At this dance school, young girls dream of wearing uncomfortable shoes that may only hold up for a few months — and their parents are fully supportive. This isn’t a new fashion trend. It’s the reality for young dancers at the Pacific Northwest Ballet ...

In her final year as an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, dancer Kaitlyn Kumar tore a ligament during a rehearsal for the ballet Sleeping Beauty. But she powered through the pain to perform anyway, thanks to ample amounts of ibuprofen ...

Grand Junction poet Suzanne Bronson became fascinated by the connection between a ballerina and her footwear after coming across a collection of autographed dance shoes while she was a student at Colorado Mesa University. The collection, owned by ...

In Houston Ballet’s version of The Nutcracker, Clara receives the gift that many little girls dream of: a pair of pink pointe shoes. She places first one foot and then the other upon a rocking chair and quickly ties the satin ribbons before gliding into ...

Faith Salie show us what goes into pointe shoes besides some very talented feet: In the world of ballet, Christmas means one thing: "The Nutcracker"! Stages across the country fill with twirling snowflakes, leaping candy canes, and lots and lots of pointe ...

I think I've found my ASMR trigger: watching YouTube videos of ballet dancers preparing their pointe shoes. Don't get me wrong, I like the actual ballet well enough. But there's something so uniquely soothing and satisfying about seeing these women (it's ...

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. – Upon entering Assemble Dancewear in Castle Rock, proprietor Noel Amend noted that my 12-year-old ballerina, Olivia, had arrived with her hair in a meticulous bun. “Bun?” I wondered. “I thought you were fitting her for shoes.”

We have 37 women, and none of them wear the same pointe shoe. If you look at a person’s bare feet, they are all totally different — the length and shape of toes, height of arch, width of the heel. Everything is individual. The dancers sew on their ...