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That's right, I just payed about 100 bucks for my first pair of pointe shoes, Grishko 2007. I got my lambs' wool toe pads, ribbons and elastic and made my way home as happy as a clam. Then, I saw TomDavidson's package in my bed, that's when I felt ecstatic. Anyhoot, anyone here do pointe besides me? As I said I just started in the whole toe dancing thing, and although my teacher is helping me, I'd like to know if anyone else knows the joy of it. (And, yes, the pains of it too.)
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Yeah, I almost bit my tounge when I saw the price of the shoes, but I know it will be worth it.
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I'm doing my best to break them in, but they are so damn hard! What methods do you guys know for breaking them in?
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I quit ballet right when I would have started pointe. I didn't really want to do that to my feet. It was also at the point where I had to decide if dancing was what I wanted to do with my life, and I wasn't ready to make that kind of a decision. Sometimes I really wish I had kept going, though.
Congrats on starting pointe, that's really cool. Break a leg. Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I've never done pointe, but I Irish dance, and I just started hardshoe last summer. We go on our toes in hardshoe, and the shoes are nearly as uncomfortable as pointe shoes, I think. I certainly bleed every time I wear them, anyway.
Dancing in them is the only thing that will really break them in. The only other thing I can suggest is wearing them around the house, which worked somewhat for my hardshoes, but I'm not sure if you need to be on your toes to break in pointe shoes. Also, it does take a lot of willpower to make yourself wear your Shoes of Hell outside of class when your latest new blisters from wearing them likely haven't healed yet. But it could help.
Good luck, anyway. Enjoy all those new... pointy things you have.
*bites tongue too late*
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Well, I even started a thread about it.. But I'll tell you just because I'm a nice person. When I opened the package, there were two little packages, Korean Milk Coffee and a Strawberry Pooky box. Looking closer, I noticed a small gift wrapped package. I knew what it was before I had even opened it, I just couldn't believe that Tom had really gotten me that. My eyes almost popped out of their sockets as I read the title, "Angel Cage"...I let out a whoop of joy as I jumped into the air and held out the artbook like Andy and his new Buzz Lightyear. As I held the book in my hands, I almost cried. I had longed for the moment when I would own at least one of the Angel Sanctuary artbooks for so long...Yuki Kaori, the artist, is my favorite manga-ka of them all. I was actually licking my fingers as the book lay in my bed after I set it down to admire to beautiful art in the cover. And the sound of the spine cracking when you open a brand new book...priceless....
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I did two years of beginner pointe, after which I realized I wasn't really gonna make it as a dancer. My first pair of shoes were too big (or something) so my teacher doused the boxes in water. I never did it seriously enough to really give me nasty blisters.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I took pointe for nearly 4 years before I decided to quit and focus on other things. Congratulations! It's a great achievement! Has your teacher suggested taping your toes? When I first started my dance teacher had us individually wrap each toe with a little medical/first-aid tape. It helps to acclimate your toes more 'gently' for the first month or so. I'd also recommend trying out different kinds of toe pads. I hated the lamb's wool ones. Ouch Pouches ended up working the best for me. Everyone's preference is different, of course.
I had a very difficult time breaking in each new pair of shoes, because I have very small feet with disappearing heels. I had a friend who used to press hers over doorknobs. That never worked for me. As stated previously, consistent use is the best. Lots of pointe to demi-pointe to pointe to demi-point. But for the initial super-stiffness just work the devil out of them with your hands. Don't be timid about it. Wrenching around something so expensive will get easier with time and more shoes. Good luck!
Posts: 81 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Make sure you experiment with different methods of protecting your toes. You may find that things like wrapping your big toe in gauze help out, for instance.
Pay very close attention to your teacher's instructions, and hope he or she is on top of things. Pointe is a great way to kill your feet if you're not doing it correctly, which requires being instructed well.
It sounds like your ankle strength should already be pretty good, but make sure you do regular ankle exercises anyways (just tensing the muscles and moving them repeatedly through their full range of motion for a few minutes a day is plenty).
Stretch out your calves a lot.
I never did pointe (few guys do), but I did ballet for ten years.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Congratulations. You've reached a point in ballet that I never could. I, too, quit at the point where the rest of my class was going on pointe because my teacher wouldn't let me do it. She said my arches were too high and it would ruin my feet to go on pointe. I thought that was just an excuse for a long time, but I am prone to cramps in my arches any time I point my foot in the way I would have needed to in order to dance on pointe.
I still work in ballet though. I do props for Central California Ballet - we just finished our run of "The Nutcracker" Sunday. And I see what the dancers do with new shoes to break them in. I agree with Liaison - just work the crap out of them with your hands. I've been told that goes a long way to making them ready to dance in.
Edit to correct typo.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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My daughter spent a year on pointe, she has backed away from it now, and is on demi-pointe and taking jazz. She may not go back to pointe at all, I don't know for sure.
It's tough, and Natalie just decided that dance wasn't her life and she only wanted to do it for fun as a hobby, and pointe takes real dedication. She is more involved in her school and in other hobbies, so she didn't want to spend the time it would have taken for her to advance and excel at pointe.
Plus, there was the fact that she had three minor surgeries to remove ingrown toenails when she started pointe, as well.
