How To Put On Ballerina Shoes

Video Transcript

"Now I'm going to explain in-point. Now in-point, all that means is on point. It's a term we use in ballet to explain anything that's going to be done on point shoes. Now a point shoe, for those of you who haven't seen them before, basically they have a square box up at the top. And the box is made of hardened glue and canvas. Now it's very, very hard, if you can hear that as I'm tapping it. It's very, very hard and helps support you on your shoe. Now the middle part is called the shank. This part is made of wood, and it's usually reinforced by two or three different pieces of wood. And it's nailed, I'm not sure if you can see that, but there is a nail right there. It's nailed to the outside of the shoe. Now this shank is what gives us the main part of our support. It goes along the inside of your foot, and helps support your arch when you're on point. Now you want to make sure that you don't buy a pair of shoes where the shank is very, very soft, because it will make it very difficult for you to stand up on. Now we also have elastic on the back of the shoe, it's going to be attached about an inch or two inches from the very center of the back of the shoe on both sides. Now what this does is it actually fastens the shoe around your ankle, and helps support your ankle while in the shoe. So for beginners, you're going to want to make sure you always use like a thicker elastic. Now we also have ribbons on our shoes. The ribbons aren't just pretty; they are also there for support. They go over the front of your foot and when tied properly, which is going to be tied very, very tightly, it's going to also help support the front of your foot when you're on point. Now, point shoes are very hard and can cause blisters when used frequently. So there's a few ways to prevent that. Now you can go to the dance store and you can buy lamb's wool and you can wrap it around your toes and then you can put your foot into the point shoe. Also, you can buy ouch pouches. They're a bit of a jelly and canvas, and you put them over your foot before putting it into the point shoe. This is my preference because it stays in place so it doesn't move, so you don't get those spots where you're not covered and you'll develop blisters. Now I'm going to explain how to put your point shoes on. The first thing you want to do is take your ouch pouch, or your lamb's wool, and put it over your toes to make sure they're covered and protected before putting it into your shoe. Then what you're going to want to do, is slide your foot through the elastic so it's on the outside, slide it into the shoe, now you may have wiggle your toes a little bit to make sure you get it in there nice and snug. You don't want your shoes to be loose. If they're loose, your feet will slide back and forth and you can unfortunately injure your ankles that way. You're going to want to make sure you slide it up over your heel. Make sure your elastic is flat, you don't want it rolled up or all twisted. It's get to be a little bit uncomfortable later. Then you take your ribbon on the outside, you're going to put it over the front, wrap it around, a little bit of your ankle to about here. Then you're going to hold it here, nice and tight, while pulling the other ribbon over wrapping it around the same way until they're both in the same place. What you're going to want to do is take the longer side, going to wrap it under, pull tight, and then you're going to make another little knot. So now you have a nice knot, and it should be right about where your ankle is; there's a little tiny indentation in your heel, so you're going to want to make sure that the knot is in front of there. Now you're going to take your ribbons, going to roll them over like so, nice and flat. And then you're going to want to take it and slide it under the other ribbon. Also putting it here in this little indentation, where it is, if it's over here or a little bit back here, if it's back here it'll cut off the circulation to the rest of your leg, and if it's up here it'll actually pull on one of your tendons. So you definitely want to make sure that that knot is right there. And once it's pulled under if you tied your ribbons nice and tightly, it'll hold that excess ribbon in place, so it doesn't slide out while you're dancing."