THE HISTORY OF THE POINTE SHOE

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!

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!

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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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