Get to the Pointe — pointe shoe hacks

It's pretty well known on the internet that ballerinas *DESTROY* their shoes. But what are they actually doing? And more importantly: why??? In this video, Josephine watches and explains some of the most popular pointe shoe hacks on the internet. Some may work for you, but for the vast majority of people, there is no need. Especially if you are a dancer in training, these hacks are not sustainable for you - or your mom's bank account. Darning the tips of your shoes in one thing, but cutting out half the shank may not be. And for dancers who are...

Everyone knows that professionals da crazy things to their pointe shoes.  For how graceful ballerinas are, they can be quite violent when it comes to their pointe shoes!  Josephine reacts to Scout Forsythe -  a beautiful dancer in New York who is actually from Southern California. Fun Fact: Josephine's mom, Grace, used to fit Scout when she was little! Professional ballerinas can afford to customize and beat up their shoes because the company provides them. While this video is really interesting to see Scout's process, please be advised that these hacks are not for everyone!  Dancers in training should definitely...

Cheese grater and pointe shoes? What? This week, Josephine reacted to Maria Khoreva's pointe shoe preparation. And yes, it includes a cheese grater. Khoreva is first soloist of the Mariinsky Ballet in Russia. Even if you didn't know her name, if you love ballet, there's a high chance that you've at least seen her picture. Josephine was pretty surprised to see that Maria is in a Bloch stock shoe. Often times, professionals will have custom shoes based on stock shoe models. But even with some changes made at the factory level, pro dancers often still manually adjust and make changes...

If you're into ballet at all, you probably know about YAGP - Youth American Grand Prix - even if you don't know you know about YAGP. Youth American Grand Prix is the world's largest non-profit international student ballet competition. YAGP holds regional competitions around the world, open to dancers 9-19, giving dancers-in-training stage time, master classes, and most importantly: opportunities to be seen by some of the most prominent figures in ballet.  You might recognize YAGP from the 2011 documentary, First Position. This film featured YAGP as the vehicle for many hopeful dancers to win scholarships to major ballet companies around...

This week, Josephine shared a fitting story from a studio in Sacramento. At first glance, there was nothing functionally wrong with this shoe. Sometimes dancers get fittings even if they like their current shoe, just for a second opinion. Sometimes everything is fine - but other times dancers sometimes don't realize when things are not as they should be. In this case, Josephine thought the shoe was doing everything it needed to: supported the dancer kept her stable en pointe, and wasn't causing injury. However, the shoe could look better under the ball of the foot. The shoe was reverse...