Pointe shoes - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A pointe shoe is a type of shoe worn by ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

dancers when performing pointework

En pointe

En pointe means "on the tip" and is a part of classical ballet technique, usually practised using specially reinforced shoes called pointe shoes or toe shoes. The technique developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like and has evolved to enable dancers to dance on the...

. Pointe shoes developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph

Sylph

Sylph is a mythological creature in the Western tradition. The term originates in Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as invisible beings of the air, his elementals of air...

-like and have evolved to enable dancers to dance on the tips of their toes (i.e., en pointe) for extended periods of time. They are normally worn by female dancers, though male dancers may wear them for unorthodox roles such as the ugly stepsisters in Cinderella
Cinderella (Prokofiev)
Cinderella is a ballet, Op. 87, composed by Sergei Prokofiev to a scenario by Nikolai Volkov. It is one of his most popular and melodious compositions, and has inspired a great many choreographers since its inception. The piece was composed between 1940 and 1944. Part way through writing it he...

, Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

, or men performing as women in dance companies such as Les Ballets Trockadero

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is an American all-male drag ballet corps which parodies the conventions and clichés of romantic and classical ballet. The company was co-founded by Peter Anastos, Natch Taylor and Antony Bassae in New York City in 1974, producing small, late-night shows, in...

and Grandiva. They are manufactured in a variety of colors, most commonly in shades of light pink.

History of pointe shoes

Women began to dance in ballet in 1681, twenty years after King Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

ordered the founding of the Académie Royale de Danse

Académie Royale de Danse

The Académie Royale de Danse, founded by letters patent on the initiative of King Louis XIV of France in March 1661, was the first dance institution established in the Western world...

. At that time, the standard women's ballet shoe had heel

Heel (shoe)

A heel is the projection at the back of a shoe which rests below the heel bone. The shoe heel is used to improve the balance of the shoe or for decorative purposes. Sometimes raised, the high heel is common to a form of shoe often worn by women but sometimes by men too. See also stiletto heel.-...

s. Mid-18th century dancer Marie Camargo of the Paris Opéra Ballet

Paris Opera Ballet

The Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company in the world, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it...

was the first to wear a non-heeled shoe, enabling her to perform leaps that would have been difficult, if not impossible, in the more conventional shoes of the age. After the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, heels were completely eliminated from standard ballet shoes. These flat-bottomed predecessors of the modern pointe shoe were secured to the feet by ribbons and incorporated pleats under the toes to enable dancers to leap, execute turns, and fully extend their feet.

The first dancers to rise up on their toes did so with the help of an invention by Charles Didelot

Charles Didelot

Charles-Louis Didelot was a French dancer and choreographer. The son of Charles Didelot, the dance mastor of the King of Sweden, he studied dance with his father, who was an instructor in dance at the Swedish Opera, and debuted as dancer in the theatre of Bollhuset in Stockholm 1786.He then...

in 1795. His "flying machine" lifted dancers upward, allowing them to stand on their toes before leaving the ground. This lightness and ethereal quality was well received by audiences and, as a result, choreographers began to look for ways to incorporate more pointework into their pieces.

As dance progressed into the 19th century, the emphasis on technical skill increased, as did the desire to dance en pointe without the aid of wires. When Marie Taglioni

Marie Taglioni

Marie Taglioni was a famous Italian/Swedish ballerina of the Romantic ballet era, a central figure in the history of European dance.-Biography:...

first danced La Sylphide
La Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....

en pointe, her shoes were nothing more than modified satin slippers; the soles were made of leather and the sides and toes were darned to help the shoes hold their shapes. Because the shoes of this period offered no support, dancers would pad their toes for comfort and rely on the strength of their feet and ankles for support.

The next substantially different form of pointe shoe appeared in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

in the late 19th century. Dancers like Pierina Legnani

Pierina Legnani

Pierina Legnani was an Italian ballerina, a terre-à-terre virtuosa extraordinaire, considered one of the greatest ballerinas of all time.-Career:...

wore shoes with a sturdy, flat platform at the front end of the shoe, rather than the more sharply pointed toe of earlier models. These shoes also included a box—made of layers of fabric—for containing the toes, and a stiffer, stronger sole. They were constructed without nails and the soles were only stiffened at the toes, making them nearly silent.

The birth of the modern pointe shoe is often attributed to the early 20th century Russian ballerina

Ballerina

A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...

, Anna Pavlova, who was one of the most famous and influential dancers of her time. Pavlova had particularly high, arched insteps, which left her vulnerable to injury when dancing en pointe. She also had slender, tapered feet, resulting in excessive pressure applied to her big toes. To compensate for this, she would insert toughened leather soles into her shoes for extra support and would flatten and harden the toe area to form a box. While this practice made dancing en pointe easier for her, it was regarded by her peers as "cheating."

Construction

Every dancer has unique feet, with variations that include toe length and shape, arch flexibility

Flexibility (anatomy)

Flexibility or limberness refers to the absolute range of movement in a joint or series of joints, and length in muscles that cross the joints. Flexibility is variable between individuals, particularly in terms of differences in muscle length of multi-joint muscles...

