Your pointe shoe - pointe shoe sizing, ballet stretches, preventing dance injuries, increasing ballet turnout, adult ballet beginners, men in ballet, boys in ballet, and cheer leaders too.
“The Perfect Pointe Book” is a fantastic resource for dancers of all ages. It is designed to guide you through all of the stages required for pointe work, to make sure you have a safe and fun progression onto pointe!
This invaluable resource was written by a Physiotherapist (Physical Therapist) with over 10 years of experience in treating dancers and preparing them for pointe work.
It is designed to combine classical technique training with physiotherapy techniques to fine tune and accelerate your preparation for pointe work!, this book is worth its weight in gold!
The book teaches you four special exercise programs targeted for technical accuracy and strength.
the flexibility of your feet and ankles
the strength of your little foot muscles
your ballet turnout
your core control
Lisa Howell the author says:
"After over 10 years of working intensively with dancers as a therapist and constantly seeing the same weaknesses resulting in the same problems en pointe, I simply had to find a way to teach students how to get it right from the beginning. The problem is, if you start off with bad technique, it is VERY hard to UNLEARN this later on."
And:
"I wanted to make learning about the body as fun, and as easy, as possible. All of the exercises have lots of photos so that you can see exactly how to do them..."
The198 page book shows you how to "test yourself at the start of each of the 4 stages, and then learn a program of special exercises that really focus on waking up all of the important muscles. After doing all the exercises for two weeks, you can retest yourself, and if you can do them all perfectly, you can move onto the next stage."
This years old book continues to be a highly valued ballet dancer's guide for adult ballet class, getting the right ballet pointe shoes, and for teachers too.
A ballet student describes her pointe pain as being at the side of the big toe joint. The foot pain is bad that she cannot releve onto that leg, although the other foot is fine.
She does not see any bump on the painful big toe joint, but she wonders if she has a bunion.
If you find yourself in this predicament, it is best to see a health practitioner to determine if there is a hairline, or stress fracture in the toe bone.
Without a fracture, inflammation by itself can cause enough pain to result in you not being able to do a releve. The pointe shoe fit seemed correct at the ballet store, yet - is the painful foot just a tad bigger? Or a tad wider?
Has the painful foot ever been injured in any way?
Is the painful foot weaker? Those are good tests for any ballet student in toe shoes to check regularly. Most people do have a stronger foot, and foot exercises will help you even up the foot muscle strength.
Your health practitioner can help you figure out what is causing the pain, and advise some home care. Icing decreases inflammation. Be sure the ice pack is wrapped, and such a small spot would not need more than a few minutes. The frequency of icing will help as well, perhaps two or three times a day.
You may have a bunion forming. If so, you can learn how to prevent it continuing. Just be sure to get professional help, and you'll become a truly professional student who knows how to care of her feet!
In both your toe shoes and your everyday shoes, proper sizing is crucial. There absolutely must be room for your toes.
If your second toe is longer, it is the toe that you choose shoe length for.
Especially for pointe shoes, which must fit snuggly, and yet accommodate a long second toe.
You are going to become very particular with toe spacers, toe caps and any other padding that will help your toes stay long in the shoes, and be protected from developing blisters and corns due to their bent joints.
A podiatrist may recommend orthotic insoles - made to fit your feet - and can also teach you ways to splint or strap toes to help straighten out the joints.
Learning ballet foot stretches and ways to relax all the foot and toe muscles will help you work with misshapen toes.
Specific exercises for articulation and strength in the toes will help you straighten these toes to whatever degree possible, and develop the strength you need to dance in toe shoes, at the same time.
All dancers should pamper their feet with warm soaks and massage, and this will help you too, with your special project.
Good Nutrition
Don't forget nutrition. Eating fresh foods, good lean proteins, and getting enough of the right vitamins that convert proteins to muscle in your body is important.
The Vitamins B12, B6, and Folic Acid are needed for this. Add Vitamin D3, and plenty of dark green vegetables and salads count too.
If you are a serious dancer, young or an adult beginner, I know you will gradually learn all that you need to keep you going in ballet training.
This article is meant to get you started if you have been wondering about whether you will be able to dance in pointe shoes.
