I was leaving my Sunday morning ballet class when the teacher shouted at me from across the room: “don’t forget to get new pointe shoes! It’s time for pointe!”
Those are probably the words that every ballet student waits to hear from the moment she puts on her first slippers. It takes at least 3 years of 3 technique classes a week to get to this stage. But I’m feeling slightly ambivalent; why?
I’m concerned that I’m not strong enough to do it. I do trust my teacher’s judgment; she’s been watching me since September ‘06. But I weigh more than most dancers; it’s going to be tougher to get up and over the box than, say, if I weighed 110 lbs. On the other hand, the extra weight will work my feet and ankle muscles harder, so that when I do lose the weight, I will be able to do amazing jumps, turns, etc. Also, pointe shoes force one to work the feet harder and more correctly. If only the darned things didn’t cost 70 bucks a pair.
One final con: pointe shoes=hideous feet. Corns, bunions, blisters…just in time for summer.
Still, pointework is the heart and soul of classical ballet. Hard to decide what to do. What would you do? Well; for inspiration’s sake, look at photos of this year’s Prix de Lausanne winners. 
The nice thing about these dancers is that a lot of them are from Asia, and they have smaller insteps like I do (and unlike the monstrously gorgeous fat instep of the photo above)!
