The Construction of the Shoe
When dancing on Pointe first became public, all choreographers and all dancers wanted to perform it. The first model of shoe became popular shortly after Marie Taglioni used the Flying Machine in her performance of La Sylphide. The experts knew that only a machine was not going to be able to work, so the Pointe shoe was made. The first model had no support. The only difference between ballet slipper and the first model, was that the top of the shoe was straight instead of rounded. This meant that the dancers had to have extremely strong ankles and legs. The shoe not only changed the way they danced but it changed them physically also. Geogre Balenchine was a the director the New York City Ballet, and contributed to the construction of the second model of the shoe. He had his dancers stay on Pointe for hours at a time. Hours on Pointe didn't only damage the foot but it damaged the shoe to. Some dancers go through a new pair of shoes for every class and every performance. Dancers started getting more muscular then they were before, the shoe was transforming their bodies. George Balanchine said the dancers were "like IBM machines" meaning that the shoe was taking over their bodies, that the shoe was creating them. Soon the dancers started more time tending to broken toes and ripped shoes then they were dancing, and so the second model was invented. In the late 1800's the new shoe was created in Italy. It included a toe box which was made up of layering of fabric and leather. A toe box is a piece of material stuffed into the toe of the Pointe shoe, giving support and comfort. This toe box is extremely important, it now allows dancers to stay on Pointe with out risk of getting injured.