Adult ballet - being allowed en pointe too soon!

[balletfliss]

I've noticed some really poor technique in adult pointe classes over the past few years, but never as bad as the past year. I don't know why that could be.

It's actually dangerous in that it risks injury, their turnout is wrong or non existent, and placement poor. Chatting before and after classes I'm not surprised to hear that most of these women have never done pointe before, even as children. They've been allowed to buy pointe shoes and join the pointe class after only one or two years as adult ballet beginners at the school.

One woman had done a year in grade four as a complete beginner and just been fitted for her pointe shoes. Ridiculous! I'd seen her in the grade 4 class and she couldn't manage all of the steps in flat shoes, or very well.

I wonder if anyone has found the same? I haven't been back to those classes as it doesn't inspire trust in the teachers involved. I also worried for them, injury-wise. Fortunately I've found somewhere where they're quite strict with entry criteria and care about the dancers.

In the nicest possible way, I don't think so. Their instructors, coaches and teachers are professionally liable for any harm that might befall their students if they allowed them to try something way beyond their capabilities.

Pointework is way beyond the capabilities of almost everybody, including most recreational ballet dancers.

Nobody is stopping any random grown adult from swanning into a dancewear shop or some website and buying pointe shoes. Nobody will prevent them from ricking their ankle while they totter precariously about their living room. And no reputable dance teacher would allow such a person to take part in a pointe class.

@Thepeopleversuswork To answer your question about pointe shoes, the shoes are not soft. The dancers don't literally stand on the tips of their toes unsupported, nor do they scrunch their toes up. Pointe shoes are solid all the way round, and you basically slide your foot into something that holds the whole foot tight. The shoes have a flat 'platform' on the tips, which is what the dancer stands on when en pointe, and the whole shoe has a strong, stiff shank which runs all along the sole of the foot, and bends halfway along so you can actually move in them. So they are basically dancing with their feet held firmly in a foot-shaped hard cone.

Stand on one leg and see how long you can balance for. Not all that easy, is it? Try it on tiptoe if you can.

Can you feel what your ankle is doing? Wobbling around to help you keep your balance. Now imagine falling over sideways on that ankle. You'd pull all the tendons & ligaments, and that can cause permanent damage to the ankle joints. Your knees won't thank you for it either.

Talented dance students and professional ballet dancers will have spent many years strengthening their ankles, feet, legs and core muscles, and will have developed fantastic balance. They will be dancing for many hours a week. That's how they can dance in pointe shoes - and why it is seriously inadvisable for anyone else to try it.

The pros often use elastic when performing, usually concealed underneath the ribbons. Helps avoid disaster if the ribbon breaks.

That's quite scary. I'd be surprised if adults (without a ballet background) attending a recreational/casual ballet class for an hour a week could reasonably be expected to appreciate those risks.

A responsible instructor should be making them aware. I would have thought they had a duty of care to do so.

Oh that's hard!

Interestingly when I ran I used to suffer as my foot doesn't flex up to run very well and the sports physio said I'd make a fab ballet dancer because my taylers glide is oddly positioned and so makes flexing for running hard but, when flexing the other way, makes my foot exceptionally pointy!

Sadly, the only part I could realistically play would be the ballet dancing elephants in Fantasia!

It is hard. People have no idea how difficult ballet actually is, because the dancers make it look so effortless.

My 16 year old started ballet when she was 5 and has just got her first pointe shoes (Bloch Amelie) this summer, in time for classes beginning in September. She's very much a recreational once a week dancer, but is also an ex gymnast and is very strong.

My other DD was fitted for pointe shoes at 11 years for starting Intermediate Foundation, but she'd been dancing since she was two and danced a few days a week, including associates. She'd also attended compulsory pre pointe classes and wore demi pointe shoes where needed.

Both of my DCs trained for minimum nine and 11 years before going en pointe. The idea that an adult beginner can be ready in one or two years (unless an undiscovered genius talent) is ludicrous and shouldn't be allowed.
It might need to be reinforced to these people that dancing in soft shoes is real ballet just as much as pointe is.