To the Pointe.

"After observing you in class this semester, I believe you are ready to start taking a pointe class."

Those words will make a young dancer's eyes light up and her heart skip a beat. Dreams of walking everywhere on your tiptoes take over your sleep at night. I know this from experience. ;)
Then you get your pointe shoes. Such beautiful, perfect shoes covered in pink satin. You sew the ribbons and elastics on, stuff some padding in the toe (I started with those awful brown paper towels) and slide the shoes on for the first time. It's kind of funny... To me, that first time en pointe was a disappointment. It HURT like crazy. For some reason, I had expected it to be painless. However, I persevered and now pointe is my favorite type of dance.
I've had many different brands and styles of pointe shoes over the years. I started with Freed of London® pointe shoes and didn't particularly care for them because the box seemed to be too wide for my toes and they wore out quickly. I have a slightly narrow foot with tapered toes and for me, the Freeds didn't really work out. So I moved on to Bloch® pointe shoes. They seemed a little bit better. They didn't wear out quite as fast and they conformed to my feet better. However, they had a tendency to rub blisters on the skin over my 1st metatarsophalangeal joint (a.k.a. the big toe joint) and finally I couldn't deal with it anymore. Grishko® pointe shoes were my next stop and I've got to say, I LOVED them. Grishko® seems to make shoes with the narrow foot in mind. They fit snugly and although they were incredibly difficult for me to break in, I was very pleased with them. Be warned, though... the satin covering the shoes is not terribly thick and will begin to tear off after wearing them a few times. It actually might be a good idea to go on and take the satin off the toes and darn them after purchasing. I loved my Grishkos and wore several pairs out until I started developing bunions. The tapered box in Grishko® shoes was (I'm sure) the cause. I was very saddened but I knew I'd have to switch shoes yet again. I got myself a pair of Capezio® pointe shoes right before going off to a 2 week ballet summer intensive and they felt wonderful at first. I thought I had finally found the perfect shoe. Unfortunately, I learned that Capezios were WAY too weak for my feet. By the time the intensive was over, they were soft and had very little use left.
I kept toying with the idea of trying Gaynor Minden® shoes but since so many people referred to them as "cheater shoes", I wasn't sure I wanted to get any. Everyone always said they'd do the work for you. Well, I finally decided to buy some and I've got to say, they're the best pointe shoes I've ever worn! They have lasted me a long time, they don't rub blisters, you don't have to tear your feet up breaking them in, the satin on them hasn't torn, they are comfortable, you can feel the floor AND they work your feet! So far, I haven't had any complaints about them.

I'm not telling everyone to get Gaynor Mindens because it all depends on your foot type. My advice is to go and get professionally fitted and make sure you tell your fitter if something doesn't feel right. They're your feet and he/she can't feel what you're feeling. Dancing en pointe should be fun. Not a chore.

New blog!

I've decided to start a blog simply about dance. I'm going to have info here about pointe shoes, dance related injuries, nutrition, professional dancers, companies, fictional & nonfictional dance stories and much more! If anyone has any suggestions or anything specific that you'd like to see an article about, just send me a message and I'll see what I can do! Thanks for reading!