BALLET SHOES AND POINTE SHOES

What are the alternatives for getting a good education and still putting the time into classical dance training?
If you want to audition for a professional academic/ballet school, do a web search for their audition tours and see if any of them come to your area. Most auditions are held early in the year.

The sooner you can start professional training the better. Check all your choices!

Read the rest of I Want To Be A Ballerina - But I Need More Time At The Ballet Academy.

Both young and adult ballet beginners wonder when they can dance in pointe shoes. The process of training foot muscles begins in your very first ballet class. Learning accurate ballet technique from day one is your best way to practice exercises to prepare for pointe. Following are a few tips for ballet training.

The proper use of foot muscles begins even before you point your foot. Here is a quick review:

Your street shoes! Do you wear supportive shoes generally? If you alternate between pointed toe high heels and flip-flops, you may decide to make a lifestyle change to help prepare your foot muscles for dancing ballet in pointe shoes.

High heels are usually pointed, angling in the big toe. This strains the soft tissues around the toe joint, and ultimately can lead to painful bunions.

High heels will usually throw your posture out of a neutral spine position - which means, that when neutral, all your natural spinal curves are in place, with no unnecessary tension compromising your neck/shoulder/spinal/hip joints. With all those with neutral spinal position in high heels please raise their hands...you get the idea that this would be rare.

High heels throw your weight forward off the "tripod" platform of even distribution from the middle heel point, to the point at the big toe metatarsal joint and the little toe metatarsal joint, thus the tripod metaphor. This will affect your posture and muscle tension required to go about life.

Flip-flops force the muscles in the sole of the foot (the exact muscles that ultimately allow you to control your positions and movements in point shoes) to clench, just to keep the shoes on! You get used to this, but it is a contraction of the foot you would not normally need if you were wearing supportive shoes. While foot massage, proper stretching, and other foot pampering can partly compensate for flip-flop wearing, would all those who wear flip-flops who daily massage and stretch their foot muscles please raise.....

Worn out oxfords and sneakers (for you men in ballet) will also compromise the daily use of your foot muscles. Your feet have to do what the shoes cannot.

In your first ballet class you will learn how to stand in first position. Here it will most likely be mentioned that your feet should be flat on the floor, foot muscles not clenched in any way. Thus you achieve the tripod weight distribution. If your feet pronate (ankles/arches dropping inwards) or supinate (rolling outwards) hopefully your teacher will notice and address your posture - spine/hips/knees/ankles, and locate the source of the pronation. Weak muscles will strengthen, and eventually you can remedy improper foot placement on the floor.

So you see, before you do your first demi plie as a young or adult ballet beginner, you can do a lot to support your work in ballet shoes and pointe shoes.

It is not how good a teacher you have or the quality of the floor you dance on. Luckily, it is something you have power over, and no one can take it away from you. It is the strength in your tiny foot muscles.

The advantages of developing your intrinsic foot muscles (the ones that are in your feet and are not extensions of leg muscles) are:

*** your calf and tibial (shin muscles) will not be over working and holding extra tension because of weak foot muscles

*** your Achilles tendon will not be prone to injury due to tense calf muscles

*** your reflexes will developed in your footwork, giving the needed control and balance

*** you will able to use the full depth of your demi plie

*** you will be able to secure your weight properly on your feet, in the 'tripod' of middle of the heel/at the little toe metatarsal joint/at the big toe metatarsal joint

When you cannot get the exact fit in pointe shoes, compensations can be made with toe spacers, gel padding, heel grips, sewing wide elastic across the vamp for extra support. There are also many tricks that dancers develop to make their pointe shoes more comfortable.

However, you gain an extra advantage over the availability of the specific ballet shoes that you want, when your feet are really strong.

Another wonderful quality you gain from control and muscle strength in your feet is an elegant upper body, helping you attain the impression of effortlessness that every ballet dancer strives for.

