A dancer knows what a dancer needs. And that makes John L. Hiatt a premier bootmaker for ballet dancers.
Hiatt was well-known among area ballet fans for more than 20 years as a principal dancer with Ballet West. His history with Utah ballet began even earlier, with the Utah Civic Ballet, Ballet West's predecessor.He began training at about 11 years of age in St. George, then came to Salt Lake City to train under Willam F. Christensen, the man who brought Utah's ballet program to international prominence.
Hiatt had his own ballet school "until the company began to travel. Then I closed it."
Dance, like athletics, is a young person's game, Hiatt said. From the teenage years to the late 20s is prime time. He continued his own career with the ballet until he was 41.
As his career came to a close, he began to consider alternatives. "I didn't want to teach. Whatever I do, I have to do it 100 percent or not at all," he said.
He looked around a bit and decided to follow his father into the real estate business. But he also found, almost by accident, that he could continue to be involved in the dance world. Though he was no longer wearing dance boots for such ballets as "Rodeo" - his favorite - he could make boots for others.
"They needed boots for a performance and couldn't find any. That was the start of it."
For Hiatt to dive into bootmaking without any previous experience is not atypical, his wife, Halene, says. "I learned a long time ago that when he said he was going to make a lamp or a piece of furniture - usually just as I was going to bed - that it was likely to be there in the morning."
Hiatt remembers that first pair of hand-made boots as pretty amateurish. At that point, he didn't have a basement full of specialized equipment - nor the expertise he has gained by experimentation.
He made his first molds of his own feet - and learned a few things about plaster of Paris along the way. As the chemical reaction accompanying the hardening of the plaster took place, "I began to feel my feet burning," he said. The heat melted the plastic he had used for an undercoating, and when he took the molds off, hairs from his toes stayed behind. They showed up on the "positive" he made from the molds, he said.
Hiatt can afford to laugh about those first attempts. Today, he makes special boots for ballet companies all over the country, about 20 of them, including the hometown company. A wall map of the United States bristles with pins marking spots where Hiatt boots have been part of the program. They've ended up as far away as Australia.
"I have about 30 pairs to make in the next two months," he said. On the counter is a sheaf of new orders for the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, complete with footprints and exact measurements that will assure an individual fit for each foot for each dancer.
"I can't mass produce them. The personal touch is the key factor." He usually makes two trips to the site he is producing boots for - one to pre-measure, a second to make needed adjustments.
"It's better for them to be too small than too large. I can soak the leather and stretch it to make them larger, but if they're too large, I have to take them all apart and start over," he said.
Each pair of custom-made boots costs $185 to $285, reflecting the time-consuming effort to have a boot that's as much like a second skin as possible. He puts about 10 hours into each pair.
"A dancer can't worry about a costume's fit when he's on stage," he said, based on his own experience.
Hiatt uses basic lasts to create each boot, adding a bit here, taking off a bit there to come up with the required fit. Some roles call for a boot that resembles a ballet slipper, with soft leather tucked into a partial sole. Hiatt's fingers deftly create neat, evenly spaced tucks with the skill of experience. Other roles require a more standard boot with sole and heels, but more lightweight than usual street wear.
Rolls of leather, ordered from a dealer in Cincinnati, are tucked under his work bench. Often, the orders call for trims and ornamentation to fit a role. He has little drawers of "jewelry" and metal trims and scores of buckles hung from hooks. His special leather sewing equipment - including a vintage Singer sewing machine - can handle intricate applique or ornamental stitching.
Hiatt keeps a fifth-grade humanities textbook around for a special reason. In a section on careers, he is featured. Photos show him as a dancer, making jewelry and doing gymnastics work with his son.
He is, in fact, a textbook case in versatility.