Pointe shoe myth vs. fact

1.  Pointe shoes last only one hour.  

Myth, kind of.  How long pointe shoes last depends on a huge number of factors including the dancer’s strength/level, the difficulty of the choreography, the climate, the brand and construction of the shoe, and how the dancer likes the shoe to feel.  Some shoes, such as Freed Grand Classics, are made of extremely degradable materials in order to perfectly fit an individual dancer for just a short amount of time.  Dancers who like Freeds may wear a new pair each day in class, and up to one pair per act when performing in ballets.  In this case, a shoe may last just one hour.  Other shoes, like Gaynor Mindens, are made of strong and resilient plastics so they can be worn for months with little degradation.  Most traditional paste pointe shoes (Grishko, Bloch, etc.) that have the appropriate strength of shank for the dancer’s level last between 12 and 24 hours of wear, which works out to approximately 3-4 months for a beginning student, 1-2 months for an intermediate student, and about 2 days for a professional.

2.  All dancers get disfigured feet from wearing pointe shoes.  

Myth, again, kind of.  It is possible to get foot disfigurements from pointe shoes, but that does not mean that it happens in all cases.  Professional fittings and proper padding can prevent most of the common issues that caused foot disfigurements in years past.  (In “the olden days,” dancers often wore pointe shoes that were too tapered and used minimal padding.  Professional fittings were few and far between, and most dancers went for aesthetics rather than function.  This resulted in the severe bunions and hammer toes that are frequently associated with ballet dancers.)  Most dancers who have been en pointe for several years will experience mild bunions and foot widening, as well as occasional blisters and callouses.  These are not disfigurements, but natural changes that happen when the feet strengthen with years of pointe.  Severe bunions, constant blisters, and other problems are the mark of an ill-fitting shoe.  Usually getting re-fit in a different shoe with a better fit will prevent most major foot problems.

3.  Dancing en pointe hurts.  

Fact, but maybe not as bad as you think.  A better way to describe it is as uncomfortable.  Maybe this will help non-dancers get the picture:  your arms ache after doing a lot of push-ups, your bruised knee throbs when you hit it on something, and your hand cramps up when hand-writing a long letter.  Working en pointe causes lots of muscle fatigue, which is not usually a good feeling.  Pointe also sometimes causes minor injuries like a bruised toenail or blister, and the shoes’ tight fit can lead to feet feeling smushed after a long rehearsal.  These things cause pain, but not severe pain.  Most pointe-related pains feel like other pains you get in your day-to-day life and would normally work through. 

If you do feel severe pain en pointe, then your shoes do not fit correctly.  It is common for dancers’ feet to change with physical growth and improved technique, so if your pointe shoes begin to cause huge pains after you have been wearing the same brand for a while, you may want to get refit in something different.  There are also many toe pads, spacers, tapes, and other things you can use to reduce pain in your shoes.

4.  If my friend and I have the same shoe size, we will wear the same pointe shoes.  

Myth. Huge, mega, bigtime myth.  I don’t know how many times I have had dancers ask if they can try a Grishko 2007 because their best friend has one.  It’s not bad to ask other dancers what shoes they wear and what they like/dislike about them, but you can’t take this information and apply it to yourself without considering your individual characteristics and needs.  Two dancers may wear the same size in regular street shoes, but this does not mean that their feet are similar at all.  One might have a wide foot, the other may have narrower feet.  One may be more tapered, bunion-prone, stronger, etc. than the other.  All of these factors (and more) contribute to what size, model, brand, etc you need in a pointe shoe.  It is highly unlikely that you will wear exactly the same shoe down to model and size as any other dancer in your class. 

5.  Barbie ballet movies show ballet and pointe accurately. 

Mostly fact, but with a few bigtime exceptions.  The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and The Pink Shoes were all animated based on video of professional dancers performing the variations included in the films.  All of the dancing, including how a dancer moves en pointe, is pretty accurate (at least as accurate as it can be in gumby-ish computer animation).  The parts of The Pink Shoes (opening credits, I think?) that show dancers putting on pointe shoes and warming up are pretty accurate.  However, the parts of The Pink Shoes that show dance company life are immensely inaccurate and oversimplified.  

6.   I need to manually break in my pointe shoes before I wear them.  

Myth.  The important words here are “manually” and “need to.”  You do not need to break in your pointe shoes before you wear them by using your hands or other objects to smush or bash your shoes.  First time pointe students should not do anything to their shoes without a teacher’s permission and supervision.  For your first few pairs, it is very beneficial to let your feet do the work of breaking in.  Even advanced students and professionals do not need to manually break in their shoes; it is possible (and still beneficial) to let your feet do the breaking in.  However, it is also totally fine to manually break them in if you know what you are doing.  Just remember that not all shoes break in the same way, so something that works on one type of shoe may not work so well on another.  It is possible to destroy pointe shoes if you break them in too much or in the wrong ways, so refrain from manually breaking and ask for help if you are unsure.

7.  Only girls do pointe.  

Myth.  You may see only female dancers between ages 10 and 30 with pointe shoes on, but male dancers sometimes do pointe, and older adult dancers frequently do pointe as well.  Pointework is wonderful for strengthening the feet and ankles, so for trained dancers, it can be practiced as a form of exercise.  Some male and older adult dancers choose to work en pointe for this reason.  Male dancers can also perform character roles that require them to be en pointe, such as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the ugly stepsisters in Cinderella.  Community dance theaters with only a few annual performances are ideal for younger students, retired professionals, and dancers who began later in life to perform roles en pointe.