Under the Satin: All About Pointe Shoes
When BTM travels to different outreach performances throughout the community, the most common questions we hear are about our pointe shoes. "How do you stand on your toes?" "Where do you buy pointe shoes?" "Do they have wood in them?"
For most of the company's women, we've worn pointe shoes for so long that we take them for granted. It's typically recommended that dancers go en pointe no earlier than age 11, though individual dancers each have their own journey. As with any skill, it takes many hours of practice in the shoes for them to feel like a natural extension of our technique.
Company dancers Hannah Hanson and Rachael Spicer are both particularly thoughtful about their pointework, and they were kind enough to share a little about their pointe experience and the rhythm they've found for preparing and wearing their shoes.
What Are Pointe Shoes?
Pointe shoes are a specialized piece of footwear unique to classical ballet. You'll most typically see female dancers in them, though male dancers have been known to wear them for character roles or as part of the famous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo.
In the 19th century, ballet dancers started dancing on their toes in nothing more than satin slippers with extra darning in the toe. As the demands of pointework grew, the shoe gradually evolved to meet them.
Modern pointe shoes are made from a process similar to paper mache, with layers of canvas and glue constructed on a mold to hug the toes, and a shank made of strong cardboard or leather to support the arch of the foot. Some brands use synthetic materials to increase longevity.
As you read Rachael and Hannah's stories below, you'll notice that they describe the brand and model of different pairs of shoes. There are over a dozen brands of pointe shoes, and each one offers multiple models to accommodate different feet. It's like a car: instead of a "Ford Fiesta" or "Honda Accord", a dancer might wear a "Suffolk Sonnet" or a "Bloch Eurostretch."
In order to protect the dancer's feet and enable her to do her best dancing, her pointe shoes must fit like a glove. Pointe shoes are sized based on foot length, width, and the strength of the inner shank. Some dancers may also order customized shoes to make sure the shoe is perfect for their needs.
Rachael Spicer
Now in her sixth season with BTM, Rachael joined the company as a trainee after graduating college. She is now a member of the corps de ballet.
Rachael says, "I was a little on the late side with my ballet training, so I did not receive my first pair of pointe shoes until I was in 7th Grade. My first pair was Bloch European Balance, and they felt like bricks on my toes. I am a short person, and to this day the floor feels so far away when I am up en pointe.
After my first pair, where I maybe had pointe class once a week for 30 minutes, I changed schools and changed my pointe shoes to Nikolai 3007 (then Grishko 2007s). I stayed in that shoe until after my first Nutcracker with BTM.
I made the switch to Nikolai Nova Flex in January of 2018 for a slightly wider box, and I am quite married to this shoe. Since then, I have tried three other brands. After one relevé, I take the new shoes off, put my NovaFlexes on, and breathe a sigh of relief."
Hannah Hanson
Hannah is a demi-soloist dancer entering her 7th season with the company. Her pointe journey began unusually young.
"I got the green light to begin pointe when I was 8 years old. I knew it was fairly young to start, but I was determined to put the work in to make sure my feet and ankles were strong enough. I hit my growth spurt around this time as well, and my limbs and feet grew quite a lot in my first few years en pointe. I remember my teacher telling me I would have to work twice as hard to get the coordination down, and I went through a few shoe changes along the way to adjust to my growing feet.
My first pair of shoes was Bloch Heritage. I dabbled in Russian Pointe briefly before settling on Suffolk Stellars for the next 5 years or so. When I moved to train at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in 2016, my teachers quickly encouraged me to try a shoe that was less bulky and more malleable. I visited the Freed of London pop-up booth that summer at CPYB’s 5-week intensive and was fitted for my first pair of Freeds.
My first pair of Freeds were by the 'heart' maker. One thing that makes Freed shoes so unique is that they are handmade by various craftsmen who each have a slightly different quality, shape, or feel to their shoes. Each shoe's bottom is stamped with a symbol corresponding to its maker.
By the time I switched to Freed shoes, my foot had grown to its current size: 8X (women’s 10 street shoe). With my foot being on the larger size, my availability in stock shoes was less plentiful than others with more standard-sized feet. In the 10 years I’ve worn Freed, I have probably tried upwards of 12 different makers, usually ordering what they had in stock. My current favorite makers to ask for when I order shoes are 'Triangle,' 'Maltese Cross,' and 'P.' I have found these makers in particular have a flatter box and hug my arch better than some others."
