Tips For Preparing Your Pointe Shoes for Summer Ballet Intensives
By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor
Photo by Elena Kloppenburg from Unsplash
An exciting summer of dancing is in store for many dancers this year with summer ballet intensives right around the corner. Intensives are a great way to challenge oneself, try new skills, meet new people, and experience different ballet styles. They are also called “intensives” for a reason, as dancers are typically dancing hours a day for weeks on end, sometimes in different states. At Dancewear Center, we want to make sure our customers are prepared for an exciting summer of dancing by providing them with the tips and supplies they need to be successful.
An important part of preparing for summer ballet intensives is making sure your pointe shoes are prepared for long hours of dancing. Pointe shoes only last about 10-20 dancing hours on average. It’s helpful for dancers to take steps to prolong the life of their shoes, as dancing in dead shoes can have adverse effects on foot and ankle health. For instance, dancing in dead pointe shoes with little support overloads dancers’ joints and can change their center of gravity, which can make force unevenly distributed and excessively load the front of dancers’ feet. This can put dancers’ feet and ankles at risk for stress fractures, bunions, and more harmful injuries in the long run. See: “The Dangers of Dancing on Dead Pointe Shoes” by Dance Magazine
So, how can dancers prolong the life of their pointe shoes to prepare for upcoming summer ballet intensives?
Rotate Multiple Pairs of Shoes
Firstly, dancers can rotate their pointe shoes to keep them lasting longer. To do this, dancers can purchase multiple pairs of their pointe shoes, sew them, and alternate the ones they wear each day. It’s helpful to take into account the average lifespan of a pointe shoe (10-20 dancing hours) when determining how many pointe shoes one should bring to a summer ballet intensive.
Prepare for the Environment
Secondly, take into account the location where your summer ballet intensive will be held. In more humid environments, pointe shoes tend to die at faster rates. Considering pointe shoes are essentially made of layers of paper/cardboard and paste, exposing them to hot environments with high levels of moisture in the air will cause them to deteriorate quicker. So, if your summer intensive is located in some of the hotter and more humid areas of the United States, like Florida, Louisiana, or Hawaii, you may want to consider bringing along more pairs of pointe shoes to rotate throughout the intensive.
Photo by Michael Afonso from Unsplash
Dry Out Your Shoes
In addition, it’s helpful to dry out your pointe shoes when you’re not dancing in them to help slow their deterioration. One of the best ways to do this is not to leave your worn pointe shoes in your dance bag after class when you’re not wearing them. This creates a “sauna effect,” exposing your shoes to a stuffy, humid environment that can cause them to break down faster. When you’re not wearing your pointe shoes, take them out of your dance bag, don’t fold them inside one another, and lay them out to dry (it can take pointe shoes 48-72 hours to fully dry out!). When transporting pointe shoes to the studio, putting them in a mesh bag can help them aerate and keep them out of direct sunlight to prevent further deterioration. It’s also important to not leave pointe shoes in a car or any other environment that isn’t climate controlled.
Strategically Use Reinforcing Agents
There are some products you can purchase alongside your pointe shoes that will help extend their shelf life: one of which is Jet Glue. Where to apply Jet Glue varies slightly among dancers; however, the most common placement is on the outside and inside of the shoe’s shank, covering 1.5-2 inches where the arch breaks. Some dancers also put it on either side of the shank and in the box of their shoes. Before applying Jet Glue to your pointe shoes, we recommend consulting with a DWC fitter to see how you can best apply it to maximize the shoe’s support and integrity for your unique needs.
Schedule a Pointe Shoe Fitting
It’s especially important for dancers to touch base with a fitter before and/or during their summer intensives to ensure that they’re taking the best possible pointe shoes and products with them to help them feel supported. To prep for intensives, DWC fitters will ask dancers where their intensives are taking place, how their current shoes are breaking down, whether the intensive is requiring certain pointe shoes, how many pairs of shoes the dancer should bring, and more. DWC fitters can also help evaluate how dancers’ shoes are breaking down, recommend where to apply reinforcement agents like Jet Glue, and make sewing suggestions to help maximize the pointe shoe’s performance. Dancers can also discuss what their intensive workload will look like so fitters can potentially recommend different shoes for different activities, as some loads might require shoes with a harder or softer shank, for example.
Importantly, due to unfavorable supply chain circumstances, stock in some pointe shoe styles is limited. That’s why we recommend that dancers have backup options to assure they have shoes to take with them to the intensives.
Photo by Bruno Horwath from Unsplash
Schedule an Injury Risk Prevention Appointment with a Dance Medicine Specialist
Finally, it’s important that dancers are aware of any potential injury flare-ups that could come up when dancing long hours. For example, master pointe shoe fitter Josephine Lee of ThePointeShop says that issues like tendonitis can flare up during summer intensives because of the added workload on the feet. We recommend visiting a dance medicine specialist before heading to your summer intensive, as specialists can conduct body assessments, analyze what physical challenges you’ve been experiencing, which problems may potentially flare up, and give a specific plan to follow to help mitigate the risk of injury. Check out our dance medical specialists page on our website to find specialists in your area!
Summer intensives can be enriching experiences for dancers of all ages and technique levels. What makes them even more successful for dancers is ensuring that their pointe shoes are in the best condition they can be to support dancers’ feet. Be sure to book your pointe shoe fitting appointments at DWC today. Happy intensive season!
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