cavycapers Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Lawks, I've just seen a pair of pointe shoes signed by Misty Copeland for sale on ebay at £189.50! That makes some of mine worth a fortune! Has anyone got any favourite signed pointe shoes? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 They're not pointe shoes but I have got 2 pairs of shoes signed by Chi Cao. My friends arranged for me to have a pair of Martha Leebolt's signed pointe shoes for my birthday last year and I've also got shoes signed by Ambra Vallo and Vicky Marr. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 (edited) I have a small collection of 4 pairs - I like them all equally, not that they are on display! Megan Fairchild NYCB Ashley Bouder NYCB Lariska Dumbchenko (Raffa Morra) The Trocks Nadia Yanowsky Dutch NB. I do wish the UK companies would sell their shoes but they seem reluctant to do so. In Amsterdam the Friends of DNB always have a healthy selection on sale the higher the rank the dearer, with principal shoes EUR50. Their dearest are EUR100 for the golden Cinderella pointes! Edited March 21, 2016 by Don Q Fan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 They usually have a basket of shoes on sale in NB's foyer at Quarry Hill. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Just Tamara Rojo for me (not through a lack of hinting to other dancers though...) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I have a pair of Plisetskaya's, very old now and the signature on the sole is indistinct. Wonder if they're worth anything? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sim Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 They certainly would have been if the signature were clear....so I guess it would depend on how much a fan or collector wanted them despite the very faded writing, as something to keep for themselves. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swanprincess Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I have Lauretta Summerscales, Michaela DePrince & Kathryn Morgan's shoes signed I also managed to get a pair of Miko Fogarty's shoes signed as a gift for my friend's 18th birthday! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 You can have a pair of Diana Vishneva's for a mere $500 via her Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pivotalpointe/diana-vishneva-pivotal-pointe/description I see that 13 were sold out of the 50 available, so they'd probably be glad to take a cheeky offer on the rest just to reduce the ongoing Febreze bills.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 (edited) So where people do not buy shoes sold by their company do they ask the dancers direct for them? Or do they get them because they are friends with the dancer(s). Edited March 21, 2016 by Don Q Fan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 All the shoes I have got were arranged through the relevant company's Friends officers. I suppose if you knew a dancer you could ask them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachelm Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Not many may remember her, but the only pair of signed shoes I have are from former Northern Ballet (Theatre) principal Lorena Vidal. I won them when I was 14 for designing a badge for the Young Friends of NBT, which was then produced and sent out to Friends. I was so crazily excited to receive them that they probably meant as much to me back then as if they were Darcey Bussell's! I also had a poster signed by my favourite dancer from NBT back then- Jayne Regan. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachelm Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Not many may remember her, but the only pair of signed shoes I have are from former Northern Ballet (Theatre) principal Lorena Vidal. I won them when I was 14 for designing a badge for the Young Friends of NBT, which was then produced and sent out to Friends. I was so crazily excited to receive them that they probably meant as much to me back then as if they were Darcey Bussell's! I also had a poster signed by my favourite dancer from NBT back then- Jayne Regan. If I could have any dancer's pointe shoes right now it would be Alina Cojocaru's or Marianela Nunez's. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Not many may remember her, but the only pair of signed shoes I have are from former Northern Ballet (Theatre) principal Lorena Vidal. I won them when I was 14 for designing a badge for the Young Friends of NBT, which was then produced and sent out to Friends. I was so crazily excited to receive them that they probably meant as much to me back then as if they were Darcey Bussell's! I also had a poster signed by my favourite dancer from NBT back then- Jayne Regan. Oh I loved Lorena Vidal! At the 40th Anniversary Alumni performance of Christmas Carol in 2009 she danced the Ghost of Christmas Past and it was as though the years had just rolled away. William Walker danced Bob Cratchitt! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Bryony Brind very kindly gave me two pairs of her shoes in the mid 1980s - one for me and one for my sister. The signatures on mine have now almost completely disappeared, but I treasure them so much. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trog Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 I have a pair of Nao Sakuma's, which I got at a BRB costume event. You can buy a pair through Miko Fogarty's website, with proceeds going to the WWF. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavycapers Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 (edited) Mine are cheats and I bow down before all those who have shoes that have been signed and actually WORN by the dancers. When I say they are cheats, I mean that I often take pointe shoes that i have bought cheaply online, to the stage door, and ask dancers to sign them. So the signatures are genuine, but the shoes didn't belong to the dancers. Sigh. None of the lovely dancers have ever said no, so I have 2 pairs of shoes signed by Alina Cojocaru, Tamara Rojo, Carlos Acosta, Gary Avis (who said that in all his long career, he had never been asked to sign pointe shoes before!),Natalia Osipova Alina Somova and Svetlana Zakharova. When they sign, they are always interested to see which other dancers have already signed them! Needless to say, they live in a special glass case. I suppose they might have said they didn't want to sign if they weren't their own shoes, but no-one ever has. I do wonder why more dancers don't sign and sell off old shoes. I'm sure there would be a long list if people who would want them. Me me me for one! Edited March 22, 2016 by cavycapers 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anon2 Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 [quote name="cavycapers" post="163035" timestamp="1458644421 I do wonder why more dancers don't sign and sell off old shoes. I'm sure there would be a long list if people who would want them. Me me me for one! I imagine as the shoes are purchased by the company they don't belong to the dancers to then sell on. Probably why there is a basket of used pointe shoes for sale at Northern Ballet headquarters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 I imagine as the shoes are purchased by the company they don't belong to the dancers to then sell on. Probably why there is a basket of used pointe shoes for sale at Northern Ballet headquarters. Or possibly I suggested it as a minor way of fund-raising! