capezio

Ballerina Ashley Ellis Talks Pointe Shoes

February 25, 2015 by 4dancers

by Ashley Ellis

You may have heard of dancers referring to their body as their instrument. It is so true, and we must constantly take care of our instrument so that we are able to ‘play our music’ to the best of our ability.

With this said, for a ballerina there is a whole other very important factor that comes into play. Pointe Shoes. Keeping with the same analogy, I’d say that pointe shoes are like the bow to our violin. They go together to create the ‘music’ of a ballet dancer. How she feels in her shoes can greatly affect her dancing experience.

There are a number of pointe shoe brands out there, and a dancer will usually try many different makes and models before settling on one. My very first pair of pointe shoes were Contempora by Capezio (they were pink and very small, hehe). After that I spent a few years in pointe shoes made by Sansha before settling on FREED Studios Professional, which is what I wear to this day.

I will admit though, that I am currently testing out the waters with a new pointe shoe, FREED Classic. They aren’t far from what I am using now but as any ballerina can tell you, once you find your shoe it can be a real challenge to switch brands. The reason for this is that after spending so much time in your chosen pointe shoes they become a part of your foot so to speak; you learn how to articulate and “use” your feet in these shoes.

The biggest difference between what I have been wearing, the ‘studios’, and the new (to me) ‘classics’ is that the studios are what we call a stock shoe and the classics are handmade. The truth is that I could go on and on about the differences between the two, but well, for your sake I won’t bore you with ALL of the details!

Because the FREED classics are handmade they can be custom ordered for the personal needs of individual dancers. This means that they will not only fit better by shaping them around a dancer’s foot, but can also accentuate strengths and give more support or pliability where it’s needed. In fact, the alterations that can be made to these shoes are seemingly endless–it’s really quite remarkable.

Despite all of the wonderful aspects of having a shoe made just for you, it takes time to get it just right, and when it comes down to it you must feel at home in them. As for me, I am still at home in my stock shoes.

It seems that the general thought that comes to mind when thinking of pointe shoes is, “ouch!”. I don’t know how many people have asked me if the box is made of wood (no, not wood, just many layers of fabric and glue). It’s funny because once you reach a certain point in your professional career you wear them so many hours throughout each day that it really isn’t all that painful. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t walking on clouds, but your feet become strong, and do toughen up over time.

That said, most dancers will still create some sort of little barrier between the toes and the actual box of the shoe for protection, some of which include: various kinds of sports tape, masking tape, duct tape, toe pads made of foam, wool, rubber—even gel-filled ones. I wear a simple toe pad made from a thin layer of lamb’s wool. I actually didn’t wear anything in my shoes until about two years ago. My teacher didn’t let us when I started out on pointe so that we would really have to feel the floor and articulate our feet better.

One of the most important things to know is learning how to break-in your pointe shoes. They are not the kind of shoes that you can just slide on your foot and wear. If you do—well—they will feel like wood and cause much more pain than they should. This ritual is yet another aspect of wearing pointe shoes that is individual to each dancer.

How I prepare my shoes:

Cut the shank.
Add glue to the middle of the shank where I need the most support.
Sew the insole back down so it doesn’t roll up under my arch.
Step on the box, then work it a bit to soften the upper box area.
Wear them a bit to break them a little more and form them more to my feet.
Bang them really hard on cement so they are quiet as well as easier to move in.
Glue the inside upper portion of the box.
Sew on elastic and ribbons.

Even though there are those days when I get to that 6^th hour of rehearsal and my feet are simply swollen and ready to be soaked in a big bucket of ICE, I do truly love dancing on pointe; with the movement qualities that it allows, and illusions that it can create.

Boston Ballet presents Lady of the Camellias, running from February 26th through March 8th. Tickets are available here. See Ashley perform the lead role of Marguerite at the Saturday matinee.

Contributing writer Ashley Ellis is a principal dancer at Boston Ballet. Ellis hails from Torrance, California and she received her dance training at the South Bay Ballet under the direction of Diane Lauridsen. Other instruction included Alicia Head, Mario Nugara, Charles Maple, and Kimberly Olmos.

She began her professional career with American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company and later joined American Ballet Theatre as a company dancer. In 1999, Ellis won the first prize at the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight Award, and went on to become the recipient of the Coca Cola scholarship award in 2000 and 2001. She has performed in Spain with Angel Corella’s touring group and joined Corella Ballet in 2008 as a soloist. In 2011, Ellis joined Boston Ballet as a second soloist. She was promoted to soloist in 2012 and principal dancer in 2013.

Her repertoire includes Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty; Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker; Natalia Makarova’s La Bayadère; Marius Petipa’s Swan Lake; Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse, VIII and Polyphonia; Harald Lander’s Études; Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides; Rudolf Nureyev’s Don Quixote; Christopher Bruce’s Rooster; George Balanchine’s Serenade, Coppélia, Symphony in Three Movements, Symphony in C, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux; Clark Tippet’s Bruch Violin Concerto; Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room; Stanton Welch’s Clear; Angel Corella’s String Sextet; Wayne McGregor’s Chroma; Jorma Elo’s Awake Only; Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free; Jiří Kylián’s Wings of Wax, Symphony of Psalms, and Petite Mort.

Pointe Shoes: Tools Of The Trade

February 10, 2015 by 4dancers

IMG_0442 (1) — Cara Marie Gary, “Esmeralda”, USA IBC 2010, Photo by: Richard Finkelstein

by Cara Marie Gary

I began taking pointe classes when I was eight years old. I still have my first pair of Leo’s pointe shoes. They’re so small and narrow I don’t think I could fit my first toe and bunion inside them now! One of my ballet instructors, Anita Pacylowski-Justo, helped me transition to the shoe she wore as a dancer. Every since trying on her Bloch Serenade, my foot “fell in love” with this shoe.

