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| Posted by Sloan
Here are some silly illustrations I made with a pair of my Freed of London pointe shoes.
Philip asked for some detailed info on how dancers prepare their pointe shoes, so here’s a bit about my personal preparation technique.
The illustrations above help to show the different parts of a pointe shoe, which everyone may not be familiar with.
Our pointe shoes at NYCB are custom made for us (this is what it is like at many large ballet companies).
My shoes are made by Freed of London.
There are many different “makers” of shoes. (mine is maker “T” - we call him “Mr. T”)
They all have their own symbol which is stamped on the bottom of the shoes along with the size and the type of shank.
There are many ways you can customize a shoe besides the fit.
-I have a “combined” shank, which is one of the harder shanks they make. (It’s a combination of two shanks).
-I also have my shanks “three-quartered”, which means that they only go up 3/4’s of the way towards you heel. (this way the shank can stay relatively hard when you pointe your foot, instead of bending and getting softer faster.)
-You get the option of a cloth or elastic drawstring (i have elastic)
-You also can choose the strength of the box of the shoe. “wing block” is stronger than “deep vamp” (I think I have wing block)
Totally customizing a pair of shoes can be a daunting task, especially since they can take 2-3 months to arrive, and you only get 3 pairs to try before placing a full order. What a lot of dancers do is find a pair of another dancers shoes in the company that they like, and have their shoes modeled after those. I modeled mine after Aesha Ash’s.
Once I actually have my shoes…
-I sew on the ribbons and elastics with dental floss
-then I cut the ends of the ribbon in a reverse V shape |v| so they don’t fray (a lot of dancers burn the edges)
-Then I step on the box of the shoe with my heel to flatten it (some dancers do this carefully with a door)
-Then I cut the satin off the tip (less slippery)
-Sometimes I’ll put some glue (we use “hot stuff”, but anything that’s like super glue) inside the tip of the shoe to keep the edges hard if iIm dancing in something with a lot of pointework or borrees.
-I bend the part of the shoe where the shank ends (in the arch) just a bit with my hands.
-Then I’ll use the “scraper” or a pair of scissors to rough up the bottom of the shoes if it is for a performance.
-A little bit of rosin applied with a paper towel to the box of the shoe as well as the inside of the heel and that’s it!
One pair of shoes will usually last for one or two ballets and a few rehearsals or classes afterwards. (I prefer wearing new shoes for performances).
Everyone does something different, this is just my version 
