Sofia Angelov, 13, is trained by her dad, Pavel Dega, who was an Olympic gymnastics coach! When his daughter decided to take on ballet, he was happy to be dragged into that world with her. He also has been an inspiration to her when it comes to pursuing her passions!
When it comes to fitting Sofia for pointe shoes, her foot type can be particularly tricky. Sofia has extremely flexible feet and ankles and incredibly high arches, which can make them very difficult to control. Dancers with these types of feet are very prone to rolling their ankles over and over again, and Josephine recommends wearing arch support in normal shoes to help keep the feet in correct alignment during daily activities. Josephine also opted to keep Sofia in a harder shoe right now so that she has the support she needs for her beautiful feet. However, they also explored a softer option that Sofia may move into as she becomes stronger.
People may expect that Sofia's type of foot would look amazing in every shoe, but that is not always the case. High arches and bendy feet often come with various issues, such as the shank twisting, the foot bending without the shank bending, breaking too low, and other difficulties.
Through her training with her dad and fittings with Orange County fitter, Melissa, Sofia has been able to gain strength and find a pointe shoe to give her gorgeous feet the support they need!
"Do it with desire!" - Coach Pavel Dega