Yes, Basheva, that's right. It was when they went up to $11.00 and everyone was horrified. "eeeLEVen DOLLars!!"

Someone once told me, I don't remember if it was Sonia Arova or not - but I think it was, that she had seen a dancer who really did her shoes in a rather different way. <P>It went something like this - she took a razor and cut across the platform - in the middle from the front to the back. Not completely through but enough and then pulled back the two pieces - one flap toward the large toe and the other flap to the little toe. This made a really squared platform - and then embroidered the whole thing so it wasn't visible to the audience. <P>Her description was that "even a hurricane couldn't blow her down". LOL <P>Then once I was in a performance and one of the other dancers took ill - and another was called from the audience to fill in. She was rushed into a costume, but the shoes she had with her didn't have the ribbons sewn on and of course there was no time to sew ANYTHING. So someone took a razor and slit the satin just below the draw string band just enough for the ribbon to be threaded through (the ribbon was one long piece - not cut into two pieces). So the ribbon was threaded through, went under her foot and threaded out through the other side and then tied on as usual. Worked just fine.<P>There was another famous dancer, who once described wearing on one foot a soft shoe for balance and a hard shoe on the other foot for pirouettes and fouettes. (I would probably get it mixed up - and pirouette on the soft shoe and balance on the hard shoe LOL).<P>Gosh I am feeling silly tonight - must be a sugar high from all the Valentine chocolate.<P>

I used to flatten out the boxes of my Capezio Contemporas by slamming them in doors Now I have Gamba 93s and I find there is no break-in at all - I simply wear them for a class or two and they are nice - offering great support and stability but also the proper flexibility.<P>In my old school we were not allowed to wear any kind of padding in our shoes until we had passed our 3rd year - I can't stand the feeling of padding around my toes, so I still to this day refrain from using it.

I once saw someone put her pointe shoes in a door jamb to break them in - and it broke apart the door jamb. No, I am not kidding.<P>Bree what was the rationale for not allowing the beginners to use padding? <P>If beginners were not allowed to use it - why were the more advanced dancers allowed?

My school was the same way...no padding for the first 2 years. The reasoning behind it was to build a lot of rough callouses (sp?) so that it's easier to dance with. Once the callouses are there, I guess my teachers reasoned that if we continued to dance on pointe, with or without padding....they would stay. They just wanted to roughen up our feet and make the skin stronger right away. I thought..and still think..it's ridiculous. It's a lot more pain and in the end my feet look the same now that I use padding as any other girl who's used padding since day one. But I do remember my bleeding days....we weren't allowed tape either...I'd sneak some on when my blisters were all burst open. Imagine some little girl who doesn't know how to dance on pointe yet without padding? I used to sink in my shoes and ALL my weight would be on my toes....oh it was ugly. Urgh...torture.<P>Sorry I'm bitter. <BR>-Emily

At my school, we could use any padding we wanted. Once, my teacher's teacher came and did a workshop. She was adamant to us that if we had blisters and pain on our toes, it was our fault for not taking care of our feet properly. It was her opinion that if you had open bleeding sores, you needed to stop pointe until they healed, and then make sure to always wrap your toes up correctly. Her daughter danced with PNB and this teacher was appalled at how they made their dancers keep dancing even when they were hurt (I think her example was a sprained or broken ankle). I guess she had enough clout to go to the directors there and let them know what she thought about that! (I think they even listened, too.) I understand her point about not dancing when injured, but what about not dancing with bad blisters? I had grown up thinking that this was inevitable in pointe work, especially when one danced every day. I must say that I like her ideas, as they seem very healthy. But are they practical?

Cabriole, I'm interested in how you replaced your shanks when the sole became too soft. I've got a lovely pair of shoes that the shank has come loose and I'd like to reattach it, if possible.

It would be interesting to hear about how to replace the shank - I tried that once and it was not possible - but that was a Capezio shoe and that could be the difference, because in that Capezio style it was a nailed shank.<P>As for making students dance in pointe shoes without any padding - forgive me - but I think that is cruel and unusual punishment. It simply is not necessary. There is a certain old fashioned (and sad to say it is still alive) ethos in dance, especially in ballet, where pain is considered commonpace, even necessary.<P>I am NOT of that school of thought. Yes, of course there are aches here and cramps there - and yes, some blisters. But pain purposely courted? I think not. Dance is supposed to be a joy both to the dancer and to the observer. I don't get any joy out of either causing pain nor accepting it.

I have always used Freeds so it is easy ro remove/replace shanks. Yes, they have fewer nails than Capezios. The nails pop out easily (some say too easily, but that's another matter). To replace the shank I just put it back in reglued it with Crazy Glue or E6000. It was just easier than making the 'custom' order more complicated (and risk more errors).

mmmm - my teacher has insisted that we at least try to start without any padding (although of course we can tape any blister which may occur). <P>The rationale is that we shouldn't just assume we need padding. I don't mind that - if we have trouble, we can pad when we get more exprienced. I guess it's too early to say, with only 2 lessons of a half hour each under my belt, but so far I'm fine. I'll probably end up with something to ease the pressure on my big toe, but I'll see how I go. My shoe is one of the Bloch's with a little noise absorbing sponge in the tip so that may be helping with the comfort factor. <P>The shoes are starting to soften just from slowly rising and lowering to demi pointe at home(teacher would prefer we don't goto full pointe w/o supervision at this stage) then stretching. I'm beginning to get the idea of how they mold to the foot.<P>On the door thing - one of the dancers interviewed for the pointe book said she had to stop crushing the boxes of her new shoes in her doors at home becuase she was damaging the DOORS!<P>Cheers, Danni

At the school I dance at now we can't use padding for the first 2 classes on pointe and after that we can gradually add whatever we need. This was just so we didn't start with way more padding than we needed. At the pre-pro studio I used to dance at you started pointe in level three and weren't allowed to wear any padding or tape your toes until level 5. That was 2-5 years with NO padding. Luckily I didn't start pointe at that studio.

I have to say I simply don't understand such reasoning. It is true that some students use too much padding - but that can be corrected, without eliminating the padding altogether.<P>I am glad my teacher didn't demand that.

Danni - I think it is a very good thing that you don't go up on pointe without supervision - your teacher is very wise. A beginner needs supervision for quite some time.<P>As to the door jambs breaking - as you can see in an earlier post I said that I actually saw a jamb split. It was at a brand new studio, one of the students put her pointe shoe in and WHAM - the door jamb literally shattered. Doesn't say much for the construction of the door - but it also says a lot about the strength of the shoe!

Basheva (and others):<P>My teacher did not believe in padding in the beginning - pointe was (in his opinion) not supposed to be comfortable, so why try and make it so? He explained that dancing en pointe was not something that comes naturally to humans - we are not physically created to do this - so pain and discomfort was inevitable.<P>Padding was allowed later, when technique was more solid and padding would facilitate the dancer, not "hinder" her. Personally, I would have liked to have been spared the initial bleeding and blisters...but as I said before, I can't wear anything in my shoes now...feels too weird!

Bree- if you were teaching beginner pointe students - how would you do it? Since you have this experience would you allow them to use padding or not?<P>And do you think that your initial pain was worth the effort? <P>Also, I am wondering if not allowing padding was the norm - if it might not discourage many young girls from continuing with their studies. What do you think?