[GODREKR]

Research into foot damage from point shoes

As my film is based upon a dancer and her shoes I have had to research into the damaged caused by ballet pointe shoes. I found all of the photos I found searching the internet shocking and quite sickening which caused me to leave a few out due to how disgusting they are.

Main Foot Problems Caused by Pointe Shoes

1. Broken/cracked/bruised toenails: Caused by toe nails that are too long. Or ill fitting shoes where the toes are free to bang around inside the shoe whilst dancing.

2.Blisters: caused by the shoe rubbing on the toes and side of foot.

3.Bunions: caused by too narrow shoes and from being en pointe over a long period of time.

4.Callouses/corns: Caused by the continuous rubbing of the shoe against the feet and toes. Dancers leave callouses to grow as they prevent the dancer getting blisters.

5.Severe Bruising to feet: Caused from being on pointe as the pull of gravity pulls more weight onto the toes.

6.Stress Fracture: Caused by the pull of gravity whilst en pointe.

Foot woes keep ballet stars on their toes

By: Bruce DeMara Entertainment Reporter, Published on Tue Jun 01 2010

For ballet stars, life is filled with the thrill of performance and the agony of de feet.

As the National Ballet of Canada readies for the opening night of West Side Story Suite on Friday, dancers are all too keenly aware of the woes related to the foot and toes.

For ballerinas especially, foot problems are a major issue because they’re required to wear pointe shoes, stiffened layers of canvas and glue that allow them to dance and balance on the toes.

“It’s the most obvious tool when you think of a ballerina. The feet are one of the things most people would think about,” said National Ballet of Canada principal dancer Sonia Rodriguez.

“Our feet are sort of shoved in there (pointe shoes). If you compare this shoe to my street-size shoe, it will look smaller,” Rodriguez added.

In fact, Rodriquez, who has been with the company for 20 years, said the impact of gravity and constant work has meant her foot has increased two sizes in that time and the width has gone from single-X to triple-X.

Lorna Geddes has been with the company for 24 years and still sometimes performs “character roles.” But her main job is ensuring that the ballerinas in the company have a ready supply of pointe shoes for performances.

The shoes, hand-made at Freed of London Pointe Shoes, are custom-crafted to an individual dancer’s detailed specifications. It takes up to four months from time of order to delivery, during which a ballerina’s feet may change.

The shoes last only about eight hours onstage before they are too worn and flexible to do the job, Geddes said.

Rodrigues said that could mean using up one pair of pointe shoes a day, or even two pairs for a principal dancer in a three-act ballet.

Male dancers are luckier, acknowledged principal dancer Piotr Stanczyk, there are only a few roles in ballet — like the Baroness in An Italian Straw Hat, for example — where they have to don the excruciating pointe shoes to perform.

“It’s extraordinarily hard for a man to be (in pointe shoes) because of our weight. We have to have muscle to lift (ballerinas) so it’s really hard to be in pointe shoes on three toes,” Stanczyk said.

But the relative comfort of standard slippers worn by male dancers does not mean that they don’t have their share of foot problems, he said.

“People ask me a lot of times what’s my hobby. I’ll tell you my hobby is icing. You take a bucket, you fill it up with ice all the way to your knee and you stick your feet in it,” said Stanczyk, who performs the routine daily.

“I would say 75 per cent of the company does it (icing). It stops the inflammation. It’s like a daily maintenance for everyone here,” he added.

Dancers also have regular physiotherapy and deep-tissue massage, and have access to a specialized sports medicine clinic to deal with issues like bone bruising, joint inflammation and tendonitis.

Women typically experience corns, blisters and — the worst of all — bunions: build-ups of bone mass alongside the foot below the big toe, which can lead to career-limiting or ending injuries, Geddes said.

“Pain is quite normal, yes. When you’re onstage, you usually don’t feel the pain. There’s a lot of adrenalin and your body warms up and it gets to a point where it can work. The problem is when you cool down and things start stiffening up, and that’s when you start to feel it. Mornings are not great.” Rodrigues said.

As with many other athletes, Stanczyk said the key to a long career is prevention and maintenance.

“The dancer’s feet have to be like hands. You need to be aware of all the little bones and muscles, how to use them and use them correctly. We walk on our feet, we dance on our feet. It’s the base for all the steps.. . . So it’s very important to use them right and to have the right technique, to let them breathe at the right moments, let them rest at the right moments, to keep them healthy,” he said.

Source

Read more:
'I was doing a solo and I heard my foot crack'

We call it “dance therapy”

[vagabond]

A big price to pay! Great post, thanks!

[Lion-hearted Girl]

And this is why I gave up ballet

[K9Grip]

All for a career that ends at a very young age for most.

[LadyCPlum]

And this is why I stopped dancing en pointe when I was about 17!

[30564U]

In college I dated a ballerina for a few months. She had a great body, but her knees looked like a road map. She'd had several knee surgeries, but her feeties were rather pretty. Odd thing about her was that she was partially deaf. My family thought it was a match made in heaven...bunch of smart asses.

[LadyCPlum]

There's an all-male company called Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, they all dance en pointe. I wonder if they suffer the same sort of injuries and ailments.....

[nat906]

man thats so sad lol

[winvens]

Goddamn!
And to think I desperately wanted a pair of pink pointe shoes when I was 7.

[bando21]

beautiful