When you get into a ballet partnering class (Pas de deux, French words for 'dance for two"), you rely less on your partner for control.

You will also have more of a cat-like quality simply walking in your pointe shoes, not to mention difficult ballet movements requiring finer professional footwork.

Doing ballet in pointe shoes is not difficult if you are prepared. You'll also prevent dance injuries.

If you study dance for more than ballet fitness, and recital preparation bumps the stress levels, there are different ways to make this rehearsal period easier. Classical dance, hip hop dancing, jazz dancing and much more is now included in contemporary dance school demands. Avoid dance injuries by preventing over training, especially now.

There are two main ways to get the most out of your rehearsal time and present the best of your ballet (or other dance) technique. Physical practice, naturally, and training your brain to rehearse by itself when you are resting.

Here are some tips to do your best in choreographic moves that are difficult for you:

*** check out the preparatory movement, like a demi plie, just before a difficult move. Are you losing turnout, posture or correct push-off (heel on the floor)?
*** does any particular muscle need strengthening for a new move? Instead of practicing it over and over, fatiguing your whole body, decide if you need a high intensity exercise with a weight perhaps, to isolate and build strength in one (or one group) of muscles. If so, you need only do this exercise once or twice a week to build that muscle up.
*** need more flexibility for a specific dance position? If so, do not over do it. Stretch whenever you are warmed up, for the position, without pain, and make sure you stretch a properly positioned muscle, and not the ligaments holding a joint. Ligaments just tear, they don't stretch. Hold any stretch position motionless, do not bounce or even pulse. You'll feel a release into a further stretch, bit by bit.
*** make time for some hot baths in Epsom Salts! Or Apple Cider Vinegar, which will pull wastes out of your muscles. Bathing is a lost art for many athletes.

Get some information on positive thinking. You can rehearse mentally and benefit physically. It's true, studies have been done. Also, get the brain training to manage stress and anxiety that seems to accompany competition for most performers. This in itself will improve your ballet and all your dancing.

And ultimately, send your self-critic self on a vacation. Accept all the praise you get, and enjoy your recital season!

- or can any foot function perfectly if the ballet dancer has the correct understanding of how to use their foot muscles in pointe shoes? Even men in ballet want to work in pointe shoes to develop the fine foot muscles that will enhance balance and virtuoso allegro. Strengthening and stretching the hyper-mobile (very flexible motion) body and hypo-mobile (tighter motion) body requires accurate ballet movements.

All would-be ballerinas and plenty of men in ballet want to get into pointe shoes, and, faster. The good news is, the finer details are available to all dance students through a little extra reading, examining photos and watching videos. This terrific ballet education is accessible from dance experts near and far.

Preventing injuries such as sprained ankles, more typical of the hyper or extra mobile ankle and foot joints, and Achilles tendon injuries, more typical of the feet and ankles with less flexible movement, is not difficult if you learn correct basic ballet technique.

Ballet students, and particularly boys in ballet, who have tighter ankle and foot joints and flatter-shaped foot bones, can partially solve this disadvantage by learning how to massage their lower legs and feet. The constant strain to get that ballet line in the foot arch leads to excess tension in the calves and feet.

Using a pinkie ball (hard, small sports ball) or a golf ball, and rolling it under the arches with gentle pressure, eases the tension out of the muscles. Calf muscles can be massaged the same way. Sitting on the floor, the ball can be eased from behind the knee, down the calf muscles to the ankle area. Also check that you get the extra tension towards the outside of the calf, and the inside area.

The front of the calves, or your shins, can be tense as well. Kneeling on the floor, ease and press your pinky ball ( a golf ball will not work for this one) from just below the knee, down the front of the calf to the ankle, leaning into it to get the tension to release. After this, you may find a significant degree of increased mobility in the ankle joint, and a better line. Here is some more information on using a pinkie ball to get more flexible.

