Get to the Pointe — ballerina

  Los Angeles Ballet Soloist, Laura Chachich, shares a few tips on how she customizes her pointe shoes! Like many professional ballerinas, Laura wear custom Freed pointe shoes. She begins with a wineglass maker, who leaves out the nail in the back of the sole and adds extra glue to the tip of the box. Laura also adds her own customizations! She cuts off the satin on the platform, all the way to the front of the sole, then darns only the front edge of her platform.  Finally, Laura prefers to wear paper towels instead of toe pads, as it...

Pointe shoes are still a mystery to most. As a professional pointe shoe fitter, I found there are a lot of myths that float around in the dance world. Here are 5 of the most common pointe shoe myths: Stronger feet need harder shoes: The strength of the shoe is not always determined by the strength of the feet. If that were true, professionals wouldn’t wear super soft shoes, yet a lot of them do. The hardness of the shank can be determined by many different reasons: flexibility, stability, skill level, strength and longevity. It all depends on the individual...

You should get professionally fitted for every pair for your first few years en pointe. (You can find what to do before a pointe shoe fitting in this article) This is the time when you need to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Even after you find your “perfect pair,” you should still get fitted fairly regularly. Even professional ballerinas have to get refitted every 6 months or so because their feet change. So, here are 5 reasons why you should get a professional pointe shoe fitting: You avoid injuries: This is the biggie. Ill-fitting shoes can lead to...

In this world of mass production, owning a pair of hand-made pointe shoes is an absolute privilege. It is a privilege that is earned through years of diligent training. But dancing in the wrong shoes can not only lea d to a lot of pain, it can lead to dangerous injuries. Just a few decades ago, there were only a few brands of pointe shoes to choose from, but now there are dozens of brands and hundreds of models to fit just about any dancer. There are also many different accessories to help prevent injuries and discomfort (but that's for...

For a dancer, visiting a pointe shoe factory is like visiting Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.Gorgeous shiny pointe shoes all lined up in a row… Is this heaven? Yes. Yes it is. Piece by piece, layer by layer, pointe shoes are constructed from slabs of leather, sheets of burlap and satin into these perfect pink beauties. I visited the Capezio factory in New Jersey last week, and you will not believe the amount of work and dedication it takes to make a single shoe. Here is the basic idea:1. Slabs of leather are stamped out to make the sole of the...