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The dream of most girls who start learning ballet is to one day put on a pair of beautiful satin pointe shoes and dance like the ballerinas they idolize. It’s also the dream of many late starters who take up ballet later in life – but is it even possible to do pointe work if you came to ballet later? The good news is – Yes! It is possible if you are willing to put in the commitment.
Training for pointe work takes time, effort and patience – and while it’s a tough road at times, it’s not impossible by any stretch of the imagination. A dancer starting later must learn the same technique, build the same strength and undergo the same preparation as young dancers, but luckily it can often be done at a faster pace due to the rigors of growth spurts and puberty already being out of the way! Simply Ballet offers pre-pointe and pointe classes to adults, check out the classes page for details on times and locations.
Adults wanting to start pointe work at Simply Ballet should be taking 2 Intermediate level classes per week on a regular basis to build the required technique and strength, as well as taking the Pointe class on “demi-pointe” (without pointe shoes) to establish the correct alignment of the feet and ankles. Students then undertake a 4 stage assessment over a period of weeks to identify and correct any potential weakness or pitfalls before progressing into pointe shoes. Each student is different, but generally the process from start to finish takes 6-18 months depending on the rate of progress of each student. Please feel free to speak to your teacher if you are interested in starting to learn pointe work.
All that aside, have you ever wondered – where and when did pointe work begin?
In this beautiful video from the Royal Ballet, former Ballet Mistress Ursula Hageli looks at the development of pointe work in ballet from it’s beginnings during the Romantic period in the 1830s, through developments by Italian and Russian dancers through to pointe work as we know it today. With beautiful demonstrations by Gemma Pitchley-Gale and Fumi Kaneko what better way to learn history than by watching ballet?
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