Hypo-mobile students are usually less likely to sprain ankles en pointe, but can be predisposed to Achilles Tendon issues, due to how hard they have to work the feet. A wonderful stretch for the calves is: standing on a book, a stair step, or a rolled up towel, rise up and then lower onto one foot, stretching past the level point, so the heels are lower. Alternating slowly and carefully, you'll feel a deep stretch.

Ballet students with the flexible high arch are lucky in that the ballet ideal has somehow become the large, domed instep over the top of the foot. However, much more strength and control is required to utilize this range of motion, and prevent injury. If you have this kind of mobility, one way to begin assessing your strength and control is to see if you can do 20 consecutive slow rises with no sickling out of the foot. That is the least control you need.

There are more advanced exercises for controlling the flexible ankle. Using a theraband, ensuring that the intrinsic (exclusive to the foot) muscles are being constantly strengthened are two ways to work toward the perfect function for dancing ballet in pointe shoes as safely as possible. Doing this will help prevent sprained ankles.
Learn these exercises to prepare perfect foot muscles for pointe shoes.

Any would -be ballerina suffers from the fear factor in developing big butts or big thighs instead of the long lean look. Especially if that shape runs in the family. Especially when human genetics are discussed as though no one can escape their fate.

Your genetic shape is modified by what you eat, and how you exercise.

Posture is everything for growing to be long and lean. The spine and pelvis must be in a natural position. A postural plumb line must be straight from the top of the head, down through your body's natural curves, to your ankle bones.

If a mirror at the ballet studio, or at home, reflects a vertical line of some kind, like a door frame, stand at the mirror so that you can place your body sideways, in front of the line. Notice how your spine and legs line up along the line. If your weight is leaning back, or too far forward from your ankles, you will be able to see that you are not standing along the line.

Your spine has three natural curves. The most noticeable curve is at the waist area of the lumbar spine. A common misconception is that this curve should be pulled long, by tucking the pelvis under, and that this stance protects the low back. Exactly the opposite is true. Years of tucking under will lead to low back pain and perhaps even herniated discs. Correct posture will protect the discs. The discs, in turn, cushion the bones and allow maximum comfortable movement.

This tucking under of the pelvis will develop big thighs, or quads, and big butts, or gluteal muscles. The body weight presses down on the thighs, not allowing any elongation of the muscles. The deep rotator muscles are not in a prime position to hold turnout, and the gluts have to be held clenched in a bulked up fashion, to keep the pelvis stable.

The long lean look of a ballerina is from working pulled up in the deep lower ab muscles, and with a feeling of pressing down through the center of her leg bones, as if pushing the floor away. The thigh muscles pull up but do not clench hard. You need a certain amount of tension for the stability of each ballet position and movement, but not more than that. Extra tension will create less fluidity of your ballet movement.

Pilates is an excellent cross training for dancers because all exercises are done emphasizing length.

If you understand the correct posture that a ballerina works in, you can learn how to get the long and lean look, and avoid the big butts and big thighs that develop from working in an unnatural way.

There are many good articles on the internet about your core muscles and how they stabilize the body and prevent injuries and low back pain. To enhance your ballet technique, and your grace, in ballet shoes and pointe shoes, the following tips will help. When you build strength in your core, you support high extensions, pirouette and fouette positions, pointe work and grand allegro.

I found this easy to understand article at:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/core-exercises/SM00071

"Core muscles

Your body's core is the area around your trunk and pelvis. When you have good core stability, the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen work in harmony. Strong core muscles make it easier to do most physical activities - from swinging a golf club to getting a glass off a top shelf or bending down to tie your shoes. Weak core muscles leave you susceptible to poor posture, lower back pain and muscle injuries.

Core exercises help you strengthen your core muscles. And it doesn't take specialized equipment or an expensive gym membership to try core exercises. Any exercise that uses the trunk of your body without support counts. Think squats, push-ups and abdominal crunches."