Remember that pointe will harm your feet - some people are permanently damaged by it. It's not something to undertake lightly and I personally would only recommend only the most serious dancers do it. It's not worth it otherwise.
And, in my opinion, demi-pointe ballet and jazz is beautiful, and I don't see the reason to have young girls practically ruin their feet for something that's purely aesthetic - dance is to me about more than being able to balance on your toes, its about movement and emotion and grace and all that can be portrayed on demi.
Not trying to offend or really discourage - if you're truly dedicated then by all means, pursue your dreams. Just letting you know the perspective of a mom and a daughter who once thought going up on pointe was the greatest of achievements and now sees so much more in her life and doesn't want to put herself through the pain and risk potential lifelong injury.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I was going to warn about ingrown toenails, but those happen with other types of dance, too, so I wasn't sure if it was just me that had such problems with pointe or not.
And remember, from now on, you either can't go barefoot, or if you do, be prepared for people to ask you if you are a dancer. (I have an anti-foot-fetish. I hate feet, which is probably all due to dance.) Dancer's feet are. . . distinctive, but you probably already have a lot of that going on anyway.
And is it just me, or do all dancers have to buy wide shoes? It seems to me that dancing, especially on pointe, smooshes the feet, making them shorter, but much wider.
(Belle, I don't think they were biting their tongues to not talk about the pointe shoes, but because of the image of Tom's package in her bed. But maybe that is just me, too. Was my mind the only one in the gutter for that line?)
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Starting someone at a young enough age leads to certain, permanent harm. Past a certain age/stage of development, harm due to being on pointe is "minimal" if done right (and is mostly aesthetic and/or temporary). Of course, even mostly temporary harm is painful and annoying.
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Every sport has its price. If I could go back and change things, I wouldn't have stopped my daughter from spending that year on pointe, but I do think that the risks should be considered and I think they are largely unnecessary for the vast majority of students in ballet who will never progress beyond dancing in local spring recitals.
Dance has done wonders for my daughter, and she still loves to do it, but I think dance schools should take a long hard look at pointe. Is it something that every student should progress to, just when they've spent the requisite number of years in dance? No, I don't think so. It should be reserved for a very few dancers, and should be undertaken only after a year or more of strenuous pre-pointe work that strengthens the ankles and feet. The ballet school my daughter was in last year did that - you could not go en pointe until you had spent at least one full year in pre-pointe and it was grueling. Most students either quit or had to spend more than one year in pre-pointe before pronounced ready to progress. They also refused to promote a student to pointe if the instructor did not feel she was ready or able to be successful, to the point of turning the student away from the school entirely if need be. Too many dance studios will put any student en pointe simply because they want to be there and their parents are willing to shell out the money for the instruction. That is what I have a problem with. (I'm not saying that is the case with Altariel, obviously I don't know her or her instructor, I'm only speaking of my experience.)
The same is true in gymnastics, another sport where girls can be seriously injured and one my other daughter participates in quite enthusiastically. I know there are risks and I accept that. However, the payoff for her is worth it, and I support her. That's the way I feel about ballet, I would support anyone pursuing it who truly loved it and wanted to dedicate themselves to it. I just don't think pointe should be the goal for every dancer, and in too many schools it is. Not every gymnast should compete at level 10, and not every dancer should be en pointe.
I realize pointe is beautiful, when done by professionals, but we don't force male dancers to do it. We think male ballet dancers look beautiful and athletic without them being up on their toes, why is it so necessary that women must do it? I've seen professional ballet troupes that performed en pointe, and I've seen professional troupes that performed on demi and I must say I thought the dancers on demi were able to do more athletic and more graceful moves than the ones up en pointe and they certainly had a longer career.
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quote:And is it just me, or do all dancers have to buy wide shoes? It seems to me that dancing, especially on pointe, smooshes the feet, making them shorter, but much wider.
Me too! I never danced very seriously. A few years as a kid, 3 years with my high school dance program (real dance, not drill team), and now I'm back in tap and some jazz in college.
People always laugh when they realize my toes don't touch each other. I'm a toe-freak and I regret quitting ballet the year I was supposed to start pointe. I didn't have an appreciation for it when I was younger. I do toe-stands in tap and can even go right up on my toes while barefoot or in soft jazz shoes. I love it, and its worth the pedicurist giggling because she won't need spacers to paint my toenails.
One thing I learned from dance is that you can't be afraid of calluses. My boyfriend was quite impressed the other day when he realized how callused my feet are from breaking in shoes. I think he was jealous. You can't be a dancer and being paranoid about ugly feet. The two go together, pointe or not.
Now I'm really jealous. If our university ballet teacher wasn't crazy, I'd take her for a year and get myself into pointe.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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You could take up Irish dancing instead, Shanna. We go on our toes too. Hardshoe's kind of like tap. The shoes are crazy expensive, but I think they actually give more support than pointe shoes and make it not as hard to balance. Anyway, if you like tap, you'd probably like it.
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I don't know where I'd find an Irish dancing instructor. = ) Besides, I avoid dance studios because I don't have fond memories of the drama and extreme competition that I saw in them when I was younger. Thank goodness my university has a great Performing Arts Program complete with an amazing tap teacher. Besides, lessons are free and we get our shoes at a discount.
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