Here is a video demonstrating some pointe accessories:
I often read that pointe ballet shoes can be best fitted to 2-3 sizes smaller than your street shoes. The trouble is, that completely ignores the issues of pointe shoe sizing and your foot type.
Pointe shoes, or ballet toe shoes, come in many different shapes and sizes, and street shoes do not.
If you are a pointe ballet beginner and are ready to go and buy ballet shoes, know your foot type before you walk into the ballet store.
Why? Because there are hundreds of pointe shoes you could try on!
If you have a "Greek" or "Morton's" foot type, your second toe is longer than your big toe.
This means you must have the strength to keep the second toe long in the pointe shoe.
Using a toe protector such as a gel sleeve on the toe is a good idea, at least until you have developed lots of strength in your toe shoes.
A "V" shape of the vamp, or the cloth covering the foot over the metatarsals, may be a more flattering and comfortable style of shoe.
Try on a few vamp/box shapes and see what feels best.
The "Egyptian" foot is a challenging shape to fit. The big toe is longer with the other toes diminishing in length steeply.
Often the little toe is opposite the ball of the foot. I
In most pointe shoes, this means that it is not even in the box.
This little toe may need taping up as it will be rubbing against the wing, or the stiff outside of the shoe, instead of being tucked securely in the box with the other toes.
Make sure that as you press up through demi pointe, that the big toe joint is not bumping into a too deep box edge, but can bend efficiently.
The "Giselle/Peasant" foot has three or more toes that are the same length. Often toes on such a foot are short, and medium in width.
Some students do not think this foot type is very elegant, yet it is an ideal foot for pointe ballet.
Short to medium vamps are good. This can be a strong foot in toe shoes, and will likely suffer less injuries than other foot types.
The Compressible foot is one which appears quite wide when the dancer is standing. Yet this foot has little muscle structure between its bones, and will easily compress into a narrower shoe than a fitter in the ballet wear store might pick, after seeing your feet.
So always try on MANY pairs of shoes. Do not rush a fitting, or allow anyone else to rush you.
Once you find a shoe that feels fairly good, try half a size different each way - shorter, longer, narrower, and wider, just to be sure.
Point shoe sizing charts are a guide, but only a guide.
After you buy your ballet toe shoes, take them to the dance studio and let your teacher check the fit before you sew ribbons on them.
This way you can be sure that you have the best fit, and you can return the shoes if you don't.
Here is a video walking you through a pointe shoe fitting.
The woman in the video is Lisa Howell, author of the Perfect Pointe Book.
It is exciting when your dance teacher tells you that it's time to start dancing ballet in pointe shoes. New, shiny, pink satin pointe shoes are beautiful. Every student has to have an idea of what they should look for in getting exactly the right fit. Hopefully the ballet store will have an area of floor for fitting ballet pointe shoes, and a ballet barre (bar) or chair back to use for support.
Here are a few points for every dance student to review. Do you have
*** narrow feet/wide feet
*** narrow heels/wide across metatarsal are
*** long toes/short toes
*** even length toes/varying lengths of toes (especially longer second toe)
*** flat arch and less deep toes/high domed arch and deeper toes/ankle bone higher above floor
All these elements determine the kind of pointe shoe you will work best in.
Pointe shoes must be snug enough to support the foot, yet not too tight. Cramped toe joints will not be able to work properly. Pain at the end of the toes from compression does not serve the dance student who needs to concentrate on accurate technique in order to build strength and avoid ballet injuries.
The boxes, or supportive area of pointe shoes around the toes, come in different widths and shapes. Therefore the platform, or part you actually stand up on, may be narrower or wider.
The vamp, or cloth extending from the box up over the metatarsal joints, also is made in different lengths to accommodate different foot shapes.
You will try on each shoe standing flat, in demi plie in second position (you need a little room for your feet to spread), and on pointe, using a barre or chair back for support (or a person). Of course, you do not want to break a pair of shoes when fitting.
Once you select a pair of shoes, take them to your teacher to review the fit. Keep them absolutely clean by standing on clean white paper or a towel, in case you end up returning them. Do not sew on ribbons and/or elastic before having your teacher see the fit.
You can get many more details about ballet pointe shoes and exercises to prepare for toe shoes, before you start pointe work.
