Best Dance Shoes for a Beginner?

[pygmalion]

Is there a style or brand out there that would be good for beginner dancers and/or students who want to minimize cost, while having proper foot support and, uhh... still looking nice?

Is your recommendation different for ballroom, salsa, swing? Thoughts?

[Flat Shoes]

It seems to me salsa and ballroom women have mostly high heels. In swing (maybe except WCS), high heels are not good.

The cheapest and best shoes I've got (for Lindy) is some very simple flat shoes with no damping and relatively thin soles. I took theese to the shoemaker and had him glue on some dance soles. They look good for casual Lindy clothing (wide pants, t-shirts etc.), give good contact with the floor and they were the cheapest of my dance shoes.

[ShyDancer]

Well I can only comment on the Ballroom side of things.

I found boots with a small chunky heel and non-slip sole worked best when I first started dancing, mainly because I didnt know where to place my weight properly, I have seen some spectacular falls from beginners who try to wear slippery, high heeled shoes with no heel support. I can see they are dancing off-balance, part of me wants to run over and grab their shoulders to position them properly, (they lean back so far!) because I can just see them falling.
Sure proper shoes wont give you balance, but they do force you to be up on your balls/toes, which does result in a little better body positioning, you cant lean too far back in heels!
The suede soles are priceless too, nothing beats being able to glide across the floor, knowing that you wont slip.

If the student were keen to continue dancing I thik I would fully recommend investing in dance shoes though....it makes all the difference.
I simple cannot dance in a normal pair of heels anymore, they feel strange.

[tasche]

For all around dancing ( i.e both styles and only wanting to get one pair) I would recommend a pair of t bar sandals with about a 2.5" heel ( too low and you dont get you weight far enough forward ) a flared or square heel is nice and I would recommend an open toe as constantly bumping your toe against the edge of your shoe gets uncomfy

[pygmalion]

My first "dance shoes" were actually character shoes. Those I wouldn't recommend. When you transition from character to dance shoes, there's a huge readjustment period that's easy to avoide by buying the right shoes in the first place.