How They Prep Their Shoes
Like most pointe dancers, Hannah and Rachael have developed a process that best supports them.
Rachael
"For prepping my shoes, I cut out a small portion of the inner shank, but I leave the heel of the shank in. The outer sole on Nikolai shoes is made of a soft fabric, so I do not need to do anything to that portion of the shoe.
I then cut the satin off the tip of my box and darn along the tip and side edge of each box. My last step is to sew the ribbon and elastic. I use the criss-cross method to keep my shoe from twisting, and I use Jet glue on the inside tip of the box.
I step on the boxes so that the shoe will conform to the shape of my foot. After a pirouette from fifth position in each direction, my shoes are usually ready to go."
Hannah
"Prepping my shoes properly is the most helpful way to extend their longevity. I always add Jet Glue to the inside tip of my shoe to harden the box, as well as to the bottom of the shank to support where my foot arches.
Recently, I've begun darning my shoes. It's a technique where you form a series of small knots along the edge of your box to create a clean platform. This allows the shoe to take less impact from the floor, so it doesn't soften as fast.
When done well, darning your shoes also helps fix any imperfections in your box and provides a more stable platform for the dancer to turn or balance. But it is rather time consuming! After darning both shoes, applying jet glue, and sewing on your ribbons and elastic, a dancer will spend up to an hour per pair. All that work for just a few hours of use!"
Hannah adds that she might prep her shoes differently depending on what role she's performing:
"Some choreography may favor one foot over the other, and your shoes require extra attention when that happens. In "Dewdrop" in our previous production of The Nutcracker, I had a sequence of turns all on one foot. When I was the "Woodland Glade Fairy" in The Sleeping Beauty, there was a series of hops en pointe that kept me on my left foot significantly longer than my right. I always made sure to add extra glue to my left shoe for those rehearsals."
When Their Shoes Are Done
As Hannah alluded, pointe shoes are a consumable good. One pair typically lasts our dancers from 1-3 weeks, so a dancer can go through up to 14 pairs in a single season with BTM. Pointe shoes can cost between $100 and $180 a pair, making these expenses add up.
When dancers need to defray some of the costs of their own shoes, they may be tempted to continue dancing in shoes that are worn out. However, doing so leaves dancers susceptible to soft-tissue injuries, stress fractures, and other concerns. We're grateful to supporters of our dancer Shoe Fund who help keep the dancers on their toes!
Rachael and Hannah reflected on how they know their shoes are dead, which is how we describe a pointe shoe that's no longer functional:
Rachael
"I love new shoes, and I can tell when my shoes are ready to go when I can no longer control rolling down from pointe. My dream is to have a fresh pair every other day or every day, depending on the rehearsal schedule."
Hannah
"The biggest downside of Freed shoes for me is that they don’t last very long. You can tell a shoe is on its way out once the box and/or shank start to give out. When the edges of the box starts to round or becomes soft or squishy to the touch, or when the shank becomes too soft to hold your foot in proper alignment, it’s time to move on from that pair."
What Pointe Means To Them
Ballet dancers' footwear is an important extension of their artistry, and we wouldn't have the beauty of ballets like Swan Lake, Giselle, or The Nutcracker without them.
Rachael
"Pointe used to scare me, and honestly at times it still does. It was never what drew me to ballet. I love ballet for the technique, that textbook-perfect ideal. I have come to love my pointe shoes and dancing en pointe through years of wearing them everyday for class and making the effort to understand how to dance in a pointe shoe."
Hannah
"Although it can be challenging, it is totally 100% worth it in the end! When your shoes fit and support you properly, the dancing becomes much easier. As dancers, we have so much to think about during any given performance or rehearsal, and our shoes should be the last of our worries!"
We all have a unique relationship with the shoes we wear, and they can be a big part of our identity as dancers. They create the singular, out-of-this-world magic of ballet, and this art form just wouldn't be the same without them!
The Dancer Shoe Fund
If you're interested in supporting BTM, consider visiting our Shoe Fund page!
The Nutcracker Comes to Pantherplex on November 22
The Nutcracker is right around the corner! We're a month away from our November 22, 2026 performance at Coppermine Pantherplex in Hampstead, MD, and then we'll be taking the Maryland Hall stage in Annapolis for our mainstage run December 12-20, 2026. Visit our Nutcracker page for tickets and more information!
