already always been provided with a discount when they purchase at our shop (Palkett, the YADA shop), but we are now offering the possibility of online discounts too.

You will have to provide us with your membership number or a scan of your membership card, and we will provide the discount as promised.

This is all the more reason for you to get yourself groomed with a whole new outfit from our shop! Remember that we stock major brands like Sansha, RochValley, Rumpf, Yebra and So Danca. If you don’t see what you require, you can always send us an email on theballetshop@onvol.net and we will get back to you as soon as we can If we do not have your item, we will do our best to source it for you!

We look forward to receiving your orders!

A lot of people frequently ask me: how shall I wash my dancewear? Others come back to the shop claiming that perhaps a product may be made of inferior material, only to admit that they have washed their dancewear in very hot water, tumble-dried or ironed their dancewear, or even applied bleach. All of these are very damaging to dancewear.

Owing to the very particular nature and quality of dancewear, and because it requires flexibility and comfort, dancewear must be treated as ‘delicates’. The way you wash and dry your dancewear, and otherwise care for your items, will determine how long you can use them and, even more importantly, how long they will retain their superior quality and appearance.

Roch Valley has some recommendations to make on the care of leotards. We believe that this applies to all dancewear, so we are passing on their recommendations, coupled with ours:

All dancewear should be turned inside out and machine washed at 30 degrees Celsius short cycle. (Note that in some cases we have also recommended that you only handwash - especially if you have not really soiled the dancewear with perspiration or floorwork - don’t use the machine unless you have to).

You should immediately hang to dry - on a coat hanger where applicable. If not, you can dry flat or, if you will use pegs, make sure you apply the pegs on a place which is not prominent, such as under the armpits, or at the very edge of the waistline.

The following are a few important DO NOTS:

DO NOT use bleach, detergents or fabric conditioners. To clean, use handwashing liquid, which is milder.

DO NOT tumble dry or iron

DO NOT rub or scrub foil print or metallic garments

DO NOT hang over radiators

Foil print and metallic garments may fade or dull with wear and repeated washing. Areas where there is friction or abrasion may show some loss of foil - this is not a defect in the garment, it is normal with foil.

Remember that since leotards and most dancewear contain a reasonable amount of elastic or similar components, fabric conditioners, bleach and heat tend to be among the worst enemies of your dancewear.

With the acrylic cardigans, you can afford to put some fabric conditioner - but only if you are washing separately from your other dancewear, and the recommendations on heat still apply. We would suggest you dry these items flat.

It is now growing colder and it is important to keep your legs warm so that the muscles do not stiffen up - at least until you’ve moved enough to be able to say you’re well warmed up!!

We have some very well priced legwarmers from Sansha and from RochValley in our Woolies section. Sansha have the Lobelia model, which are stirrup legwarmers, that come in two versions: 57 cm long and 51 cm long. We currently only have the black model, since these are in the highest demand, but if we have an order pending with Sansha we would be willing to place an order for an alternative colour, provided you can wait a few days until it reaches us and then we dispatch. Our Roch Valley Chunky legwarmers are also very popular. Both are very inexpensive and good quality items.

For children, we also have the pink, white, black or pastel blue cardigans. The pictures shown on the site are of pink cardigans, but the other colours are available. We stock sizes 24 to 38 but not in all colours. For example, we stock pink cardigans only up to size 32 as normally it is the small sizes that are required. However, we stock the main sizes which children require - you can always send us an email to theballetshop@onvol.net if you require any confirmation.

We look forward to receiving your queries! In the meantime, happy dancing!