Fitting ballet pointe shoes takes time, so don't be rushed at the ballet store.
To avoid shin splints altogether, check how you're standing in parallel, and how your feet are positioned on the floor.
Ideally, you have arches that don't flatten on the floor when you are standing, and also don't hold an arch shape with a rigid locked position.
The front of your ankle is relaxed because your weight is on the middle of the heel, the outside of the foot at the little toe metatarsal joint, and the inside of the foot at the big toe metatarsal joint.Think "tripod".
The rest of your body is stacked upward from ankle to knee (if your knees are hyper-extended you have been shown how to hold them in a straight position) to hip, through the natural spinal curves to your head.
Imagery-wise, your head floats above all of this. Realistically, you work with your rib cage held but not clenched down, so your neck does not have to compensate with a chin pulling up and forward, eliminating the natural curve.
And all of that has to do with how your feet rest on the floor.
If your feet are flat and soft, standing correctly, turning out correctly and getting the weight distributed on the foot (picture a triangle or tripod) is going to activate the sole of the foot muscles but NOT activate tibial (shin) and/or calf muscles that will strain if your weight has sunk inwards. Dancers call it rolling ankles.
Having the weight a tad forward (isn't that nice and scientific) feeling ready to move into a tendu and take the weight on the standing leg, is an activated but not tense or clenched feeling in your legs and core muscle area.
So even though shin splints are usually associated with jumping on hard floors, or overworking through long rehearsal days, shin splints can start with a lack of understanding just how to stand on your feet - and also not understanding what type of feet you are standing on.
It doesn't MATTER what kind of feet you have. It matters that you know how to use them and improve them, way before you get into pointe shoes.
A foot that is arched but rigid in the mid section can be loosened up with massage, warm foot baths, and regular ballet strengthening exercises.
A soft flat foot can be strengthened and activated properly on the floor.More about that HERE.
A hyper-mobile highly arched foot can be strengthened and controlled by the intrinsic (sole of the foot) muscles.
A less flexible ankle can be stretched properly, starting with relaxing the shin muscles.......that may be strained by weight drawing back on the heel, as mentioned above.
Ideally you prevent shin splints.
If you are past that, you practice good care of shin splints with massage, ice, perhaps rest, and applying all of the above.
Swelling and inflammation of the tibial muscles can get extremely painful, and severe pain should be addressed by a ballet/sports/fitness physiotherapist or chiropractor. There may be a stress fracture present, so it's good to know exactly what you are healing.
Take a look at your parallel bare feet position in the mirror and get your weight placed properly.
Women and men in sports/fitness/ballet can learn to prevent shin splints with The Perfect Pointe Book exercises and improve reflexes and fine balance, for all dance and sports.
Parent volunteers for ballet recitals are the support every ballet academy needs. Sewing tutus, dyeing pointe shoes, help in the dressing room with hair and makeup, are the many tasks that need to be done. The excitement of performing sometimes becomes fear - a natural stage fright that some children need help with.
If your young ballerina, tap dancer or hip-hop performer starts to express more anxiety than excitement there are ways to help.
Firstly, you may be hearing expressions of natural stage fright, which almost everyone feels when the reality of opening night strikes - even if just for a few moments.
If you have a child that worries, let her/his teacher know that he/she needs encouragement as well as corrections. Remind your child of compliments regarding their dancing you may have overheard from the studio or stage area.
Some dance teachers like to provide each student with the music of their dances, so that they can practice mentally. When they are resting with their sore feet up at home, they can visualize and feel themselves performing, applying their corrections over and over. The earlier they learn this the better. It is a method that actually helps develop neural pathways and better performance. This is a great way to increase confidence, without getting exhausted, or spraining and straining muscles.
Having a couple of soft ice packs handy at home eases aches and pains.
For older children, remind them about good nutrition. While a lot of sugar can be a tranquilizer, it also weakens the muscles. And for many children sugar is an irritant and increases nervousness.
Fruit is a wonderful source of the minerals that get lost in excessive perspiring....and that, along with good water, is something that students can have with them during long rehearsal days. Replacing minerals and staying hydrated (frequent sips, don't wait until your throat is dry) also helps prevent muscle spasms.
