Pointe shoes- how are they made?
I’m sure you’ve seen them at some point(pun intended)- those dangerous looking shoes that dancers so effortlessly float across the stage on. They’re called pointe shoes, and although they may look pretty simple, they’re actually pretty insane works of engineering genius. So how are they made, and how hard is it to be en pointe? Wha is pointe? When you’re en pointe, the entire weight of your body lies pretty much completely on the top of your big toes. It’s a lot! Consequently, the shoes must be very strong. We call the bottom of the shoes, where our toes go, the “box” of the shoe. Although after dancing for a while, it feels like you’re standing on an actual brick, it’s really just a mix of fabric, paper, and glue. The rest of the pretty satin shoes have some leather, elastic and dependant on the maker of the shoe, leather, polyester or cotton. The shank, or in street shoe terms, the sole of the ballet shoe is the base. After the shank is uniquely cut, the fabric is wrapped, cut, and sewn onto the shoe, and held together by a mixture of paste, glue, and strong seams. To harden the shoes, they’re put in the oven! The detailed steps of shoemaking are very complex, but that’s a baseline idea of what it’s like. Next, you may be wondering what it’s like to actually be en pointe. As someone who did it for a few years, I can actually say that it’s fun and rewarding. Although, due to the amount of strain it puts on your foot, as dancers, many of us have stories of huge blisters, missing toenails, and general pain. It’s gross but worth it! Pointe work is an impressive skill that takes years of practice to even land a couple of turns, so when you first achieve that, it’s so rewarding. You start with ankle exercises, which essentially just going up and down on your toes with the pointe shoes on. Again, you need a ton of ankle strength to be able to stay up, and if you don’t you run the risk of breaking your ankle. Once you get past the initial pain and develop calluses in the place of blisters, you get to see your progress, and one day you’re nailing pique turns across the floor, effortlessly.
I don’t know much about dance, but this was very interesting to me. The fact that those shoes are so strong and can support someone’s entire bodyweight, yet are made of just fabric, paper, and clue is crazy!
Haha, love the pun. It’s crazy to think that such delicate looking shoes are actually strong enough to withstand so much weight and pressure. That kind of goes hand in hand with dance. Outwardly, some styles of dance can look very delicate and dainty. However, that is just a facade to the amount of strength and athleticism required to execute the dance moves.