A
pointe shoe is a type of shoe worn by
ballet dancers when performing
pointework. Pointe shoes developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless and
sylph-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, Bottom in
A Midsummer Night's Dream, or men performing as women in dance companies such as
Les Ballets Trockadero and Grandiva. They are manufactured in a variety of colors, most commonly in shades of light pink.
History of pointe shoes
Marie Taglioni in the title role of
La Sylphide, a ballet danced
en pointe for the full length of the work.
Women began to dance in ballet in 1681, twenty years after King
Louis XIV of France ordered the founding of the
Royal Academy of Dance. At that time, the standard women's ballet shoe had
heels. Mid-18th century dancer
Marie Camargo of the
Paris Opéra Ballet 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, 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 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 first danced
La Sylphide 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 in the late 19th century. Dancers like
Pierina Legnani 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,
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."
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
glues, but these method usually shorten a pointe shoe's usable lifetime. Some dancers simply tolerate the discomfort and dance in them until they are naturally broken in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_shoe