Backstage volunteers can help by remaining cheerful and calm no matter what happens. If a child freezes up in the wings, deep breathing can remedy it. Practicing deep breathing is a good idea during staging rehearsals, while kids are in the wings waiting for their entrances.
Speaking of waiting... modern theaters are often chilly with air conditioning. Your child will need leg warmers, even sweats, to keep their muscles warm during the staging rehearsals.
Having them ready with everything they will need in the dressing room, with some Band Aids, a sewing kit, extra hair pins and nets - anything that could be suddenly required - will reassure a worrier that all angles are covered. Aside from that, it is a good professional habit to ingrain in aspiring dancers.
Natural stage fright turns into exhaltation when the performances are done and well received - and hopefully that won't wear off for a while. And parent volunteers get to share that with the joy of seeing their child close a year of hard work at the barre by getting to dance for you!
Go here for professional books on nutrition for dancers, ballet wear and pointe shoes, and tons of technical advice.
The three components of basic ballet exercises are:
Posture
Turnout
Flexibility
While being able to sit in the splits is not a prerequisite to advancing in ballet, enough flexibility to stand with a neutral spine is an advantage. And what does that have to do with the finer details of ballet technique that lead to dancing in pointe shoes?
Whether you are a younger beginner or an adult beginner, being able to self-assess your posture gives you a place to start learning technique from.
Standing sideways to a mirror, lift your chest a little, breathe easily, and notice how you stand. Look to see if your shoulders are relaxed to the side of your torso, as opposed to resting forwards.
If your shoulders do rest a little forward, here is a very easy stretch. Commonly called the doorway stretch - stand in a doorway.
See if you can raise your arms so your elbows are shoulder level, and your forearms are raised upwards at a 90 degree angle to your upper arms.
With your palms facing forwards, can you press your forearms into the door jamb on either side? If not, you will stretch one side at a time.
Pressing either both or one forearm into the door jamb, lean forward until you feel a stretch across your chest. Just stretch gently, holding for 10 seconds, and releasing. You can do this several times a day - whenever you walk through a doorway!
Gradually you will see that your shoulders will relax more towards the side, in line with the plane your ears occupy.
The lower part of your posture is your pelvis.
If you have equal flexibility in your quads, or front thigh muscles, and hamstrings, on the back of your thighs, and also your postural abdominal muscles, your pelvis should rest in a "neutral" position.
This means it is not pulled into a tilt in either direction due to tight muscles. Therefore your back does not sway, increasing the curve at the back of your waist, nor does the pelvis tilt back, pulling the natural curve into a straight line.
So flexibility affects posture. Just this one detail of the many finer details is your starting point.
Your posture, dancing in point shoes, is going to be exactly how you are standing now. For this reason you want to build strength from a correct posture. "...so how can I improve the basics of..." starts with this.
Get your copy of The Perfect Pointe Book and you'll see the correct technique and posture for all basic ballet exercises.
This is a dance manual reviewing all basic ballet exercises with lots of photos and exercises for improving, to help you get ready to dance in pointe shoes. Enjoy!
Gaynor Minden ballet pointe shoes are preferred by some dancers. The shank does not wear out, and the platform and box are built so that they will not soften and allow the dancer to go up and down from flat to pointe while sickling the ankle. The most common ballet injury is a sprained ankle, so this is a helpful shoe.
Of course, not every sprained ankle is pointe shoe related. Nor does every dance student work well in Gaynor Minden shoes. Good for some, not for others.
In ballet, there is a fashion of line in arabesque, of sickling out the working - the raised - foot. It may also be sickled out in devant or a la seconde. The sickle out emphasizes the turned out foot. As long as this never happens to a supporting foot on demi pointe, or pointe, this is fine.
Especially for those dancers with hypermobile ankles and feet, they must be careful not to sickle out as they come down from pointe, while rolling through demi pointe. Even when the weight is being transferred from the foot, to the other leg, the ankle and arch should be in line with the leg, not sickled out.
A foot in correct alignment can be sickled out the second after the weight has left the foot - but not even at the last nano-second when the pressure of weight can go onto the inner side of the pointe shoe platform, should the ankle/foot sickle out.
This takes exceptional concentration in training. But, so does every correct finer detail of technique.
