Every ballerina dreams of getting pointe shoes. They are beautiful and elegant, and every professional ballerina owns at least one pair. But how do dancers stand up in these complicated shoes? Pointe shoes are made out of burlap (which is a type of fabric), cardboard, and bits of paper glued together. They are not made out of wood.
Pointe shoes are designed for ballet dancers to appear weightless and stand on the tips of their toes for long periods of time. But pointe shoes are actually more than they look. There are many parts of the pointe shoe that help the dancer go on pointe. For example, the part of the shoe that the ballerina stands on is called the box. Above the box is the vamp which is where the drawstrings are. The layers of cardboard that go along your arch is called the shank. Lastly, the ribbons and elastic are tied around your ankle to provide extra support.
How To Put On Pointe Shoes
1. The first thing to do is to put on your toe pads, depending on your studio or your preference the toe pads will be different. The most popular are either wool or gel.
2. Put the end of your tights over the toe pad to make sure the pad doesn’t slide around while you’re dancing. Then slip your pointe shoe over your tights. It is also important to switch up which shoe goes on each foot. This is because if you keep wearing one pointe shoe on your (for example) left foot, the pointe shoe will bend to fit your left foot and it will affect your dancing negatively.
3. Next, tighten your shoes with the drawstring and tie the string into a bow. Then tuck the bow into your pointe shoe.
4. Here comes the hard part… the ribbons. There is a certain way to wrap the ribbons; you don’t want them to go all the way up your leg like in most pointe shoe depictions. Instead, they should overlap and only go around your ankle. Next, you need to tie the ribbons: your first thought might be to make a bow, but that is the opposite of what you should do. All you need to do is make sure the ribbons are tight enough to give support (but don’t cut off your circulation) and double knot it. Then tuck the excess ribbon and the knot into the ribbon below.
Tip: When tucking the ribbon in, it is best to position the knot at the back of your foot, this way the little lump that is created when you put the knot under the ribbon is not visible to the audience.
Now you are ready for class… aka warmups.
Image source: https://invention.si.edu/better-pointe-shoe-sorely-needed