More Than Meets the Eye - The History and Making of Pointe Shoes

Here is a research paper I recently did for school. Enjoy!


The Royal Ballet in Britain uses nearly eleven thousand pointe shoes in a year. Depending on the degree of difficulty of the choreography, a pair of pointe shoes could last a dancer anywhere from two to twelve hours. Most professional ballerinas need a new pair of shoes for every performance. Obviously, the pointe shoe is not made to last an eternity. But without it, ballet as we know it would not exist. The development and manufacturing process of these amazing shoes proves to be an interesting study.
The first ballet performances were done in the 1680's, and the ballerinas wore heeled shoes. But soon, these shoes proved to be impractical, as they did not allow the dancer to do a variety of jumps and turns. Before long, the heeled ballet shoe disappeared, giving way to a simple, flat slipper much like the training ballet shoes we see today.
In the 1830's, Marie Taglioni, an Italian dancer, began to revolutionize ballet. Audiences who came to watch her perform La Sylphide were shocked and awed at how weightless and airy Marie's dancing seemed to be; mainly because, for the first time in history, Marie was dancing on the tips of her toes! What was even more amazing was the fact that her shoes were the same flat slippers that all dancers wore. The one improvement was that to help the shoes hold their shape, Marie had darned the sides. For years, ballerinas all over the world copied this idea, mostly dancing in the same soft shoes. Gradually, dancers began to add hard strips of leather to the toes of their shoes to make it easier on their feet.
Until Anna Pavlova came along in the early 1900's , all pointe shoes were tapered to a sharp point at the toe, making it extremely difficult to balance on them. Along with several other modifications, Anna flattened the toes of her shoes to form a box shape, which made balancing much easier. It is likely that in photos of her, which still show a sharply pointed shoe, Anna edited
the picture so as not to give away her secret.
Once ballerinas found out and also began flattening the toes of their shoes, the evolution of the pointe

shoe seemed complete. It has changed very little since. 
 Today, pointe shoes are still made almost entirely by hand. The complicated and involved process begins with a seamstress cutting out and sewing together three different pieces of satin, along with a cotton lining.

These will become the inside and outside of the shoe. Once it is sewn together, the fabric is sent to the shoemaker, who puts it over a shoe form and makes sure it is the right size. If the fabric is even an eighth of an inch off of the measurements for the size, the shoe will give the dancer blisters. After
measuring, the shoemaker glues the fabric to a sole made of stiff cardboard, for strength, and
plastic, for flexibility.
Then the toe of the shoe is coated with a paste made of flour, water, and a rubber based resin. The shoemaker also lays a piece of resin-saturated cotton, along with two burlap pieces, over the toe to begin creating the toe box. These are then covered with another layer of cotton.
As Anna Pavlova demonstrated, pointe shoes work best when the toe is flattened. To do this, the shoemaker first hammers down the toe, then presses it against a flat piece of marble. The toe box is then measured with a square to make sure it is completely flat.
After drying for twenty-four hours, the layer of pink satin that the seamstress cut earlier is finally glued onto the outside of the shoe. A piece of foam filler is then attached with vinyl glue to the sole of the shoe, and then the shoe is again left to dry for twenty-four hours.
The next day, the shoemaker puts the pointe shoe over a two-hundred degree heater to reactivate the glue on the bottom of the shoe. After pressing a suede sole on and inserting a sock liner inside, the pointe shoe is finally ready to be sold!
Still, even after a dancer purchases the shoes, there is more work to do. She must sew on ribbons and elastic to keep the shoes on her feet, as well as bang them against the floor to soften them enough to dance on. Yet, after all the hard work that went into the making of these amazing shoes, they often last only for two rehearsals and a performance.
It has taken over three-hundred years for the pointe shoe to develop. Though it is very delicate, this shoe also presents amazing strength and support. And even though the process to make them is difficult and long, ballerinas and audiences all over the world heartily agree that it is worth it.