Pre-pointe training involves checking for alignment of the ankles in slow press ups - starting parallel. If alignment is correct, turn out, and practise press ups in first, second, and fifth. Check for alignment of the ankles.
Practise press ups on one foot, parallel, and observe the ankles. Strength follows with repetition. Repetitions done incorrectly set you up for injuries.
So while a shoe like Gaynor Minden has been crafted to help the dancer, like any brand shoe, it cannot prevent injury if your working habits are not technically correct.
The pointe shoe is only as good as the foot that wears it! Hopefully you'll never have a sprained ankle. Paying attention to the finer details of your ballet technique will help you build strength in the pointe shoes of your choice.
If you are a dedicated student who is willing to do some reading about the finer details of correct ballet technique, you'll acquire good ballet exercise tips and you'll know if you're working accurately in class. No author of ballet technique can see you and your work. However, you can find the information you need about ballet standards, pointe shoes, and you can build strength and the correct muscle memory to advance with optimum results.
If you can learn about self-assessing, and practise very accurate routines to improve one basic ballet exercise at a time, you'll get ahead much faster, for example, even if you continue only doing 2 classes a week. The internet is full of information! Glossaries of French words for ballet are available.
I know that if you are a dedicated student, you will love these volumes of information. You can prepare for pointe safely and properly, even if your own teacher doesn't know how. And many teachers don't, because this has not been taught before.
You can gradually reach the same standards as students who have studied during the early years that perhaps you didn't. You need the right info, that's all. For instance, if you just read one article about a correct plie, and practise that for a week at home, you would improve and strengthen every exercise you do in class.
If you self-assessed and started a routine for preparing to work in pointe shoes, in one month you would be far ahead of where you are now. And I encourage male dance students to do these too, because to date, I haven't found anything written for male students refining their footwork.
Repetition certainly is the essence of ballet training - but it only gets you optimum results if you're doing things accurately. Even the best of teachers can correct you only so much in a class - teachers try their best to correct everyone. So any student who is willing to learn to assess themselves and work a little at home is going to get way ahead!
Be creative in how you apply your homework in ballet exercises - figure out how you can do your foot exercises while you study for schoolwork. Do your core exercises while you watch a movie. There are many ways to not waste time, to build strength and muscle memory, and to excel beyond your expectations.
And always remember, stretching, relaxing tight muscles, and a day of rest is always part of the program!
If learning more appeals to you, click here for tis about ballet and flexibility exercises!
Get your dancer's guide (The Perfect Pointe Book) to build strength for the long lean muscles every dance student wants,to achieve optimum results in ballet pointe shoes.
The finer details are both physical and conceptual, and will improve all your ballet exercises. These tips will also help your pre-pointe homework exercises.
Length is the goal in ballet, and here are some ways to think of it as a realistic goal.
For example, when you start a demi plie, you pull up. But to make that an extra pulled up strength, think of bending your knees, maximum turnout, and not lowering your body for a second.
That's right, pull up the lower abs so that your belly button moves up your torso and stays there!
This is different from pulling in your stomach into a bundled knot.
Whether or not you succeed in bending your knees and staying up, you will stretch your lower abs long and flat.
To practice, open and close your knees a little several times and try to stay up at the same level.
Then, when you sink down into that plie, keep the lower torso long and flat, still pulling up and away from the motion, still letting your calves relax, turnout held, and your feet flat on the floor, heels firm.
If you do this every time you do a plie, it will make a huge difference in the lengthening feeling.
Lowering From A Press Up
Another place to feel a lengthening is from the top of a press up. You've reached the top of your demi pointe or full pointe.
As you lower the heels, pretend you are not lowering. You pull the heels down, away from your hips and torso. Your thighs stretch out long, in your mental image, like a stretchy band (which they are).
You keep trying to stay up even as your heels touch the floor.
At this moment, if you are continuing into a demi plie, you again hold the lower abs long and up, as you open the knees, as if you are not lowering.
Here are just two places that will make a tremendous difference, if you do the lengthening technique every time you do a plie or pull down from a press up.
This helps control the pelvis, posture, and turnout, and you'll become the best you can be in developing long and lean muscles and build strength.
