pufferoo: What do dancers do to their pointe shoes before they ever put them on?
I remember hearing years ago that they would hammer on the box of the shoe to make it more malleable, or that they would use something called Fabulon. I heard of one dancer who used to put the box end of the shoe in the crack between a wall and a door and slam the door right on the box, breaking it down.
Are shoes so different today that nobody has to “condition” or soften their pointe shoes any more?
Thanks!
Answers and Views:
Answer by Bren
Many dancers gently bend the shank and flatten the box to break the shoes in. Some wear their shoes while they sleep to get the shoes molded to their feet (their feet sweat and it softens the glue). To make sure that my shoes bend in the right place, I have the top nail removed from the shank so that to top is softer than the arch. However, most dancers don’t do much more than that because breaking the shoes in too much prevents the shoes from lasting as long, and pointe shoes are pretty expensive to replace every month. However, professional dancers do a lot more “pre-wear” breaking in because they discard the shoes after one show and don’t have time to wear them in over time. This is when they use techniques like hammering the box, slamming the shoe in a door, or (in some cases) running over the box with a car very, very carefully. Of course, amateur dancers are advised not to do this because it can damage the shoes to the point that they are unwearable, or can cause harm to the dancer and her feet if they are used in a damaged state. Many non-professionals prefer to break the shoes in by dancing in them, after a little gentle shank bending and box flattening by hand. That way, they can ensure that the shoes will work properly with their unique feet.
Now you just slightly bend the shoe.Answer by Lisa Y
The truth is that most of the strange pointe shoe conditioning techniques you mentioned are not so good for the shoe or the dancer. The main problem with breaking in a shoe before you use if is that it doesn’t allow the shoe to conform and be broken in by your foot, and so the shoe is not as safe to dance on and your foot is not strengthened since it is not doing the work to break it in. That being said there are many ways to break in a shoe: yes, smashing it in a door jam is effective, also banging the box on pavement or a tile floor, even putting rubbing alcohol on the silk of the shoe when it is on your foot conforms it to your foot. The main purpose of any of these techniques is to break in a shoe in time for a performance, which is practical if you are very serious and actually do a full length ballet every night- otherwise it is really not good to do. I don’t recomend trying any of these techniques because you can ruin your shoe if you don’t know what you’re doing (and we all know that pointe shoes are expensive). The techniques for breaking in a shoe haven’t changed, but people have just grown to realize what is healthy for the dancer and the shoe over time. For the most part pointe shoes are made the same way as they always have been for hundreds of years, with only a few exceptions. Gaynor Minden makes a pointe shoe that is essentially the equivalent of a Nike Air sneaker- softer, more supportive etc. (the problem with this shoe is that it has a fiberglass shank, which is not very flexible unless your foot is very warm, and because it is fiberglass, you will not gain strength because the shoe does all the work for you- the shoe is really ment for prima ballerinas in professional companies).
I hope that that was helpful!Answer by amdd
i just sew mine. i put my first pair in the door but i never really had the need to break them with anything other than my feet. i always broke in the box eons before the shank.Answer by Ava
Ah… braking in pointe shoes. I’ll admit, I go through a pair per performace and for classes/rehearsals, I manage to kill two per week….You’d think, after centuries, they’d have found a way to build a better, more durabl pointe shoe, but they haven’t.
I wear Russian Pointe Entrada shoes, which thankfully come pre-arched with a medium-hard flexible shank and a medium vamp. I love these shoes to death and they come out of the box more ready-to-wear then some of the other shoes I’ve given a try.
Still, no shoe can come out of the box, go onto your foot and into class. When I have time to break in a shoe (which I never do anymore), on my day off, I’ll wear them to clean my apartment, the simple act of walking on them, and rolling through your foot will help them mold to your foot. I’ve also slept in my pointe shoes to do this. Beware though, in cleaning your room/apartment, cover your shoes with a thin pair of socks, your kitchen floor may turn into a slip’n’slide, but that’s better than having dirty pointe shoes!
Most of the time though, I take out the pointe shoes, sew the ribbons (I don’t use elastic) three-quarter the shank, pound on the box with a hammer while it’s covered by a clean cloth to keep it clean, use a knife to detach the arch of the shank from the shoe so I “pop” into pointe, and then I place rubbing alcohol on the box to mold it to my foot. This takes me about ten minutes (and I’ve been known to do this on the Metro ride to the studio and get some very odd looks)
I’ve also always had a big problem with slipping, besides dousing the shoe with rosin :), for class/reheasal/teaching shoes, I cut off the satin on the toe of the pointe shoe and with a thin but firm needle, I sew the edges to the white sock lining of the shoe and sand paper the satin-less toe (I recommend using a thin dental floss for this), or when they’re perforance shoes, I use a really hard sand paper to rough the satin up, I also take the sand paper to the shank under the ball of my foot, which I do to all the shoes I wear. This works nicely to stop the slipping.
However, I DON’T RECOMMEND THESE EXTREME TECHNIQUES FOR BEGINNING POINTE DANCERS!!!!!!!! And I do that out of love. Breaking in you first pair of shoes is a labor of love and there’s no need to quickly break in a shoe if you intend to use it for the next six months. I don’t. My shoes have the life span of a mosquito and the methods I use to break my shoes in are most of the reason why.
Step on them to get the rigidity out of the box and bend the arches but for God’s sake, don’t run them over with a car. For the love of dance, that’s just a great way to ruin the shoes. In retail, my shoes run about $ 72. We get them straight from the Russian Pointe so there’s a discount but still, if you don’t know what you’re doing to break in your shoes, you’re throwing away money!! (and God knows that dancers don’t make enough to begin with! 🙂 )
P.S. A note on sewing shoes. As I said, I use a thin dental floss to sew because it’s indestructible and will last you forever. Trust me on this one, dental floss is best, but make sure you get the thin stuff. Also, before sewing on your ribbons, burn the ends LIGHTLY with a lighter so they don’t fray – I highly recommend using a lighter because matches and/or candles just don’t work as well or as evenly. And when you are sewing on the elastic ( if you use it – I don’t) make sure you don’t sew through the actual elastic inside the band, if you do, random ends of elastic will stick out on the inside of your shoe – unattractive. Lastly, although you should have tightened the draw string before you began sewing, DO NOT SEW THROUGH THE DRAWSTRING! I’m working through a severe ankle injury, post-surgery, and the tendon on the inside of my ankle would swell. I still danced on said bad ankle (which I don’t recommend) but I had to loosen the drawstrings on my left pointe shoe, so never sew through the drawstring, in case you need to readjust.
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