toe shoes – Page 2

The History & Making Of Freed Pointe Shoes

January 12, 2012 by 4dancers

In the late 1920’s, Frederick Freed left England’s leading pointe shoe manufacturer (along with his wife and one assistant) to set up shop in a small basement, making shoes of their own. Over time, his reputation for producing quality shoes increased, as did the demand for his shoes. This took the Freed brand to the forefront of the industry where it remains one of the most respected shoes among ballet dancers worldwide. Amazingly, after all these years The Freed of London Shop is still located at the same address.

There is something to be said for tradition.

Today over 250,000 pairs of Freeds are made every year, and they are sold in over 50 countries. Every one of them is hand-crafted by a Professional Pointe Shoe Maker, each of which makes between 30 and 40 pairs daily. Makers shape their shoes in a unique way and they are identified by their own personal stamp on the bottom of the shoe. Symbols include letters, a key, a heart and a Maltese Cross, among others.

w_20120109_4Dancers-Freed_Christopher.Duggan_064 — Freed Pointe Shoes, Photo by Christopher Duggan

[Read more…]

Emily Starling: On Breaking In Pointe Shoes

January 11, 2012 by 4dancers

Emily Starling shoes 1 — Emily Starling's Pointe Shoes

by Emily Starling

Pointe shoes are a type of shoe used by ballerinas across the world and they enable the dancer to dance ‘on their toes’. There are many different makes, some of the most popular being Bloch, Freed and Gaynor Minden. A ballerina chooses the shoe which best suits their foot shape and range of movement of the foot itself.

Like many other types of shoe, pointe shoes must be broken in before they are worn but, rather than for comfort, this is a must for dancers in order for them to be able to perform at their best.

There are many ways of doing this some working better for certain dancers than others but in my opinion there are two stages to this process:

Making the sole flexible.

Manipulation of the toe section.

The sole must be flexible so the ballet dancer can perform all her moves to the best of her ability as well as being aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The toe section must be manipulated so the whole foot can be used with ease.

I personally use my hands to make the sole supple, having had years of experiencing different types of shoe and how the shoe feels on my foot I know to which degree I can bend them in order for me to execute all my movements with precision. This for me is the quickest and easiest method.

Manipulating the toe section is more time consuming and requires the shoe to actually be on the foot. Normally a couple of nights before I will wear them I place them in a warm place such as the airing cupboard. Then the night before I put them on and walk around my house for 15 – 20 minutes on demi pointe and do slow rises until I am happy that I can get from demi pointe to full pointe and back again with ease. The enables my feet to move freely–as close to how they would feel in flat shoes as possible. Finally, I place them back in the airing cupboard overnight so as not to undo the work I have done with them.

About the dancer: Emily Starling is 20 years old from Essex, England. She has recently graduated from Bird College in Kent, with a Diploma in Musical Theatre. Predominantly ballet-trained, Emily has been a member of Chelmsford Ballet Company for 9 years, and has recently become an Associate of the Royal Academy of Dance in London.

Stay tuned for more dancers talking about how they break in their pointe shoes as we continue our “focus on pointe” this month!

Pointe Shoe Products: PrimaSoft Stretch Ribbon

January 10, 2012 by 4dancers

Since the focus for this month is on pointe shoes, we’ll be featuring a few posts about popular pointe shoe products. We asked for three top sellers and Motion Unlimited Dancewear–one of our Chicago dance pals–gave them to us…here’s the first one…written up by Cassady from the store:

PrimaSoft Stretch Ribbon

PrimaSoft’s Stretch Ribbon is one of our most popular ribbons for beginners to professional dancers! This ribbon has the look and size of any standard pointe shoe ribbon, but is made from a soft stretchy, elastic material. It looks a little different up close, but will match most pointe shoe colors and look the same on stage or in class.

The gentle stretch in the ribbon can help reduce tendon trauma and will increase the range of foot motion. If you have ever struggled with baggy ribbons, this is a perfect solution! You can safely pull your ribbons tighter for clean smooth lines that will not bother your ankle.

After receiving multiple requests for this item, we now make sure we have a full stock!

Want to give it a try? You can order it here.

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…]

Disclosure – Affiliate & Ad Info

Copyright Notice