With expert instruction on dancing in with The Perfect Pointe Book you'll find more articles on technique with all the details.
Get your own book for the basics of perfecting technique in ballet pointe shoes.
I've written considerably about the finer details of pirouettes en dehor and fouettes, and turns a la seconde. For pirouettes en dedans, the daily routines of securing a straight up and down press up or releve, with relaxed arms, head and shoulders, is the basis for turns en dedans too. The following analysis is to help you with working smarter, developing the correct muscle memory, and attaining optimum results.
If you can now do a series of 8/16/32 en dehors pirouettes from fifth position, with relaxed spotting and a straight up and down releve, then change the series to en dehors/en dedans, en dehors/en dedans, all going to one direction. It doesn't take much force.
You can also do this without any help from the arms, by putting your hands on hips or shoulders, and making sure that the turn is coming from your legs, back, and from a grounded demi plie. In other words a good push off from heels pressed into the floor.
A pirouette en dedans from a relaxed fourth position plie, requires a sharp releve, turning out the supporting leg towards which you are turning, a push off from the back foot with just the right force, and a good easy but quick bringing the head around. You can do a single without the arms. If your posture and turnout are secure, you can do a double without the arms.
When you get to triple and you use your arms, it will be easy. No strained neck, no shoulders creeping up.
When you come from a lunge, you're just covering more movement, and hopefully not losing your postural plumb line as you ronde de jambe en dedans to a la seconde and turn, releve and bring your foot into retire simultaneously and effect an easy spin. If you lose your balance, you need to practise without the turn until you get a strong releve maintaining your plumb line.
If these tours en dedans get really strong, it's nothing to do a tour en dedans in attitude. You've trained yourself to do a double without the arms. You've trained yourself to maintain a plumb line. Now you add changing your weight to a high attitude, and again, you can do this many many times without the turn, in between classes, to get that perfect position and hold it on balance.
You don't want to lose the feeling of spin - so try for as many turns as you can in class, within the parameters of the exercise given. And do the back-peddling to perfect your finer details, after class, with another student who will watch you, and get coaching from you for the same things.
If your buddy from class will hold the hand of your supporting side, and help you do some slow motion transitions from a lunge to your retire position, you can detect and correct anything going wrong.
The exercise lying on the floor, lifting the floor-side waist up to get the spine straight, and raising both legs slowly will strengthen the back and side torso muscles. This is where you need to be stronger, if you are not able to maintain the postural plumb line on your releves and turns.
I hope you'll try these exercisees in your daily routines, enhance the finer details, and create that muscle memory along with building strength. You will achieve optimum results for both quick sharp turns and the "floating" adagio turns that are so beautiful to behold.
Strengthen your work in ballet pointe shoes with this comprehensive dancer's guide.
A lot of focus on footwork goes to pointe shoe strength daily routines. Here is an addendum to the multi-functional degage ballet exercise. In working the toes to give a sharp, strong quality to jumps, as well as to pointe work, you help build strength in the foot muscles, relieving the calf muscles of over-training and residual tension.
Here is an exercise you can add to daily routines in order to build foot strength.
I will assume that you've already done some playing piano with the toes, and toe swapping - picking up the big toes separately, and then the other four, separately. These exercises build strength and also fine tune your communication with all those tiny little foot muscles.
This exercise is to build strength in the toes. It is the movement that completes a battement degage, the final push off that the toes do. It is a little different here.
Do a battement tendu a la seconde, stopping when the arch is fully stretched but the toes are on the floor. Now relax your leg, feeling its weight. Then, using only the toe muscles, pop the foot off the floor. Let the leg fall back to the tendu position, toe joints relaxed, arch held. Relax the leg, feeling its weight, and again, using only the toes, pop the foot off the floor.
Then repeat 8-10 more times, rapid little degage from the 3/4 pointe position to the fully pointed degage position. Close, demi plie to relax.
Repeat with the other leg. This repetition of the final tiny sharp movement of the toes builds strength, builds muscle memory, and adds an extra quality to your releves and sautes.
An advanced version of this is doing a succession of sautes in first position, with no demi plie. Facing the barre, in first position, do a saute just by pointing both feet. You may not make it off the floor. It is just to get a feeling of the strength and power in the feet, independent of the calves and legs. This is NOT a daily routine, but something to do once a week or so and feel the build up of strength from doing other pre-pointe type exercises. You can actually develop the strength to do a few sautes, with no plie. Controlling coming down through the foot is important.
