We are all used to seeing ballet dancers fluttering at the tips of their pointes. However, few people wondered what was the history of this elegant shoe. About how pointe shoes appeared and what ballerina's shoes are, the topic will be discussed in this article.
The beginning of ballet shoes
Usually at the word “pointes” most people imagine hard satin shoes with tight ribbons tied around the ballerina’s legs . However, it would be logical to assume that ballerinas did not always wear such shoes.
Naturally, at the very beginning of the birth of ballet there could be no question of professional pointe shoes. Many people know what ballerina shoes are called, but few people know where this concept came from. The very name of this particular type of shoe comes from the French word sur les pointes, which means "dance with your fingertips." And indeed, initially the ballerinas danced exclusively barefoot, standing on top of their fingers. However, this method was extremely traumatic, since a huge load was placed on the foot, which led to constant dislocations, sprains and other injuries of joints and muscles. So the idea arose to create special supportive shoes.
First instances
What were the first pointe shoes? Photos of such instances are below. This type of shoe was first created at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Italy was famous for their invention. As the original pointe shoes, ordinary shoes were used, in which they put soft tissue. This approach helped to avoid injury and excessive load on the foot.
Later, as a dance shoe, they began to wear hard leather sandals, which were fastened to the foot with sewn straps.
Modern pointe shoes
For the first time in 1830, dancer Maria Taglioni put on ballerina shoes similar to real pointe shoes. This granddaughter of hereditary dancers, famous for her ancient name, first appeared on the stage during a performance called “Marshmallows and Flora”. Fulfilling the female role assigned to her, Maria barely touched the ground with her tiny silk slippers. This exit made a splash. Not endowed by nature with special female beauty, the dancer completely struck the audience with her dancing abilities and, most importantly, in a thoughtful way. She chose for her performance precisely those stiff shoes with a special seal in the fingers, which subsequently had such success in the ballet world. These were the same pointe shoes. Photos of their owner can be seen by everyone.
However, this famous shoe was made equally popular by another famous personality - the wife of the commander Napoleon Josephine. She preferred to wear ballet flats similar to dance shoes. They were small satin slippers that were attached to the foot with ribbons. In the era of romanticism, such laid-back and light shoes were in great demand among fashionistas and socialites. Among art critics, it is believed that it was these shoes that later became the prototype of the pointe shoes known to us.
In Russia, the first ballerina who began to dance in these shoes was Avdotya Istomina. Now, ballet, pointe shoes and dancers performing in them are inalienable concepts.
Creating pointe shoes
Ballet shoes seem extremely simple and time-consuming to make shoes, but this is not true.
Modern pointe shoes consist of 54 elements. Each pair of such shoes should strictly fit under the dancer's foot, which avoids unnecessary injuries and stresses. The selection of shoes is also carried out individually.
Each shoe consists of three components. This is the top of the pointe, which consists of several layers of satin and is covered on the inside with a lining fabric, as well as a rigid unbendable sole made of genuine leather and a place where the fingers are placed. This part has the shape of a box of several tightly glued layers of fabric.
It is the high requirements for dance pointes that explain the fact that, despite the high level of automation of production, most of the assembly of these shoes goes by hand. As a rule, non-dried glued pointe shoes are left on a specially adapted block, then they are treated with tools and sewn with a strong thread soaked in a paraffin solution. To harden, the shoes of the ballerina are left to dry overnight at a temperature of from forty to fifty degrees.
All shoes differ in shape, strength, length of wear and are selected for each dancer individually.