Get to the Pointe — pointe shoe hacks

Hey pointe shoe nerds! Your fave pointe shoe fairy reporting for duty - and this week, we're revisiting Josephine's favorite series: pointe shoe hacks! For those who don't know, pointe shoe hacks are the alterations and handicraft tricks that ballerinas do to customize their pointe shoes.  On top of the shoes being handmade and highly specific, ballerinas have lots of tips and tricks to make the shoes more comfortable and to suit their specific needs. Dancing on the tips of your toes is no easy feat (nor is it easy on your feet), so anything to help is useful.  So...

If you've ever seen a ballerina take a brand-new pair of pointe shoes—fresh out of the box, pristine, worth over $100—and immediately start whacking, slamming, cutting, and burning them (yes, really), you might be wondering: Why are they destroying expensive shoes before even wearing them? Welcome to the wonderfully weird world of pointe shoe prep! Pointe Shoes: Not Your Average Footwear Pointe shoes may look delicate and dainty, but they’re basically handcrafted torture devices that need to be tamed. Straight out of the box, they’re stiff, unforgiving, and about as comfortable as walking on wood blocks (because... that’s kind of...

Pointe shoes are an essential tool for ballet dancers, allowing them to achieve the iconic look of dancing on the tips of their toes. But what many people don't realize is the amount of customization and modification that goes into making these shoes work for each individual dancer. As an educational break from our beloved Tik Tok reaction series, let's take a look at some of the baller internet's "hacks" with your favorite pointe shoe fairy!  Since pointe shoes are made on a straight last (mold) without a left or right [04:18], dancers have to customize them to their specific...

Pointe shoes...the craft that keeps on giving!  So many ways to imagine and build a pointe shoe - and infinite ways to take them apart!  For this video, look at some pointe shoe and broader, general pointe shoe hacks to see what dancers are doing to make their tools work for them. It's like a kitchen knife - you want it to do the work for you to a certain extent. The job in this case is to help a dancer do the impossible: support an entire body's weight!  Which hack is the most useful to you?

A short and quick episode for the holiday - be sure to give screens a break and spend time with loved ones! Josephine is enjoying being a mother to our first Pointe Shop Baby, Dio! Is it me, or has the ballet internet somehow become more wholesome? We have our classics of course - the memes and pointe shoe hacks. And now we get some cool fusion stuff too like ballet shapes on a pole and FINALLY stepping into the future by normalizing men en pointe!  It's been a while since Josephine has been traumatized by the ballet internet. And...