Always keep length in the toes, no curling them!
Use a rubber or golf ball to roll under the foot muscles and relax them, and include the under part of the toes. Relaxing those little muscles, and stretching them gently, will enhance the muscles tone.
Soaking your feet in warm water with epsom salts, or apple cider vinegar, or sea salt, or sliced ginger, and then icing them for a few minutes, is the icing on the cake for your foot muscles.
Muscle memory for relaxing is important too!
Get your own copy of the dancer's guide for pointe shoe strength in ballet exercises.
Get a wonderful dancer's guide by Lisa Howell, dance medicine specialist, who wrote the following about dancing in pointe shoes. I heartily agree with every point. All the best for your performance season!
"Warm Up! While you may only be 'marking' steps, always make sure you do a full warm up before class, and this is NOT just sitting in side splits! Aim to get all of your muscles warm and the heart pumping a bit!
Make Sure You Stay Warm! Lots of injuries happen in rehearsals, as we are moving around, then sit and rest for a bit, and then suddenly get up and move again! Make sure that you wrap up warm if you are going to be not dancing for more than 5 - 10 minutes.
Keep Hydrated. We sweat a lot more than we realize in dancing, so make sure that you keep sipping water at regular intervals. Room temperature water is better than ice cold, and while it is good to keep your electrolytes up, sports drinks tend to have a little too much sugar in them. Dilute them if you simply must have them.
Keep Your Energy Levels High. Make sure that you have good "Slow Release" carbohydrate snacks to keep your energy going through long rehearsals. This is not chocolate! A little every now and then is okay, but not as your main source of energy!
Get Lots Of Sleep! Healing happens when we sleep, so give your body the best chance by getting to bed early.
Ice Your Feet! Especially when doing a lot of pointe work, your feet are sustaining micro injuries every day. Put them in a bucket of ice water for 15 minutes after stopping dancing for the day (make sure your feet are flat on the bottom) to help settle any little bits of inflammation. This is horrible in the beginning but you get used to it, and it really does make a huge difference! Then pop them up a wall or on the end of the couch to further reduce any inflammation in the joints.
Keep Up With Your Exercises! While lots of dancers struggle with having the time, it is REALLY important that you keep up with any strengthening exercises while you are in performance mode. Make the time."
Build the best foot muscles for dancing in pointe shoes with professional guidance, and prevent dance injuries.
Wearing ballet pointe shoes for barre work is a good habit for intermediate and advanced students. Hopefully you already have the top of the line manual for dancing in ballet pointe shoes, The Perfect Pointe Book.
Click on the pic to see more about this book!
The sole of the foot and ankle have to work so much more with every tendu, degage, the rise onto demi-pointe, and push off in allegro. The shoe resists, and the muscles get a better workout.
If the thickness of the sole makes your foot wobble because it does not lie flat on the floor, here's a balance exercise you can do: standing on one foot at a time, close your eyes, and concentrate on finding your balance. You will strengthen your ankles this way.
Pointe shoes are beautiful when new, but get beaten up looking easily. When I was training, there was little concern about how long they would look new. Scuffs and worn satin were the rewarding sign of hard work.
If you have a performance coming up, it's different. Wear socks over them as needed, but cut a hole at the toe and heel, so that you won't slide. Try to have as many pairs as you need broken in, to the same degree, before your shows.
When your feet are totally sore and aching, use an ice pack! It is wonderful for pain and can be done several times an evening. (5- 10 min. per hour max). But, don't have a plastic ice pack touch bare skin.Wrap it, or get a fabric covered ice pack.
Versatile Ice Pack
Also, lying on the floor with your legs resting straight up the wall for a few minutes is good to help your muscles relax.
Work hard, and relax and stretch your muscles to keep the best tone. Use a pinkie ball under the soles of your feet to work out the muscle tension.
I highly recommend The Perfect Pointe Book to help you learn all about working your feet correctly in ballet pointe shoes. It is the best ballet guide for strengthening your feet and avoiding muscle strain and injury!
