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| (Note - that's not me. =P) |
Sentimental stuff aside, I wanted to put a little information about pointe up here, that way you all understand why and how I'm standing on my toes.
The padding I use to keep my toes from hurting too much is called an Ouch Pouch. These are just small, gel filled pouches that look weird (as you can see above). While they aren't very thick at all, there is a huge difference from dancing with these on and without them.
This is the information that was on the box when I got my pointe shoes. They are Bloch Axioms, size 5.5 and obviously...pink.
This is what my shoes looked like before I started dancing in them and before I sewed the ribbons on. A few pictures down you'll see that there is already some dirt from the floor and rosin (a powder that dancers put on their shoes to keep them from being slippery) on them. But they're still pretty.
As you can see on the box (the part of the shoe I'm standing on) there is some dust from the rosin and some other stuff that I'm not quite sure where it came from. This position is second and it's, in my opinion, the hardest position to stand in, just because your weight is spread out so far over your feet.
Ballet has been around for a long time. Historians say that it started in King Louis XIV's court and it has progressed since then. Pointe shoes have stayed pretty much the same though. Years ago they were made out of cardboard and glue and still today, it's what they are made out of. Although there is a new brand, Gaynor Minden, that has made it's shoes with materials very similar to whats in athletic shoes such as sneakers, many teachers prefer their students to use traditional shoes. The belief behind this is that it will build more muscle and cause the dancer to rely more on their body to do the work, rather than the shoes.
This is all on pointe for now...I'll be writing more soon and posting more pictures as I progress.
