Pointe Essay
When people think about ballet the same image enters everybody’s mind, a ballerina standing on her toes while she wears beautiful silk pointe shoes. Along with experience a dancer also needs to be responsible and also needs to know how to care for her and the shoes in order to prevent serious injury. Pointe shoes are generally made with a lot of layers but even many layers cannot prevent pain and injury. It is important that I discuss the history of pointe dancing, the disciple and care that is needed to become advanced in pointe work, and the dangers or injuries that can occur with improper usage.
Although pointe shoes have been used for hundreds of years now, it is not known who the first to use them was. A lot of credit has been given to the famous ballerina of the 1820’s, Marie Taglioni because she was the star of the performance La Sylphide. La Sylphide was created by Taglioni’s father, “it was the first ballet where dancing en pointe had an aesthetic rationale and was not merely an acrobatic stunt, often involving ungraceful arm movements and exertions, as had been the approach of dancers in the late 1820s.”( Shah, Selina)
The first pointe shoes used by ballerinas of the early nineteenth century were more like soft ballet slippers that were just heavily darned at the tip. Dancers posed for only a second on pointe. Today's pointe technique, which usually includes relevés, pirouettes, and sustained poses, was not possible until the introduction of the more modern pointe shoe. Modern pointe shoes are very different from ballet slippers. They are made of several layers of burlap and canvas, each formed and then dipped in glue. It is the hardened glue which gives the shoe its stiffness. The final layer is satin.(“Pointe Shoe Making”)
It is important to know how to care for your pointe shoes because if the shoes are not properly fitted or cared for, your feet and legs can get damaged. When a dancer buys her first pair of pointe shoes she should ask her
Although pointe shoes have been used for hundreds of years now, it is not known who the first to use them was. A lot of credit has been given to the famous ballerina of the 1820’s, Marie Taglioni because she was the star of the performance La Sylphide. La Sylphide was created by Taglioni’s father, “it was the first ballet where dancing en pointe had an aesthetic rationale and was not merely an acrobatic stunt, often involving ungraceful arm movements and exertions, as had been the approach of dancers in the late 1820s.”( Shah, Selina)
The first pointe shoes used by ballerinas of the early nineteenth century were more like soft ballet slippers that were just heavily darned at the tip. Dancers posed for only a second on pointe. Today's pointe technique, which usually includes relevés, pirouettes, and sustained poses, was not possible until the introduction of the more modern pointe shoe. Modern pointe shoes are very different from ballet slippers. They are made of several layers of burlap and canvas, each formed and then dipped in glue. It is the hardened glue which gives the shoe its stiffness. The final layer is satin.(“Pointe Shoe Making”)
It is important to know how to care for your pointe shoes because if the shoes are not properly fitted or cared for, your feet and legs can get damaged. When a dancer buys her first pair of pointe shoes she should ask her