Big pile of pointe shoes — My pointe shoes. Photo by Mahallia Ward.

I’ve tried to experiment with other brands like Chacott, Russian Pointe, Gaynor Minden, Sansha, Freed, and Capezio, but I always keep coming back to Bloch Serenade (Style: SO131L Width:D Size:2). I like this shoe because it has a wide, square platform which is good for my peasant foot (meaning that my toes are similar in length). I also like that the shank is strong enough to prevent my foot from going too far over pointe. [Read more…]

Writing About Pointe Shoes – Janice Barringer

January 18, 2013 by 4dancers

Janice Barringer knows more than most people about a subject that is near and dear to the heart of ballet dancers — pointe shoes. She is the author of the most comprehensive book I have ever seen on the subject, The Pointe Book, and since one of our themes this quarter is footwear and foot care, it seemed only natural that she should be the person to talk about pointe shoes…

I’m sure readers will find some interesting tidbits in the interview below!

Where did the idea come from to write this book?

A dear friend of mine, Sarah Schlesinger, was a writer, a lyricist and the owner of a Capezio Dance Store. Her mother was a ballet teacher and her godparents were part owners of Capezio. She knew I had contacts in the ballet world, and also felt strongly that a book about pointe shoes needed to be written. Several customers were furious that the shoes they had bought from her store were wearing out. The father of one ballet student actually struck an employee in anger because he thought they had been cheated—–given defective shoes. Sarah said, “if only there was a book that I could pull out to prove that pointe shoes are built to wear out. This was before some of the new types of long-lasting shoes were on the market.

She repeatedly asked if I would take on this project. At the time I was dancing professionally and teaching a guest class now and then. The idea of writing a book did not interest me even though Sarah said she would write the proposal, and guide me if I provided the information. (The Second and Third Editions I wrote by myself). One day I was in my chiropractor’s waiting room. Dr. Nathan Novick was a kindly, older man that took care of many professional dancers as well as his normal clientele. There sat Martine Van Hamel right across from me. I have no idea why, but suddenly I decided, “today I’m starting the book about pointe shoes.” I grabbed some scratch paper and asked Martine if she would tell me what shoes she wore, what size, how did she prepare the ribbons, elastics, what did she do to break them in, what kind of padding did she use etc. She answered graciously, and the book began. I couldn’t wait to call Sarah to tell her that the inspiration had struck!

From there it was easy. David Howard was my teacher and his classes were and still are filled with some of the greatest dancers in the world. I saw them everyday. In the dressing room at the end of class I would ask dancers all about their shoes. Alessandra Ferri had just finished the movie, “Dancers”, and she told me in detail all about her shoe issues, and also about something that was new to me at the time—-vamp elastic. After talking to many wonderful dancers, I decided I needed to go to the leading schools to find out how they set up their pointe programs. Since I was in New York, I started with The School of American Ballet.

It snow-balled from there. I kept getting ideas of knowledgeable people to interview and no one ever turned me down. The two years that followed were the most exciting years of my life. I went all over the country and to Europe twice. As I interviewed leading dancers, teachers, directors of schools, owners of pointe shoe companies, and medical professionals, I also attended performances, rehearsals, classes, meetings of the greatest people in the ballet world.

What are the main topics that this book covers?

It begins with a short history of pointe work. There are some humorous moments in this chapter. It then moves to the structure of the foot and the pointe shoemaking process, fitting, preparing and caring for the shoes. Top teachers like David Howard, Suki Schorer, Peff Modelski and others have contributed to The Basics of Teaching Pointe chapter. There’s a chapter with interviews of the men in charge of pointe shoes for both American Ballet Theatre and The Birmingham Royal Ballet where they tell us all kinds of amazing facts about securing, dying, and caring for shoes for their dancers. I have put in a chapter that is 44 pages long that is called Pointe Shoe Characteristics. This is a cross-reference which helps a dancer find the shoe that will best meet her requirements. It has categories in it such as very narrow shoes, very wide shoes, shoes for high insteps, shoes for a longer second toe, very light shoes, unusual shoes, long-lasting shoes and on and on. There is a chapter about the pointe programs in many major ballet schools. Included in this is The Paris Opera Ballet School, the Royal Ballet School, The School of American Ballet, Canada’s National Ballet School, The Goh Ballet Academy in Canada, The Kirov Ballet Academy in Washington D.C., and many others. I have notated classes I observed at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre, The San Diego Ballet School, Ballet School, NY, and others. In this chapter there is a very informative interview of Franco De Vita, Principal of the JKO School. Other chapters include pointe shoe accessories, a pointe shoe sizing chart, pointe related injuries and their remedies and conversations with leading ballet dancers about their shoes, their feet and how they solved their pointe shoe issues.

What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing the book? [Read more…]

The Freed Pointe Shoe

January 6, 2012 by 4dancers

freed pointe shoes 2 — Freed Pointe Shoes - Photo courtesy of Freed

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… [Read more…]

History Of Pointe Shoes

November 4, 2009 by 4dancers

Have you ever wondered about the history of pointe shoes?

It is interesting to see how they evolved into what we use today. Modern pointe shoes are a very far cry from what they were many years ago. It’s fascinating to think about what they will be like in the future…

When I was actively dancing, I used lamb’s wool to wrap my toes when I first started out on pointe. I found it to be miserable–it shifted around like mad, and wadded up in all the wrong places inside my shoe. As soon as my feet toughened up I switched to paper towel. A rather unorthodox substance, but it worked well for me. Some dancers I know used nothing, or toe pads… [Read more…]

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