Grace born from grit

The effortless mirage of ballet shoes

A few months ago, I was browsing Depop. The terrain was typical: overpriced ‘vintage Y2K’ going-out tops, ‘new with tags’ rejects from spontaneous Zara hauls and far too many retail-priced-but-heavily-worn Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 ‘Kill Bills.’

As my vision blurred from excessive scrolling, turning blouses and boots into fuzzy colorful blobs, a streak of pink caught my eye. It was a listing for a pile of dirty used pointe shoes with over 500 likes.

No ballerina would be interested in castoff pointe shoes. No, these were non-dancers, laypeople fawning over torn silk and flimsy leather shanks.

Let me emphasize, ‘coquette!’

Shoes resembling ballet flats have existed for centuries, ebbing in and out of style since pompes of the 1500s. Recently, they’ve made a marked comeback; feet around the world are favoring flat over platformed, dainty over daring. Notable examples of the ballet flat trend that have taken over the ‘get ready with me’ realm are the Maison Margiela Tabi Ballerina, Steve Madden Graya Patent, Miu Miu Satin Ballerinas and Dolce Vita Rodni Mesh Ballet Flats.

‘Ballet core’ feels like a natural derivative of the ‘clean girl aesthetic,’ which parades slick-back hair, soft makeup and simple patterns and silhouettes. Like the clean girls, ballerinas are bred to be graceful and feminine. The dance style was founded upon elegant lines, movements that elongate the body and disciplined technique. It makes sense that ballerinas have, again, become a source of aesthetic inspiration. It is a sport that commands awe and respect, but it was also built upon illusion. A talented ballerina will trick an audience into believing it is easy. A proper jeté should mask the effort it requires to achieve a hyper-extended split in the air. Patrons should question how a dancer is floating without hidden wires or magic. In the 18th century, a Swedish-born dancer and choreographer actually experimented with a pulley system that lifted dancers off the ground during jumps and leaps to create the illusion of flying. But ballet is anything but easy. Ballet is shaking muscles, bleeding feet and ceaseless dedication to the craft. 

Fashion and sports are closely intertwined, giving sportswear a purpose beyond functionality. Air Jordans, tennis skirts, jerseys, and baseball hats have marked fashion territory off the courts and fields. Ballet shoes are no different. But like each article of clothing that has evolved from athletics, ballet-inspired shoes should be worn with knowledge of the role they play to a dancer. Especially as the look of hardened soles and thick toes gain popularity, it is important, and interesting, to discern why a pointe shoe looks the way it does, and why it will never look as elegant on the street as it does on a stage.

Ballet dates back to the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, but it wasn’t until 1832 that Marie Taglioni, a Swedish-born dancer of the Romantic ballet era, became the first ballerina to dance ‘en pointe.’ She performed La Sylphide, choreographed by her father, in satin slippers that were darned at the sides and toes to hold a pointed shape. 

In the 20th century, the modern pointe shoe was born, credited to Anna Pavlova, a Russian ballerina. Pavlova inserted leather soles into her shoes to provide extra arch support and hardened the toe of her shoes to form a box she could balance on, preserving the romantic ideal of dancing on the smallest point of the foot. 

While pointe shoes have evolved over the years, the way they are made has largely remained the same. The shoe is made of a box and a shank. The box is a hard, flat surface at the toe of the shoe that supports a dancer's toes, allowing them to balance en pointe. A common misconception is that the box is made of wood, but it is actually crafted from tightly packed layers of paper and fabric that are glued together. The shank is a stiff material that hardens the sole of the shoe to provide support for a dancer’s arch. The sole is constructed from leather that is reinforced with glue and stitching.

Because every dancer has different feet with varying needs for support, there are many different pointe shoe brands with distinct advantages. Some have softer boxes and shanks for dancers who need less arch support and require a softer toe to get on top of their box (where the tip of the toes touch the floor). Dancers with more pronounced arches require more support and a stronger box. Finding the best pointe shoe is a tedious process. Many dancers try countless brands before declaring loyalty to a specific shoe.

Unlike their designer derivatives, pointe shoes don’t come ready-to-wear. The dancer must sew on elastic bands and ribbons that are perfectly placed for the shape of their foot. A miniature sewing kit is a staple of every ballerina’s dance bag. 

Once the shoe is sewn to fit the foot, you can’t just start dancing. The hard shoe has to be broken in, which can be done in a variety of ways. Dancers will slam them repeatedly against the floor to soften the boxes and beat the noise out (to maintain a ballerina’s whimsy, pointe shoes shouldn’t make noise while the ballerina is dancing). The shank might be closed between a door and a door frame to loosen the leather. Dancers will wet and heat the box to make it more flexible. After the shoes are broken in, it is rare that a dancer just slips it on their bare feet. Materials like toe tape, lambs wool, gel toe pads, bandaids, paper towels and toe spacers are all shoved between the toes and the box to protect a dancer’s feet, which even with armor are prone to bleeding, bruising, blistering and forming in-grown toenails. 

A ballerina’s feet are a perfect metaphor for the sport itself — to the untrained eye, ballet is silky and delicate, but insiders understand the grit required to perform.

When the tedious and expensive process of buying, sewing and breaking in pointe shoes is complete, professional ballerinas have between three days to one week before they have to do it all again. 

As a former dancer, I understand the allure of a ballet shoe and the desire to emanate a ballerina’s unmatched grace. But I find it interesting that brands are seemingly using the pointe shoe for inspiration. Unlike a flat ballet slipper, pointe shoes are made to be worn en relevé. Despite the pain of dancing en pointe, it is arguably more uncomfortable to walk flat-footed in a pointe shoe and it is definitely awkward looking. It’s impossible to replicate the grace of a pointe shoe without being en pointe.

But perhaps the pointe shoe also represents an integral aspect of fashion. Through style, we create the illusion of effortlessness. A good outfit should look like it just came together, when really it is a result of experimenting with patterns, prints, silhouettes, and color combinations. We squeeze our feet into dainty heels and sacrifice comfort for sophistication. We’ve normalized the phrase “beauty is pain” and embraced the idea that to look good is not always to feel good. Like ballet, though I will argue on a smaller scale, being fashionable is hard work. So as a former ballerina, I respect the aesthetic interest in regularizing the pointe shoe.