Heels Dance Classes UK | 67 Cities

Heels Classes in Your City

Every class is taught by a working professional. Choose your city for the local class page: venue, day, time and how to book your first session.

Your First Heels Class

Warm-up in trainers

Every class starts flat: mobility, ankle strength, posture and the basic grooves — all in trainers. The heels go on once you're warm, and staying in trainers for your first few weeks is completely fine.

Walks and technique

The heels walk is a skill, not a birthright. We drill weight placement, balance and long, clean lines until strutting feels less like a dare and more like a setting you can switch on.

The routine

A commercial routine to a current track, built section by section, then danced in small groups while everyone else cheers. That last part is where the confidence actually comes from.

What Is Heels Dance?

Heels is commercial dance performed in high-heeled shoes — the choreography you see in music videos and on arena tours, with an ankle strap doing overtime. Its family tree runs from the showgirl and burlesque stages of the early twentieth century through jazz and vogue into the pop era, where Beyoncé's 'Single Ladies' put heels choreography at the centre of global pop culture and studios everywhere took notice.

A heels class is mostly technique wearing glamorous shoes. You learn to stack your weight over the ball of the foot, walk with intention, and hold lines long and controlled — skills that quietly improve your posture in flat shoes too. It has also become one of dance's most welcoming rooms: every gender, every body, every level, all learning the same routine and loudly applauding each other's walk.

The UK got its heels moment in 2014, when Yanis Marshall, Arnaud and Mehdi strutted through the Britain's Got Talent final in stilettos to the Spice Girls and made the whole country grin. A decade on, heels has gone from novelty to fixture on British class timetables — and ours run in 67 cities, from London to Aberdeen.

Heels isn't really about the shoes. It's about how you stand in them.

Commercial Heels

Music-video choreography in heels — sharp, current and camera-ready. The core of most classes and the closest cousin to our commercial style.

Burlesque Flavour

Slower, teasing and theatrical — the showgirl lineage that gave heels dance its glamour in the first place.

Vogue and Waack

Arm lines, poses and attitude borrowed from ballroom and club culture — styles that were made for heels and give routines their edge.

Heels Technique

Walks, balance drills, turns and posture work — the unglamorous practice behind every glamorous strut.

Slow Heels

R&B and slow-jam routines built on control: long lines, deliberate weight shifts and holding a moment longer than feels safe.

Stiletto Jazz

Jazz turns, kicks and lines transplanted into heels — the bridge between theatre jazz training and the commercial stage.

Heels Facts Worth Repeating

Primetime in stilettos

In 2014, Yanis Marshall, Arnaud and Mehdi danced in heels to the Spice Girls all the way to the Britain's Got Talent final — and put men's heels choreography on UK primetime.

The 'Single Ladies' effect

JaQuel Knight was 19 when he co-choreographed Beyoncé's 2008 'Single Ladies' video — danced in heels — and he later became the first choreographer to copyright his moves.

Heels were menswear first

High heels began as riding footwear for Persian cavalry and became status shoes for European noblemen — Louis XIV of France famously wore red-heeled shoes at court.

Older than the music video

Long before studios taught it, heels dance lived on stage: early-1900s vaudeville and burlesque showgirls were performing in heels decades before pop choreography existed.

Heels Questions, Answered

I can't walk in heels — can I really do this?

Yes — that's literally what the class teaches. Nobody arrives able to strut; the walk is drilled from scratch, starting with posture and weight placement, and you can do your first few weeks entirely in trainers. Learning to walk in heels is the course, not the entry requirement.

What shoes should I bring?

Trainers are absolutely fine to start — plenty of regulars do the warm-up and even whole routines in them. When you're ready for heels, a block heel with an ankle strap, around two to three inches, is the standard first pair. Stilettos can wait until your ankles have opinions of their own.

Is heels only for women?

Not remotely. Heels is one of the most mixed classes we run — all genders, all ages, all builds — and some of the style's most famous names, like Yanis Marshall, are men. If you can get the shoes on, the class is for you.

Do I need dance experience first?

No. Beginner heels classes assume nothing: routines are broken down count by count, technique is taught from the floor up, and the room is famously supportive. If you can walk, we can work with the rest.

Quick Enquiry

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Walk In, Strut Out

Somewhere near you this week, a beginners' heels class is drilling its first walk — half of them in trainers. Join them.

67 cities

Find Your Class

Local venues, times and prices — everything is on your city's heels page.

Choose Your City Sister style

Commercial Dance Classes

The same choreography world in trainers — heels' closest sibling style.

See Commercial

Questions? Call 07759 656300 or email info@dancecentreuk.co.uk

Heels Classes

Heels Classes in Your City

Aberdeen

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Belfast

Birmingham

Blackburn

Blackpool

Bolton

Bournemouth

Bradford

Brighton

Bristol

Cambridge

Canterbury

Cardiff

Cheltenham

Chester

Colchester

Coventry

Derby

Doncaster

Dundee

Durham

Eastbourne

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Exeter

Glasgow

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Harrogate

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Hull

Ipswich

Kent

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London

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Peterborough

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Portsmouth

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Reading

Sheffield

Southampton

Southend-on-Sea

Stoke-on-Trent

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Swansea

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Telford

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Warrington

Watford

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Worcester

York