The article then presents some simple and effective core exercises that anyone can do.

As a ballet student, your core muscles are engaged all the time. Posture and turnout depend on your core muscles.

Correct neutral spine, and correct turnout is the basis of your stability. Holding the turnout in your deep hip rotators, assisting with your inner thigh muscles, and supporting with your lower ab muscles pulled up and flat, allows for a relaxed upper body, and smooth head movements and fluid port de bras.

A wonderful and simple way to improve the strength of your core muscles for ballet, is doing slow press ups in retire position. (This is an intermediate level exercise).Using the barre lightly, press up slowly, maintaining your posture and turnout. Be aware of moments where your neck, shoulders or arms tense up - that is where you are letting go of your core strength. It's an easy marker to watch for.

When you can do this effortlessly, you are ready to do it without the barre. This will build strength for every movement. You will feel much stronger in pirouettes and will be able to add more turns.

When you get into pointe shoes, you won't have to struggle with an incorrect position that will throw you off your tiny pointe of connection with the floor. Nor will you strain or collapse into your ending positions.

All this applies to male students too - their investment in this kind of strength building will result in better pirouettes and control in grand allegro.

You'll continue to build strength if your basic ballet exercises are done accurately. Core muscles with the addition of turnout, is where you start, in your aspirations to dance in pointe shoes.

Travelling in turns usually is a problem of strength holding the postural plumb line. If the position and movement is not correct, the turns will travel and flounder.

Here are 7 highly effective tips to examine your technique for fouettes and turns a la seconde:

** Standing sideways to a mirror, do a few press ups in first position. Do you have a postural plumb line? If your core, your turnout, your ankles and soles of the foot are steady, also check to see that these movements are done with no strain in the shoulders and neck.

** With fingertips on the barre, do slow motion press ups and down in retire, or a la seconde. If you can do this without strain in the neck and shoulders, great. If there is strain, you need to build up strength in your core, and possibly overall. If a postural deviation from your plumb line shows up here, check for technical accuracy.

** What specific technical accuracy? The basics, always. Is your turnout strong, or have you compensated by shoving your supporting heel forward when you plie, changing your center of balance? Are you dropping back in the bottom of the demi plie? A shorter demi plie is not a bad thing. What counts is being in good posture in your demi plie so that you can press with your heel/foot, into the floor, and use gravity to push up, without having to make another compensation to rise into a straight position. It's a lot more work to keep all these compensations/countercompensations going.

I want to make a comment here about Classical Stretch, the Full Body Workout and Athletes' Intense Stretch. On a day off dance classes, this is a wonderful routine. It is not too hard on the legs and back, which need to rest, it combines Pilates with balletic style for your core strength, and it fulfills the need for stretch and relaxation that most dancers neglect. Good muscle tone is not just work, work, and more work.

Traditional ballet teachers may seem fussy about the dress code in their studios. Pink tights, black leotards. There is a reason for this. For the men in ballet, a white leotard or tee shirt, and black tights.

When a teacher is looking over a class in motion, visual clutter needs to be at a minimum. Black leotards and pink tights are a good uniform landscape for the teacher.

The black of the leotard emphasizes the line of the posture, the upper back and neck suppleness/tension, the hip/leg break and alignment correctness, and makes it easiest to respond to what is seen with ongoing and detailed corrections.

For instance, it is easy to see, even across a large studio, if the back of the thigh is not pulled up as needed, if the dancer is wearing pink tights. The line of the muscles is hidden in dark tights. In pink tights, it is also easy to see bulky tension in thigh muscles that should be more elongated. So your ballet teacher can help you more effectively if you are wearing simple clothing.

Distractions such as multi-colored clothing, and sloppy leg warmers prevent the teacher from being at their top efficiency.

