Today I’m pleased to announce that we will be doing a series of posts about Freed pointe shoes in the coming weeks on 4dancers. Brenda Neville is a professional fitter and works in retail management at Freed’s boutique store in New York, and she was kind enough to walk us through some of the history, as well as talk a bit about fitting pointe shoes properly and other pointe-related topics.
I admit to having a certain “soft spot” for Freeds. Although I started with Capezio Pavlova’s back in the day, I always was fascinated by the unusual color of Freed pointe shoes. As soon as I was able, I switched over—and never looked back. Freeds were the shoes I wore for the rest of my time as a ballet dancer. And I loved them.
I can still recall going to have them fitted with my Mom in some old building downtown. We would get into the caged metal elevator and ride up to the level that the store was located on. It always seemed that there were no other people in the building when we were there. Instead of that being a spooky experience, it was almost magical. I always enjoyed going to get new shoes…
My Freeds didn’t require excessive breaking in; as a matter-of-fact, they were a great fit for my feet. I got lucky choosing a shoe on color, as they worked well for me all the way around. I manipulated mine with my hands a bit, did a series of releves in different positions, dabbed a little water around the upper portion of the box—and that was it—ready to go!
Over the coming weeks we’ll be hearing more from ballet dancers about how they break their shoes in. We’ll take a look at a common foot problem that dancers on pointe typically have, see some products that relate to dancing on pointe—and we’ll learn more about the Freed brand of pointe shoes. Each month you can look forward to a different focus on the blog—and January is all about pointe.
If you are a male dancer, or involved in a different dance style don’t despair. We are still going to have posts about other things as well. Look forward to hearing from our contributors on a wide range of topics, and stay tuned for more interviews with dancers and dance professionals.
And Happy New Year!
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