How to Make Your Pointe Shoes Slip Free

Is the stage floor too slippery for your pointe shoes?  Is the stage crew opposed to using rosin on the stage and you are without the benefit of marley?  There are ways to make your pointe shoes slip proof!  If you know you are going to be dancing on a stage that matches this description, take your pointe shoes to a local shoe repair ahead of time.  They usually need a few days to do this, so don’t wait until the last minute.  All you need to do is ask them to put rubber on the platform and sole of your shoes.  Be sure to specify tan, because they may use black if you don’t!

Tell them to extend the rubber to the place on the sole where your shank needs to bend, so it will cover the platform and about 2/3 or 3/4 of the sole.  They can use the leather sole on your shoes as a guide, and have them bevel the edges so you don’t notice where the rubber ends and your shoe begins along the sides.  Then, have them put about a circle of beveled rubber on the very end of the sole where your heel is.  I used to tell them to make it the size of a quarter.

This works wonders when you must dance on treacherous, slippery surfaces.  Back when I was dancing, the shoe repairman would charge about $10 for a pair of shoes.  I have no idea if such establishments are even easy to find nowadays, or what kind of fee they would charge.  But it’s definitely worth looking into.  You’d be surprised at how normal the shoes feel, even with the rubber on them.

If the stage crew isn’t opposed to using rosin, in addition to having a rosin box backstage for dancers to step into, you can take small chunks of rock rosin and spread them around the stage.  Have several dancers or stage crew members help you step on them and spread the rosin around the stage to get the best coverage possible.  Then, take a broom and sweep away the excess.  This works pretty well if you aren’t able to put the rubber on your pointe shoes.  Good luck!

How to Make Pointe Shoes Last Longer

348052_old_ballet_shoes_1 Dancers are always trying to extend the life of their pointe shoes.  It’s especially important for students who are buying their own shoes to get the most out of them, because we all know they aren’t cheap!  There are several things you can do to extend the life of your pointe shoes.  I would say the ideal way to go if you can afford it, would be to always have at least two pair on hand that you can switch between.  The longer your shoes can rest between wearings the better they are able to air out and harden back up.

Another important thing to do is to keep them in a net bag or something where air can get to the shoes, rather than dumping them into your dance bag with sweaty ballet slippers and leotards.  These bags are available at dancewear stores and online.  The Ballet Boutique sells them online here.  If you can wear tights I think that helps, too, although I remember liking to sometimes dance in my pointe shoes with bare feet—but if you’re trying to make them last longer that probably isn’t the smartest thing to do.

We always cut the satin off the tips of our shoes before wearing them as well.  The satin tends to rip up anyway.  I’m not sure it’s a good practice, but we also used shellac or floor cleaner like Mop & Glo floor cleaner and put a capful into the box of the shoe.  Set them up on the toes to dry overnight, first getting any excess out of the tip of the shoe with a paper towel.

Some of my friends used to put their shoes in the oven, but I never did this and am not sure how it made them last any longer.  Any other dancers have tips on extending the life of pointe shoes to share?  Please leave a comment!

Your First Pair of Pointe Shoes


The fascination with pointe shoes and dreaming of the day you’ll actually get your first pair is surely part and parcel of growing up in ballet. Every young ballerina looks forward to this rite of passage. I remember when I was fitted for my first pair of Capezio pointe shoes at Kinney Dancewear in Indianapolis, Indiana–by Frank Kinney himself, no less! That was at least thirty years ago, and the store is still in business, having expanded to Louisville, Kentucky and on the web. My first impression was that the shoes were extemely painful, and there were lots of things that I needed besides just the shoes, such as lambs’ wool and ribbons.

I wore those shoes way beyond their lifespan; I had them at least a year because they aren’t cheap. Plus, as a beginner I didn’t know that they’d been worn past their time. All I knew was that they finally felt, well, vaguely comfortable. Back in those days we didn’t have the World Wide Web and cool YouTube videos that showed us how to break them in and how to tie the ribbons. We relied heavily on our teachers to impart that knowledge to us, and we learned from those who were older and more experienced in the ways of the pointe shoe.

When I grew up, I went to graduate school and I also danced with a company that was just getting off the ground in Tucson: Ballet Arts Ensemble, now known as Ballet Tucson. Needless to say, I was spending several hours a day in my pointe shoes, and was going through a minimum of a pair a week. Then I discovered Freed. I had switched to Bloch’s during my undergraduate days–feeling that the square box was a good match for my square toes and metatarsal–and then I fell in love with Freed. The great thing about them was that they were practically broken in without doing anything to them. They seemed to fit and move with my foot right from the very beginning. Unfortunately, they only lasted a couple of days. Alas, most of my financial aid went toward pointe shoes. But they really helped my dancing improve, because I was strong and didn’t need a hard shoe to force me to work to get en pointe. I didn’t need to fight with a shoe; I was so happy to find a shoe that worked with me and was an extension of my own foot.

There are lots of techniques people employ to break in their shoes, but the best by far is this one I found on YouTube offered by Lisa Howell in Sydney. Gently massaging the shoe at the top of the arch and at the break in the metatarsal will ensure that your foot is properly supported and that you are able to “work through” the foot as you go from a flat foot to demi-pointe, and finally to full pointe (and reverse). Click here to watch how to break in your shoes.

Some teachers have a preference for the style of shoe you should start out with, and some rely on the dancewear store to fit you properly. When I had my own dancewear store, we had some teachers who made a day of bringing in the students who were moving up to pointe work, and they worked with us to fit their students.

Other teachers wanted strictly Capezio or Sansha or Veronese. We carried more than twenty different brands of pointe shoes in our store because there are so many variations of feet. People with high arches usually did well in Grishkos, for example. Professionals often wanted Freeds.
It ran the gamut, but ideally your teacher will know what to recommend and the store personnel will know how to fit you properly. As long as you don’t sew the ribbon or soil the satin by standing in the shoes too much, you should be able to return them to the store for a different pair if your teacher doesn’t approve of them.

Your teacher will undoubtedly have opinions on what kind of padding (if any) you are allowed to wear with the shoes, if you should tape your toes or not, and will teach you the proper way to sew and tie the ribbons. For most teachers, this is a special time they are sharing with you as well; it’s a time they’ll remember because it’s one day they will have your complete, undivided attention!