Have you ever watched a Ballet performance and seen the graceful, almost effortless work of a ballerina on pointe? You might be thinking, "What is pointe? I may have seen it before if I only knew what that term meant." Well, pointe is a type of dance where a ballerina wears special ballet slippers that allow her to arch up on her foot all the way until she is literally standing on her toes. To us, it sounds extremely painful, but when you watch them perform this dance you would never guess there was any pain afflicted onto the dancer. This, however, is the secret behind pointe. It actually causes tremendous pain, but the dancers train themselves to endure past the pain and strengthen their toes so they are able to make the graceful movements you see in their performance. It is very important that you are with a professional instructor while usuing pointe shoes so they can teach you the proper technique. If you are new to pointe and are trying to use them alone; serious damage can be inflicted permanently on your toes by using them incorrectly. Using a dance bar to hold on to helps beginner dancers with support while learning to lift onto your toes. When dancers become serious in pointe most of the time they get blisters and bloody toes from the rigorous work. This is when they wrap their toes with tape, put extra stuffing at the bottom like paper towel, llambswool, or toilet paper just to get even that much more cushion. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of bloody, broken, and bruised feet to get to the professional level performance ballerinas are at. So the next time you see the flowing movement of a ballerina remember, it didn't come easily.
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