Pointe Shoes

It's actually not as involved as you would think it is. Even the first time I went up on point didn't seem like a big scary thing. It was fun. I look at ice skaters and that looks kind of daunting. You have to lug around a whole big boot with a blade on it. So I'd much rather be in a pointe shoe. My first pair of pointe shoes, I was 11 and a half and I was so excited. You dance around your house and I'm probably doing things that you're not supposed to do yet in class. It's a big deal to young girls to get their first pair of pointe shoes. I think every girl in the company would say that their shoe is one of the most important things for each performance. You want to make sure that you don't have to worry about any extra things besides your dancing. When people put them on, they create miracles. Sometimes I'm amazed to see that these ladies can put those shoes on and be in them from morning till night. We have a crazy schedule here. You know, you can be in pointe shoes up to like eight hours a day for some of the people in the corps and that's a lot of shoes. I would say that the ladies use a shoe per day. One shoe per day. I tend to always sew a new pair of shoes for each performance. I like the way they fit right away and I know how they're going to look. First I step on the box and I break the shank a little bit each way just so that you can see the arch of the foot. We tape our toes so you don't get blisters. And then I like to put a little rosin on the tops and bottoms and on the heel of the shoe. It creates a little friction so that you have a little grip and your foot's not sliding around. Every time I go off stage I add a little more on because you never know when you're going to fall. Sometimes all of a sudden in the middle of a ballet one shoe will be dying. It just depends on what you're doing and how much impact you have on the shoe and how much you're sweating. Usually the shank goes first for me. And it's hard to hold that kind of position because our legs aren't meant to go over that way. You need to stand right up on your toes. It's definitely hard to finish shows sometimes if your shoes are dying. I got my first custom pair of shoes when I was in the Corps. You spend a year as an apprentice and you have to kind of use other people's shoes. You start wearing a lot of different freeds and a lot of different makers and you figure out what you like. And you can also just go down to the shoe room with Angel and try on everybody's shoe that's in your size. Everybody here has specifications and the shoes are made according to that. Nothing can fail. If they cut the shoe wrong, they will know it. The ladies will know it. I guess like a year ago, Wendy Whalen got a hold of me and was like, we need to fix your shoes. I remember my friend used to sew her shoes before class. And it would take her five minutes. She timed herself. It used to take me, when I first started, like at least an hour. Yeah, I know. But then you'd wear the shoe for six months. Wendy helped me sew up my shoes so that they were cut down just the perfect amount on the sides and the back. So there's no extra bagging in the satin, which makes it really pretty, nice and tight on your foot. What you're really going for is the nicest, cleanest line. Yeah, that's okay. Look how much better that looks. It should be really tailored to your heel. We figured out what looked perfect on me and we fixed a shoe up and we sent it in to Freed of London. They measured how much I wanted cut down and my shoe's perfect now. I love it. You definitely get attached to your maker. You don't know them, but you know your shoe and you know how it feels. A lot of people like to go meet their maker. We're making shoes almost since 1930s. So we're still carrying them on this traditional way, all handcrafted and everything the way it was then. Freed has a club or a bell or a crown, all these different symbols for who the maker is. Going from one maker to another is a huge difference. It can pull you back off of your toes or it can push you over too far. Each one of these makers make the shoes for different individuals. And we went to the factory and when they have these measurements, they have to be very exact. They don't make the shoes without instructions from the person that's getting the shoes. If you need a stronger shank or more glue in the box or you want an elastic drawstring instead of a canvas drawstring, you can change anything. The shoes now cost $67.50 a pair. At the end of the year, we have spent half a million dollars, easily. Sometimes more, but I try to be careful and not go over. I put on a different pair of shoe for each rehearsal, each class, and brand new ones for each show. Because definitely going all day long like that on your toes puts a lot of pressure on all those important bones. And if you want a long career, you can't be pounding on nothing. You need support. That's what a new shoe does.