How to Break in Pointe Shoes | Ballet Dance

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My name is Maegan Woodin, and I'm a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher and student. I have danced for MTV, Diana Ross, Marc Jacobs and have appeared in many music videos. You can find more information about me and my career, as well as photos and videos, at www.dgtnyc.com. I'm going to be talking to you about ballet. Breaking in pointe shoes depends on the individual. And you're trying to mold the shoe to fit your foot. If you've never been fitted for pointe shoes, make sure you go and see a professional and they can help you make sure that the shoe fits correctly on your foot. This is very important if you're going to be doing pointe work and you wanna make sure that the shoe is not too big or too small. And the box is not too wide or too narrow for your foot. Some dancers like to have a softer box which is this area right here. So many dancers press on the box with the heel of their, the heel of their foot, or they can also put it between the hinge of a door and slowly close it making this become softer. You can also put a dish towel on top of the shoe and gently hammer it. But not too hard because you wanna make sure you still have support in this. This is a shank right here. And you can actually peel the shank from the bottom of your shoe off, which is totally fine. And depending on where the arch of your foot is and how strong your foot is you might want to have a softer or more stronger shank. So you can bend where the shank is, bend the shank gently with your fingers. You don't want to break the shank or else your shoe is no longer useable. There's some simple exercise you can do that helps break in your shoes. If you stand at the bar, you can stand with your feet in sixth position, or parallel, and you're just gonna take simple prances up and down. Making sure that you're slowly rolling through demi to full, demi to pointe. You can also do simple releves,. Slowly rising up to the box of your shoe and going through demi all the way down. This can also be done in first position or it can be done just with one foot. Rolling up and rolling down.