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History Of The Pointe Shoe- Nearly Finished

Published on Nov 19, 2015

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

THE HISTORY OF THE POINTE SHOE

Every dancer's dream!

WHAT ARE POINTE SHOES?

  • Pointe shoes are every dancer's dream!
  • Pointe shoes enable dancers to dance on their toes.
  • They are normally worn by female ballerinas but can be worn by boys too.
  • They come in a variety of colours, but usually they are pale pink!
Photo by Denis Cintra

WHEN AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?

  • Pointe shoes originated in France 1681, twenty years after
  • the Académie Royale de Danse was formed!
  • Marie Camargo of the Paris Opéra Ballet was the first to wear
  • a pointe shoe rather than the regular flat ballet shoe.
  • Regular ballet shoes used to be fastened with ribbons, now it's elastic!
Photo by BeJaMarie

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  • Pierina Legnani wore shoes with a sturdy, flat platform at the front
  • of the shoe, rather than a pointed toe of earlier models.
  • Charles Didelot invented a 'flying machine' in 1795. His machine lifted dancers upward
  • allowing them to stand on their toes before leaving the ground

THE MODERN POINTE SHOE

  • The birth of the modern pointe shoe is often attributed to Anna Pavlova.
  • Pavlova had particularly high, arched insteps, which left her vulnerable to
  • injuries when dancing en pointe. Her feet also applied immense pressure
  • to her toes! To help this, she inserted tough soles into her shoes for
  • extra support and flattened and hardened the toe area to form a box.

THEY DONT LAST FORVER

  • At first, a dancer must 'break in' their pointe shoes to remove discomfort.
  • Breaking in is a term to describe moulding the shoes to the dancers
  • feet. As the body of the shoe is repeatedly flexed, the shank weakens.
  • A pointe shoe is no longer serviceable when the shank breaks or becomes
  • too soft to provide support or the box at the end is exposed.

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Photo by Scott*