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anon2 Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 Or possibly I suggested it as a minor way of fund-raising! That is what I thought. Company selling off used pointe shoes to fund raise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwissBalletFan Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 I imagine as the shoes are purchased by the company they don't belong to the dancers to then sell on. Probably why there is a basket of used pointe shoes for sale at Northern Ballet headquarters. I am sure that the pointe shoes belong to the dancers, and they could sell them on, if there was thought to be some market for this. I think unless you are a very well known dancer, there wouldn't be much of a demand at all, so instead of throwing them, the theatre can raise a little money with them (once nudged in the right direction by Janet ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 To be fair, I got the idea from seeing the Royal Danish Ballet selling signed pointe shoes in the merchandise shop set up for the Bournonville Festival in 2005! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trog Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 From what I've read online, I think it's quite common for American ballet companies to sell signed shoes during the interval. Some companies sell shoes via their websites - the Austalian Ballet being one example, although it appears as though it is only shoes worn by the corps. Here is a video about the making and unmaking of pointe shoes - worth watching if only for the end, which explains the thumbnail. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 I saw awful things happen to pointe shoes at my dds school. It used to make me shudder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bridiem Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 I have assumed that nowadays dancers wouldn't be allowed to give away signed shoes since (sadly, in a way) they do potentially have a market value (to the company) - they're sometimes offered as raffle/auction prizes etc. So I thought that such gestures belonged to more innocent times! Would be nice if not in fact the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavycapers Posted March 22, 2016 Author Share Posted March 22, 2016 (edited) That's true, they do have a potential market value to the company, which makes me wonder why we never see that potential realised and see them for sale at the RB or the ENB. The ROH even has a shop! Maybe there's some complicated reason. Edited March 22, 2016 by cavycapers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anon2 Posted March 22, 2016 Share Posted March 22, 2016 That's true, they do have a potential market value to the company, which makes me wonder why we never see that potential realised and see them for sale at the RB or the ENB. The ROH even has a shop! Maybe there's some complicated reason. The smell a pile of used pointe shoes would emit?! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 The RB used to sell signed pointe shoes as a fundraiser, though, didn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangorballetboy Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 The RB used to sell signed pointe shoes as a fundraiser, though, didn't it? They used to be on offer to supporters of the points shoes appeal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SusanR Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 I have a pair of pointe shoes signed by Lucinda Dunn. I bought them when the Australian Ballet were performing at the Coli in 2005. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Maybe we should pose the question to our UK companies especially as they all seem to have campaigns for pointe shoe money! Seems daft not to sell off signed used ones and make some much needed money. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachelm Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Oh I loved Lorena Vidal! At the 40th Anniversary Alumni performance of Christmas Carol in 2009 she danced the Ghost of Christmas Past and it was as though the years had just rolled away. William Walker danced Bob Cratchitt! I'm so glad someone remembers her! I loved her in that role. It must have been wonderful to be there for the alumni performance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachelm Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Mine are cheats and I bow down before all those who have shoes that have been signed and actually WORN by the dancers. When I say they are cheats, I mean that I often take pointe shoes that i have bought cheaply online, to the stage door, and ask dancers to sign them. So the signatures are genuine, but the shoes didn't belong to the dancers. Sigh. None of the lovely dancers have ever said no, so I have 2 pairs of shoes signed by Alina Cojocaru, Tamara Rojo, Carlos Acosta, Gary Avis (who said that in all his long career, he had never been asked to sign pointe shoes before!),Natalia Osipova Alina Somova and Svetlana Zakharova. When they sign, they are always interested to see which other dancers have already signed them! Needless to say, they live in a special glass case. I suppose they might have said they didn't want to sign if they weren't their own shoes, but no-one ever has. I do wonder why more dancers don't sign and sell off old shoes. I'm sure there would be a long list if people who would want them. Me me me for one! I think that's a brilliant idea! I would love to see those shoes! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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