Just like office folk get to wear more casual clothes to work on Fridays, my student-day classes were allowed to wear colored leotards and black tights on Saturdays. We pushed it, and came to class with bright leg warmers, print head bands and jewelry just bigger than the allowed tiny stud pierced earrings. We were always asked to remove even the tiniest of neck chains.

Of course there were always cold winter days when sweaters and body-length woolies were necessary. And it's not like a teacher can't see plain bad placement through all that, but the finer details are hidden.

The artistry of ballet depends on the ultra-perfectionistic and over-idealized form being sought, and then being surrendered to an allowing energy flow, that releases expression and drama. The same duality that all the arts struggle with.....

I wish I could say that better, but all I'm really talking about is that the norm for strict ballet wear that a good ballet store provides, ultimately supports the best results for ballet positions, ballet movements, ballet for weight loss, ballet strengthening regimens, pointe work, and the virtuosity aspired to by men in ballet. It allows the teacher to see what's going on in a large class full of diverse talent.

What should a dedicated dancer wear for daily foot support?

Joyce Morgenroth says in her article from Arts & Sciences Newsletter Fall 1997 Vol. 18 No. 2

"In pointe shoes the vulgar, useful foot is gone. In its place is the illusion of an elongated leg and only a most tenuous connection to the ground."

The entire article has a lot of historical detail, is a great read, and is found at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/newsletr/spring97/shoes.htm.
So how do we take care of our "vulgar, useful foot"?

I found some good info in "Slow Burn" by Stu Mittleman, p. 77, "Always Buy a Shoe Fit, Not a Shoe Size". Stu's details in shoe selection resemble the minutiae that dancers attend to in fitting ballet shoes and pointe shoes.

I used to work with Peter Walpole, DPM, who helped out both at The National Ballet School and National Ballet Company of Canada for many years. Peter Walpole provided the most wonderful orthotics. He would despair of expensive shoes and tell his patients "tear out the insoles and supports". I was happy to see that Stu Mittleman agrees. He discusses orthotics at length.

Stu discusses the available athletic shoes for the tilt pattern. In ballet we say 'rolling ankles' 'dropped arches' or 'flat feet'. Simply meaning the inner ankles roll toward the floor, pronation, and the opposite, the outer ankles roll toward the floor, supination. Differently shaped sneakers will give needed support.

If your feet hurt day after day, you'll be happy to find the exact right style and fit of street shoes to wear in between your classes, as well as getting exactly the right fit in your ballet shoes and pointe shoes.

There are many options available in pointe shoes now. A student could be confused, yet relieved too, that there might be a shoe that will fit exactly right.

Parents, please be aware that there is a financial aspect here. Pointe shoes can't be purchased to grow into. They must fit like a glove, and may not wear out before the student grows out of them. Yet if your child has a high arch, shoes may be broken quickly, in a matter of a few classes, and must be replaced. This situation improves as feet strengthen, but must be put up with until then. Such students can remove the inner sole, soften the box with their hands (if necessary) and wear the shoes as soft shoes for regular classes. This saves buying soft shoes, unless they are a requirement, such as for a ballet exam.

At a student's first fitting, a lot of time must be taken. If a fitter or a dance teacher is available, that is a real plus. Not all stores may have experienced fitters.

The length and tapering of the toes, the width across the metatarsals, the height of the arch, and the depth of the foot must all be must be examined and fitted correctly. A bad fit can cause sprains and injuries.

What will you use for protection inside the shoe? Gel pads, toe length adaptors, toe tips et al will take up space, so wear them while you are fitting pointe shoes.

The boxes of pointe shoes come in tapered shapes, and square shapes. The foot must not sink into, or slide around inside the box. A longer second toe usually requires a slightly tapered, narrow to medium box, but there are no strict rules. A longer big toe may also feel more comfortable in a tapered box. Try every shape of shoe.

You check for vamp length by rising up to 3/4 pointe, to see if the shoe break is where your metatarsal joints are. Too high a vamp impedes the foot movement, and too low a vamp will not support you.

