Ballet: Those Awful Chicken Feet

There is very little I admire more than the athleticism, dedication, and incomparable grace of a ballerina. But the chicken feet! Pointe remains one of the most torturous sounding activities in the world and it just does not make sense to me.

Enviable grace, amazing port de bras... and then the feet
Leah  (c) Melissa Dooley; CC Attribution 2.0 License

Heels versus pointe shoes

Granted, I have grown up completely outside the dance world. My vision of a pretty foot is standing proudly in a four inch pair of stilettos! If it means a little more stretching to point my toes, well, I can live with that. I do not hate the look of pointed toes and have been working on it. I adore images of ballerinas in demi pointe and am perennially jealous of KiKi's automatic foot point in everything. Those cutesy little pointe shoe cartoons are terribly off; the real thing is not what it is cracked up to be.

Is it worth it?

Ballerina Bandages (c) BalletStar011
CC Attribution 2.0 License

Then too they destroy your feet. I wanted to be in ballet most of my childhood but having known a
ballerina and seeing the damage has steered me away from putting my own daughter in it someday. Heels are definitely not the kindest shoe to your feet but buying the right kind and having strong arches keeps you from the worst. In pointe shoes it is unavoidable. Your bones will have to become stronger to support your weight resulting in bone overgrowth. I suppose it is not much different from a soccer player gaining thicker, muscular legs or a runner that beef jerky look (I am a running addict hobbyist and I think about this sometimes). For someone whose life is ballet it is just part and parcel with life, along with pretty tutus and spotlights.

So yes, I find demi pointe incredible. And not pointing your toes in pole or other dance forms is basically atrocious. I love the laced ribbon style of heels inspired by pointe shoes, too. But pointe? Well, I will leave it to the ballet connoisseurs. I will take my heels first any day.