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Help with Pointe please?

I have trouble with my pointe shoes - please help?

  • I bought my pointe shoes a few weeks ago, but haven't used them in ballet classes yet because obviously its been the Christmas holidays. I've had them checked by my dance teacher, and practise in them (just doing plies, releves and rises) for about 15 minutes 2-3 times a week. I read that to break them in, you should do roll throughs, and walk around in demi pointe in them, but whenever I go on demi pointe in them, the backs of the shoes fall off. Also the back will gradually slide off when I am dancing in them. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong, or have any tips, or other ways of breaking them in please? Thanks :)

  • Answer:

    Try wetting the back of your heel (of the shoe) or putting rosin or hairspray on the back of your shoe between your tights and heel of the shoe. Gaynor Minden makes a heel gripper that night work for you. Perhaps you need to rethink how to you attach your elastics. Do not do the loop thing in the back and run a ribbon through it or you will end up with tendinitis. This has little to do with breaking in your shoes. This is how to break in your shoes properly. Do not slam them against anything! You can ruin the shoe if you don't know exactly where to do this. Professional dancers do this but then they toss their shoes out after a single performance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX-PNqJr9z4 Talk to your teacher about this and she will show you where to put your elastics if they need changing.

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It isn't what you are doing wrong it is just the make of the shoe. You should try sewing on heel elastics or even wetting the heel of your shoe with water while wearing it(make sure to wet only the heel unless instructed otherwise. If you wear and tape n your heel to prevent blisters you could put some rosin where the heel of the shoe will be, make sure to only put the rosin on the tape though or else you will receive very painful blisters.

Nancy Nee

First of all if these are your first pointe shoes you should NEVER go on pointe or try to break them in unless you are in class. The backs are probably falling off because you need an elastic. Once you have sewn on the ribbons, and try doing some plies and releves and if the backs start to slip off you probably need elastics. And if you already have elastics try re-sewing them a little higher or spraying some water or hair spray on your tights (not the shoes, it will ruin thee material) and they will stay in place. To break them in try walking on the demi pointe (do a releve but stop at demi pointe and walk around) it will hurt a little but really breaks in the demi pointe, which is good for plies and such. also try bending them so the sole part gets softer. hope i helped!

Slam them against a brick wall until you get sick of the noise

Well, have you sewn them? I have narrow heels so I always need at least one elastic for each of my pointe shoes. Elastics should fix this but if they've already been sewn, try tightening the drawstrings (if your shoes have them). You're not doing anything wrong, breaking in the demi-pointe area is the hardest for me but one of the most essential things to do to have well broken in shoes and to be able to roll through onto pointe which avoids injuries that might come as a result of springing to pointe.

dlg

That's just because they haven't been broken in yet. My dance teacher had me use them for a while and do all of the exercises, and then she broke them in for me :)

I love breaking in pointe shoes. Bash, bend, push, pull, hammer. My neighbours think I'm crazy. I use the back verandah as a flat surface and hammer my pointes over that.

make a loop of extra elastic in the back and when you tie the ribbons, put them through the loop. everyone in my pointe class does it and no one is or has gotten hurt

Molly Latey

get a small loop of ribbon at the back of you shoe and loop the ribbon through it when you tie them :)

elementryballetbabe

^^^^ Thats the only way I think to break them in.

Brittani

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