Arch height and ankle flexibility determines the stiffness you will need in the shank of the pointe shoe. You must be able rise onto pointe fully, and not be leaning into the back of the box. You need support, but not so much resistance that you can't work properly.

When you are on pointe, there should be about 1/4 inch of fabric at your heel. If there is none, the shoe is too short. If there is more, the shoe is too long. In a demi-plie, if your toes are mashed into the box, the shoe is too short or too narrow.

The vamp should not gape or wrinkle - nor should the sides. There should be equal pressure from the shoe all over the foot. As you grow, choices may change.

"Copyright © DanceArt.com. All Rights Reserved" of the ballerina in tutu, imaged here.

Either at the dance studio or at home, stand next to the mirror in first or fifth position, so that you are looking at yourself sideways. With arms in fifth-en-avant (I'm speaking Cecchetti here) slowly press up onto 3/4 pointe, and keep the following points in mind.

Do you have any difficulty maintaining your correct posture and turnout?

Do your ankles wobble toward your big toe or your little toe?

Do you cramp right away?

Can you keep your shoulders and neck relaxed?

Can you do some simple port-de-bras without losing balance?

Can you slowly press down through flat to a demi-plie, and then do several of these slow-motion releves maintaining your poise?

If you have any trouble with this, ask your teacher what you need to work on, to get stronger for future pointe work. Have her/him watch you and correct you so that you can work on this at home. I encourage this kind of practice especially for those students who would like to take more classes but just can't. Work for some, school for others, and availability of the right classes commonly prevents full time study. However, you can check the following for yourself:

If your ankles are wobbly, keep the legs parallel, face the mirror, and rise up and down slowly keeping the weight in the middle of your feet, so there is no sickling in or out. This must be strengthened before poise, arm position, etc., is of any concern. Also, take note that you are holding your turnout muscles even in this parallel position, as most knees roll in a little if not held in line. Once you are sure that you can feel that your ankles are in exactly the right place, go back to first position for your slow motion releves.

Pointe shoes don't matter yet, as you can injure yourself or begin acquiring tense and awkward work habits if you are not ready to do pointe work.

If you cramp right away, on your first rise, then your muscles are weak. Relax and do a demi-plie (none of this should be torture). Cramping has other causes also such as dehydration and loss of electrolytes. Calcium and magnesium deficiency will lead to cramping too. You need all 12 of the cell salts to maintain your electrolytes. A good sea salt will help, kelp, other sea weed, or homeopathic 'bioplasma' or 'all 12' tablets. And of course, good proteins, lots of raw or lightly steamed green vegetables and salads, and fruits are mandatory. Did I say mandatory? Yes, I did! Your bones and muscles are MADE from what you eat. And so is your nervous system that your bones and muscles depend on.

Take a look at a wealth of information on ballet positions, ballet technique and ballet movements.

Never be afraid of asking your teacher if you feel like you need some better defined direction in your ballet class. Different ballet moves are more or less difficult for different students. Teachers love to know that their students want to work harder or smarter, and are committing more than a recreational presence in their ballet studio.

Optimum health for dancers is available with the help of chiropractic, physiotherapy, fresh/whole food diet, and medical diagnostics when you need them.

Experienced teachers know that the more mature and sensible students often go farther in ballet than the uniquely physically and spiritually gifted, sadly. But happily, there are the mystically endowed talents that also have, or develop (thanks to good people in their life) a streak of common sense. The world of ballet can be overwhelming.

In the pool of the more, or less , gifted ballet dance students, those who are not afraid of asking for individual guidance do better. And if you cannot get it - change dance studios.

You have accepted and feel wonderfully challenged that ballet is difficult. You can learn how to prevent dance injuries - even if your teachers don't know. You can learn to self-assess for pointe work - even if your teachers don't know. (adult beginners included!). There is nothing to stop you from learning more.

Learn more about ballet pointe shoes .

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