Tips for Pointe Work

Tips for Pointe Work

Monday, September 30, 2013

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We have had many subscribers tell us they are beginning pointe work, and ask for some tips. After working both with teens and adults, I feel there are some common mistakes. If corrected, these can make a big difference!

As always, make sure that you keep your pointe work to your class time with your teacher. Unless you are quite advanced, it can be dangerous to work on this at home, and even advanced dancers can risk injury working on a non-ballet floor at home.

The first thing I want to discuss is placement over the shoe. We want to be all the way over the platform of the shoe, pushing over the first three toes.

You do NOT want to be back towards the pinky toe.

You always want to feel like the ankle is lifting you up, and that you are not sinking down into the shoe.

You do NOT want to be back on the platform of the shoe.

If you are pulling back, even just a little, your achilles tendon might begin to engage, like this. You DO NOT want this! Not only is it not attractive, your achilles tendon is being put at risk for tendonitis, and that is bad, bad news. You are not building the muscles in your ankle that you need in order to lift out of the shoe properly.

The next thing is about the descent from pointe to flat. Sometimes it is not enough to think about moving through the demi pointe. Especially in dancers new to pointe, I see a lot of collasping. This is completely understandable! It takes a lot of strength to roll through the shoe properly, and it takes time to build that strength.

Collapsing - the ankles are not lifted and the toes are not engaged.

But, intellectually, one thing you can think about is moving through a 3/4 demi pointe before arriving at the full demi. This will help you really engage the strength of the toes as you come down.

3/4 demi.

Demi.

Also make sure you are still lifting through the ankles the entire way down. It's easy to let the ankles go first, but try not to give in!

So, those are our tips! Proper placement over the shoe, 3/4 pointe, and strong ankles will help your pointe work improve overall.

Have you found anything else that has helped you with pointe? Is there anything else you are struggling with? Let us know in the comments below!

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Review of the Bloch Zenith ballet slipper

Review of the Bloch Zenith ballet slipper

Thursday, September 26, 2013

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In my video a few weeks ago I talked about a pair of ballet flats that I had just purchased but had not worn to class yet. Since I've had time to wear them a bit I want to share my thoughts on them!

I purchased the Bloch Zenith split sole canvas slipper.

It's a super stretchy shoe and extremely lightweight. It fits snug like a sock. The elastics come pre-sewn, which is a big plus to me because I am lazy when it comes to sewing shoes!

The inside has a strip of elastic down the middle to really hug the arch. I like this feature because my arches are nothing to write home about!

Unfortunately, after these lovely features, I don't have anything else good to say about this shoe :( After wearing them for a couple of classes my heels starting hurting so badly. They hurt so badly that it took all of my concentration away from working on anything else but relieving my heels. That's bad! If I'm going to be dancing for more than an hour (which is usually the case), I can't wear these any longer than that.

Though they do feel similar to wearing a soft sock, I find that they are a bit too thin for me. The thin fabric makes my feet feel vulnerable and it hurts to skim my toes across the floor. I thought I would enjoy my feet feeling "free", but I prefer a bit more support in my shoes, I guess!

The other annoying thing was that the fabric didn't move well with me when doing pirouettes or turns. I found this not only uncomfortable and hindering, but not safe feeling. Though the shoe hugs your foot when you put it on, the fabric is extremely stretchy so it tends to loosen and tighten depending on what you're doing. I could possibly wear these a 1/2 size smaller and that may eliminate some of that.

But here they are on my un-glamourus feet! :) You can see that they do hug the arch very well.

Have you tried these shoes? If so, what are your thoughts? And if you don't wear these shoes, but have a pair that you love, let us know what they are by leaving a comment to this post!

Thanks for reading!

Jana

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How to Sew Your Pointe Shoe Ribbons

How to Sew Your Pointe Shoe Ribbons

Monday, September 23, 2013

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We have had several questions about this, so I'm excited to address it in a blog. As with almost everything in ballet, sewing your pointe shoe ribbons is a very individual thing. Everyone's feet are different, and will need a slightly different placement. This is why I believe in learning to sew your own shoes! (But believe me, I feel the pain of disliking sewing shoes - it can feel like a daunting task!)

Additionally, I believe sewing your own shoes gives you both ownership and pride about the privilege of wearing pointe shoes, as well as a much greater control over them. If you can sew them yourself, and one day a stitch pops and the ribbon comes off, you can have them fixed in 5 minutes, as opposed to having to wait for someone else to fix them for you.

I have my routine down so that I can sew a pair of shoes in about 30 minutes, by hand. I prefer to sew by hand because I double up my thread, and use rather thick thread. You can also use dental floss. I never have, but I hear many dancers do. Comment below about what you use!

Here are my shoes:

First of all, notice that I cross my elastic. Not everyone will need or want to do this, but it works well with my foot because it supports my ankles. I also like the fact that I can sew the top ribbon and elastic at the same time, which is a huge time saver.

On the outside, it still has a very clean look, with just two sets of stitches.

Here you can see the inside where the ribbon and elastic are sewn together.

Here are several videos on how to sew pointe shoes, so you can see some different perspectives. Remember, in the end, it's all up to what works for you and your foot! You should also consult your teacher or coach to make sure that they don't have any specific requirements at their studio. Some places are more strict about all elastic and ribbons being sewn on the inside; some think they should be sewn on the outside. Always follow their recommendations/requirements first!

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Welcome!

Welcome!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

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Hello from Jana and Abby!

As most of you know, now that hundreds of miles separate the two of us, we are trying to figure out the best way to reach all our subscribers. We want to answer every question we get, but it's difficult to make a video for everything, especially now!

We have also not been happy with how long it can take from the time we get a question, to the time we can make the video, get it edited, and post it to our channel. We have had a lot of discussion, and finally settled on starting a You Tendu blog! What do you think?

Hopefully, this blog will allow us to answer a lot of the questions we get much more quickly and efficiently, since many things don't necessarily require a video. This does NOT mean we will stop making videos! Not at all. We just hope this addition will make us better.

I have lots of ideas in my head for posts - some are things I would like to expand on from videos and others are from requests we have already had. But, one question is continuous for us: what do YOU want?!?!

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