Suzanne’s Blog for 12/18/2022

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I remember the meticulousness of sewing point shoes. They were the vehicle to dance and fly on stage. It was a deeply personal process to mold them to my feet, shape them to my arch, and pound them till they could hold me up but were subtle enough that they would not make so much noise on stage.

Point shoes are pressed wood pulp, paper, and glue. Covered in satin and pink like the tights that all ballerinas wore.

They are the tool of torture and the illusion of grace.

The life of a dancer is an endless process of getting shoes perfectly ready, then dancing on them. Only to feel them slowly collapse under the pounding pressure and meticulousness of point work.
So much effort is required for those shoes to become part of the muse of dance.
The master shoemaker who molded the point, glued in the shank, sewed the edging around the pink satin and then glued the satin to the box of the shoe to make it look perfect.

They are then placed in boxes or bags and shipped to the ballet companies with a stamp on the shank to let you know which maker it was because every dancer had their own personal favorite maker.

Becoming a professional dancer gave us the luxury to test out many shoemakers until we found the one that seemed perfect for our foot, our balance, and our required size of the end or the point of the shoe. That end point was essential.
We wanted it large enough to not crush our toes together but gave room for all our toes as they were pushed into the tip, and we went on point.
We wanted a large flat base of the point so we could balance better and longer because we had a flat space to linger on and spin.

The best makers were already taken with the most famous and talented of ballerinas. Getting certain makers would be impossible unless you were a principal dancer, because each maker could only make so many shoes in a day.

As a dancer (during performances), you could go through a pair of shoes in a day, though one could use those shoes for rehearsals later.
The only other way to get certain makers was if a ballerina retired and was no longer dancing. Then that maker could take on another “star”.

Even once we got the shoes, there was much to do to get them ready.

Most dancers had a routine that was almost a type of ritual to make the shoes ready.
I would take the shoes and go out to a cement wall or floor and pound them on the hard surface to soften the bottom edge so that the glue and pulp would break down in a way that there were no sharp edges … as I would “relevez” (or raise my heel up) through to get up onto the point.

Once they were soft on the edge, I would break the shank in a place where my foot would arch in a beautiful way but still have support and not be so soft that it would pull me over …too far … on point.
I would actually cut the heel of the shoe off so that it gave a clear space for my heel to be.

Then came the sewing. One had to sew on the ribbons and elastics to keep the shoes on the feet. The angle of the ribbons needed to be just right, and the elastic was attached to the heel to keep the satin heel of the shoe from slipping off.

But if one put the sewing on the inside of the heel, it could often rub in such a way that a ballerina could get blisters on their heels and such things were painful and took a long time to heal.
So, it needed to be on the outside but very flush and well sewn so that it blended in with the satin and was not so noticeable from the audience.
The ribbons were sewn on the inside as that place had more give and it was mostly fabric … there at the arch of the foot.
Some dancers sewed around the tip and then cut the tip of satin off because it was slippery on stage. With the more modern floors made out of “Marley” (a black laminate that had a bit of stickiness) that was just enough to prevent some slipping.
Older floors in ballet were made of wood. Those floors were very slick at times and so sewing the point and taking off the satin at the tip helped to keep from sliding.
Often during rehearsals dancers will be sitting on the floor sewing shoes. It was just how life was.

When I was dancing in New York, My father just happened to be in London and was staying just blocks from the point shoemaker, “Freeds of London”. And my father decided it might be cheaper to pick up shoes from there and hand them too me in person.
He got a real kick out of going through customs and trying to explain why a man was carrying $500 worth of point shoes.

~Suzanne Wagner~