, and mechanical strength. Consequently, most pointe shoe manufacturers produce more than one model of shoe, with each model offering a different fit. Regardless of the manufacturer or model, however, all pointe shoes share two important structural features that enable dancers to dance on the tips of their toes:

A box within the front end of the shoe that encases and supports the dancer's toes.
A shank, which is a piece of rigid material that serves to stiffen the sole so as to provide support for the arch
Arches of the foot
-External links:* * *...

of the en pointe foot.

The exterior of a pointe shoe is covered with fabric

Fabric

A fabric is a textile material, short for "textile fabric".Fabric may also refer to:*Fabric , the spatial and geometric configuration of elements within a rock*Fabric , a nightclub in London, England...

, thus concealing the box and other internal structural elements and lending an aesthetically pleasing look to the shoe. Most pointe shoes are covered with satin

Satin

Satin is a weave that typically has a glossy surface and a dull back. It is a warp-dominated weaving technique that forms a minimum number of interlacings in a fabric. If a fabric is formed with a satin weave using filament fibres such as silk, nylon, or polyester, the corresponding fabric is...

, but some are available with canvas

Canvas

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...

exteriors. Pointe shoes are most often available in light pink colors and less commonly in black or white. Pointe shoes can often be ordered in other custom colors.

Box

The box is a hard enclosure within the front end of the shoe that encases and supports the dancer's toes. The front end of the box is flattened so as to form a platform upon which the dancer can balance

Balance (ability)

In biomechanics, balance is an ability to maintain the center of gravity of a body within the base of support with minimal postural sway. When exercising the ability to balance, one is said to be balancing....

, and fabric covers the exterior of the box for an aesthetically pleasing look.

Sole

In most pointe shoes, the sole is constructed from a single piece of leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

that is attached to the shoe with adhesive

Adhesive

An adhesive, or glue, is a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. The types of materials that can be bonded are vast but they are especially useful for bonding thin materials...

and reinforced by stitching along its edges. The sole overlaps and secures the unfinished edges of the shoe's exterior fabric. Pointe shoes may be manufactured with either scraped soles, which provide superior traction

Traction (engineering)

Traction refers to the maximum frictional force that can be produced between surfaces without slipping.The units of traction are those of force, or if expressed as a coefficient of traction a ratio.-Traction:...

, or buffed soles, which have a smoother surface for reduced traction.

Aesthetic appearance is of paramount importance for modern pointe shoes. To achieve an elegant appearance, the shoe's more decorative outer fabric is prominently featured, covering the maximum possible area of the shoe's visible surfaces. To this end, the sole is made of thin material to give it a minimal profile, and a margin of satin is artfully pleated around it so that the sole covers only part of the bottom of the shoe.

Shank

Shanks are typically made from leather

Leather

, plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

, cardstock, or layers of glue-hardened burlap

Burlap

Hessian , or burlap in the US, is a woven fabric usually made from skin of the jute plant or sisal fibres, or may be combined with other vegetable fibres to make rope, nets, and similar products...

. The flexibility of a shank is determined by its thickness and the type of material used. A shank's thickness may be consistent throughout or it may vary along its length to produce different strengths at select points. For example, slits may be cut across a shank at demi-pointe to enhance roll through. Also, a shank's thickness may transition at some point along its length in order to implement differing strengths above and below the transition. Standard pointe shoes typically have a full shank, in which the shank runs the full length of the sole, or fraction

Fraction (mathematics)

A fraction represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, we specify how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, five-eighths and three-quarters.A common or "vulgar" fraction, such as 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, etc., consists...

al (e.g., half or three-quarter) length shanks. Many pointe shoe manufacturers offer a choice of shank materials, and some will build shoes with customized shanks of varying stiffness and length.

Dancers will sometimes wear different pointe shoe models for different performance pieces. In such cases, the choreography

Choreography

Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...

often dictates the type of shank required; a lyrical style may call for a softer shoe, while an aggressive style with many turns is more easily performed in a hard, stiff shoe.

Ribbons and elastic band

A pointe shoe employs two fabric ribbons and an elastic

Elasticity (physics)

In physics, elasticity is the physical property of a material that returns to its original shape after the stress that made it deform or distort is removed. The relative amount of deformation is called the strain....

band to secure it to the foot. Most of the work of securing shoes to feet is done by the ribbons. The two ribbons wrap around the dancer's ankle

Ankle

The ankle joint is formed where the foot and the leg meet. The ankle, or talocrural joint, is a synovial hinge joint that connects the distal ends of the tibia and fibula in the lower limb with the proximal end of the talus bone in the foot...

in opposite directions, overlapping one another so as to form a cross at the front. The ends are then tied together in a knot

Knot

A knot is a method of fastening or securing linear material such as rope by tying or interweaving. It may consist of a length of one or several segments of rope, string, webbing, twine, strap, or even chain interwoven such that the line can bind to itself or to some other object—the "load"...

