I recently ordered The Pointe Book from Amazon--I found an old edition for a penny!--and as I read the section about breaking in the shoes, I did a double take at the following sentence:
Many dancers indulge in more extreme tactics to break in their shoes, including banging them in doors, whamming them with hammers, and having large men jump up and down on them.I'll go ahead and let you guess what part stood out to me.
I immediately pictured Damian (who is tall and broad shouldered) jumping up and down on my pointe shoes and soaring high into the air as if my shoes were as bouncy as a trampoline. Of course, I've never asked Damian to jump on my pointes. I don't think I'm quite at the level where I am comfortable banging my shoes in doorways and with hammers and "having large men jump up and down on them."
I simply wear new pointe shoes around the house all day long and they form to my feet and gradually soften. Maybe someday, if I need my shoes broken in quickly, I'll ask Damian to jump up and down on them, mostly because that would be fun to watch.
(Print of dancer leaping by Pages of Ages)
You're so lucky to have pointe shoes! They were always my dream, but I never got them (because for some reason my teacher didn't think I was committed enough to ballet when I was in high school) :(. My dream shoes!
ReplyDeleteHahaha large men jump on them? I used to wrap mine in a towel, and then slam them in doors and bang them with hammers. My mom was horrified because she thought I was throwing her money down the drain.
ReplyDeleteHaha, that is a funny mental image. I wonder if that's the fastest method to breaking in new pointe shoes?
ReplyDelete~Vicki
deckedoutinruffles.blogspot.com
i cant imagine someone jumping on them would be very precise! i used to stick to the hammer technique.
ReplyDeletethat does sound like a very fun thing to watch :p x
ReplyDeleteI did the door thing and the door makes now a funny sound.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we just drop a piano on them? haha!