At the beggining of this week on Monday I was fitted for my very first pair of pointe shoes. I was so excited. I've wanted to get my pointe shoes since my first ballet class and getting them was awesome. I went to the dance store with my mom and my amazing ballet teacher was there with the really nice pointe shoe fitter. After trying on two pairs of the same pointe shoe that were slightly too wide I tried on the third pair of pointe shoes my teacher and pointe shoe fitter had picked. They were the exact same pair except slightly less wide and they agreed that the third pair I tried on was a perfect fit for me so, I am now wearing Chacott Veranese II's. They are a really pretty peach color with a very soft pink tint. My mom and I only had two days to sew on my pointe shoes before my first pointe class which was on Wednesday. It was an hour long class. There are six of us students beggining pointe for the very first time this summer. The first half of the class we learned more about putting on our shoes and how to tie our ribbons. The second half of the class was spent solely on simple pointe excercises at the barre. We did three different excercises. The first was going up all the way onto releve and then doing plie whils still on releve so, that we could really focus on pushing into our arches and then going up onto releve to see if we could maintain it. Then we would reverse all that. The secong barre combinations we did battmant tendu a la seconde and then we would bent the leg in tendu so, we could again focus on pushing into our arches. We would then do that on the other leg as well. The third and last exercise we did was pas de bourres at the barre which I loved. The entire class seemed to fly by and luckily, other than sightly red toes I didn't feel any pain or get hurt toes or anything yet which is good because I've read and heard about many dancers in lots of pain after their first pointe class.
From now on, though I won't be dancing on Wednesdays. Instead I will be dancing for 2 hours on Tuesday and for 2 hours on Thursday. This will start next week and go until I believe the last week in July. Tuesdays and Thursdays I will have an hour and 15 minutes of ballet which will be followed by a 45 minute pointe class. Other than the six of us starting pointe the other girls have already been en pointe for at least a year so, class will be pretty challenging, but I think for most of the summer we will be at the barre when en pointe. I don't think there will be many of us though. Altogether I imagine there will be no more than twelve of us. I can't wait for class on Tuesday, though! I will keep you guys updated. Got to go know and order a mesh pointe shoe bag on discountdance.com to prevent mold build up in my pointe shoes.
Congrats on your first pointe shoes! It's such a milestone moment in every dancer's life, whether ballet is your hobby or possibly a future profession.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you got a very professional fitting, I especially liked that your teacher came along. The right pointe shoes can make or break your experience! In the future, you will probably try out different models as your technique progresses and your feet change.
The mesh bag is great for carrying your pointe shoes as it allows to air them out. When you dance, your natural body heat and sweat will dampen the shoe's glue, thus softening the box and breaking in the shoes. This is good, but you don't want the shoe to stay damp between classes. Let them dry out for at least 36 hours in between, and they will last much longer!
Your first pointe class sounds perfect. Just the right kind of exercises to get a feel for "breaking" your insteps. Simple is always best, as there is so much to learn and to control.
Wishing you all the best for your future classes! :)