, which is then tucked under the ribbon on the inside of the ankle to hide it from view. The ends of the ribbons are never tied in a bow, as a bow knot might not hold together reliably. The elastic band—which traverses the front of the ankle below the ribbons—keeps the heel

Heel

In human anatomy, the heel is the prominence at the posterior end of the foot. It is based on the projection of one bone, the calcaneus or heel bone, behind the articulation of the bones of the lower leg.- Human anatomy :...

of the shoe in place against the foot when the dancer is en pointe.

The locations where the band and ribbons attach to a shoe is critical, as incorrect placement can result in a poorly fitting shoe. Optimal placement depends on the physical attributes of the foot to which it will be mated, and consequently the ribbons and elastic bands cannot be attached during the shoe manufacturing process. After acquiring a new pair of pointe shoes, a dancer must determine the appropriate attachment locations for the ribbons and elastic bands and then sew them, or arrange for them to be sewn, onto the shoes.

Demi-pointe shoe

A demi-pointe shoe, which is also variously called a break-down, pre-pointe, or soft-block shoe, shares many characteristics with pointe shoes. Its outer appearance resembles that of a pointe shoe and it has a toe box, although the box is softer and the wings (sides of the toe box) are typically not as deep as those found on pointe shoes. Demi-pointe shoes are secured to the feet with ribbons and elastic band in identical fashion to pointe shoes. Unlike pointe shoes, however, demi-pointe shoes have no shank and, as a result, they do not provide the support necessary for pointe work.

Demi-pointe shoes are most often used to train dancers who are new to pointe technique. They serve to acclimate dancers to the feel of wearing pointe shoes and to strengthen the ankles and feet in preparation for dancing en-pointe in pointe shoes. The toe box allows the dancer to experience the feel of a pointe shoe, while the insole and outsole work together to provide the resistance needed for developing foot and ankle strength.

Breaking in

Dancers break in, or soften, new pointe shoes in order to improve their fit and thus eliminate the discomfort caused by new shoes. Various methods are employed for breaking in new pointe shoes including deforming them against hard surfaces, striking them with blunt objects, wetting the toe boxes and then wearing them, and heating them to soften the glue

Glue

This is a list of various types of glue. Historically, the term "glue" only referred to protein colloids prepared from animal flesh. The meaning has been extended to refer to any fluid adhesive....

s, but these methods may shorten a pointe shoe's usable lifetime.

Accessories

After a pointe shoe is broken in, it is common that the toe box still does not provide a comfortable fit for the dancer's en pointe foot. To mitigate the discomfort caused by the unyielding box, dancers will often wear toe pads, which are most often fabric-covered gel pads that encapsulate and cushion the toes. Also, gel toe spacers are sometimes inserted between the toes to provide cushioning and to adjust toe alignment

Alignment

Alignment may refer to:* Alignment , secondary evidence used to associate features such as postholes* Alignment , in Israel from 1965 to 1992...

s.

In addition to or in lieu of toe pads, some dancers may apply tape to their toes to reduce chafing and the likelihood of blisters. Lambswool is also used for this purpose by stretching it and wrapping it around the toes; after several such uses the lambswool becomes dense and custom fitted to the dancer's foot.

Lifetime

In the course of normal use, there are three predominant types of wear on a pointe shoe that will determine its useful lifetime

Service life

A product's service life is its expected lifetime, or the acceptable period of use in service. It is the time that any manufactured item can be expected to be 'serviceable' or supported by its manufacturer....

. The most important of these is shank wear. As the body of the shoe is repetitively flexed, the shank gradually weakens and loses its ability to provide support. A pointe shoe is no longer serviceable when the shank breaks or becomes too soft to provide support. The second is the softening of the box and especially the platform on which the dancer balances.

The other primary type of wear involves the exterior fabric. In pointework, the front face and bottom edge of the toe box are subjected to friction against the performance surface. This friction will eventually wear through the shoe's outer fabric covering, thereby exposing the toe box and creating loose, frayed fabric edges. Unlike a weakened shank, damaged outer fabric does not affect the performance of a shoe. Due to its unprofessional appearance, however, damaged fabric may render the shoe unfit to wear in situations other than informal practice or rehearsal.

Under moderate usage, a pair of pointe shoes will typically last through ten to twenty hours of wear. For dance students, this often translates into weeks or months of serviceable use from a pair of pointe shoes. Professional dancers typically wear out pointe shoes much more quickly; a new pair may wear out in a single performance. As a result, most professional ballet companies provide shoe allowances for their dancers to defray the cost of frequent shoe replacement.

The lifetime of a pointe shoe depends on many factors, including:

Usage. More aggressive dance styles and more frequent, longer durations of use will hasten wear.
Dance technique. Improper technique subjects shoes to unusual stresses that may lead to premature failure.
Fit. Well fitting pointe shoes encourage proper technique, which in turn leads to longer shoe life.
Weight. Greater dancer weight exerts proportionally greater stresses to the shoes, leading to faster wear.
Construction. Varying qualities and types of construction will yield different life expectancies.
Shank material. The stiffness and integrity of various shank materials will degrade at varying rates.
Breaking-in. The breaking-in process simulates accelerated wear, and thus may shorten the life of a shoe.
Performance surface. Rough surfaces cause rapid wear of the exterior fabric, in contrast to smooth surfaces such as Marley floors, which minimize the rate of fabric wear.