First Pointe shoes

[Sara-Anne]

Just looking for recommendations on which brands to try for a first pair of pointe shoes for my almost 12 year old. She has small, very narrow feet, (Size 1.5) and they are not especially flexible or strong at this moment (So I don’t think she will need a very strong shank at this stage, not that sort of foot!). I will speak to her teacher as well but was interested in others experiences with first pointe shoes

 

[Kanangra]

Sally-Anne, does your DD do strengthening/flexibiilty exercises to help her feet? My DD struggled with her feet (narrow and bony) and we went through quite a few shoes. She also physiotheraphy sessions to help. (Eventually she ended up in Gaynor Minden and after she went full time her feet improved exponentially.)

 

Bloch seems to have the biggest range of shoes. In Australia most dancers seem to start off in a Bloch shoe, and then move on to other brands like Grishko or Gaynor. I've heard Freed of London is a good style too, not very widely available here but I'm sure it is there!

 

Good luck to your DD with her pointe shoe journey!

[Sara-Anne]

6 minutes ago, Kanangra said:

Sally-Anne, does your DD do strengthening/flexibiilty exercises to help her feet? My DD struggled with her feet (narrow and bony) and we went through quite a few shoes. She also physiotheraphy sessions to help. (Eventually she ended up in Gaynor Minden and after she went full time her feet improved exponentially.)

 

Bloch seems to have the biggest range of shoes. In Australia most dancers seem to start off in a Bloch shoe, and then move on to other brands like Grishko or Gaynor. I've heard Freed of London is a good style too, not very widely available here but I'm sure it is there!

 

Good luck to your DD with her pointe shoe journey!

She does do exercises, and the feet have improved a lot, but they still have some work to do! 

[Pixiewoo]

My advice is to go to a shop with a variety of shoes and an experienced fitter.

 

My DD has incredibly wide feet and the fitter worked very hard trying lots of different shoes the first time. 2nd pair of shoes was almost as long,  as now DD knew what they should feel like,  and had opinions on vamp, shank etc.  It's not quite such a long process now! 

 

If you say where abouts you are,  I'm sure people will be able to recommend shops/fitters.

Edited October 6, 2020 by Pixiewoo
spelling

[Kanangra]

Check out a website called The Ballet Blog - it is run by a physiotherapist called Lisa Howell who is a bit of a guru in dance physiotherapy. (She also has a range of books.) You might find something there to help too.

[Sara-Anne]

15 minutes ago, Pixiewoo said:

My advice is to go to a shop with a variety of shoes and an experienced fitter.

 

My DD has incredibly wide feet and the fitter worked very hard trying lots of different shoes the first time. 2nd pair of shoes was almost as long,  as now DD knew what they should feel like,  and had opinions on vamp, shank etc.  It's not quite such a long process now! 

 

If you say where abouts you are,  I'm sure people will be able to recommend shops/fitters.

Thanks, we are in London

[Mum of unicorn dancer]

My DD did pre point excercises online course with ballet physio (Luke) during lockdown for 12 weeks.  She has very narrow and bony and tapered feet albeit size 3. Thanks to every day excercises her feet improved a lot. Ballet boutique London (Wimbledon or Kingston) fitted her with Bloch Triumph as her first shoe.  They are really good, experienced and have variety of brands. As her feet are getting stronger and shoes will be dead soon after couple months, she might need a different shoe now. 

[SissonneDoublee]

4 hours ago, Sally-Anne said:

Thanks, we are in London

Dancia in Covent Garden have a wide range. And as your DD gets older she may prefer to go straight to Freed or Bloch if she is in either of those, as the individual shops carry even more options within their brand.

[Sara-Anne]

53 minutes ago, SissonneDoublee said:

Dancia in Covent Garden have a wide range. And as your DD gets older she may prefer to go straight to Freed or Bloch if she is in either of those, as the individual shops carry even more options within their brand.

Great, good tip, Dancia is easy for us to get to.

[Peony]

Maybe email a few shops to see what they have.  A lot of brands don’t even make anything that small. It’s trickier finding narrow shoes in a 1.5 aswell I think they may have to special order!

Edited October 6, 2020 by Peony

[Mummy twinkle toes]

When Dd1 started she was a size 13 shoe but luckily Grishko 97 size 1s fitted her perfectly. When we were looking the only ones stocked in this size were Grishko or Sansha. Before you go to Dancia, it might be worth checking what sizes they start at. Grishko do small sizes but many U.K. shops start at size 2 or 3. 

[Anna C]

In my experience, some models of Grishkos can be quite hard and not particularly flexible, especially for beginners without very strong feet.  I’d go to Dancia, Bloch and Freed (Freed do “light” and “Opera” versions of their pointes which are great for beginners).  Freed are only seeing people by appointment at present so it would be worth checking with the other shops too to see if you need to pre-book there also. 

 

Gaynor Minden shoes are lovely but very expensive and given that young students are likely to outgrow their first few pairs of pointe shoes long before they “kill” them, I’m not sure I would spend that amount of money on shoes that may only fit for a very short while.   As your dd progresses en pointe, her feet will change and strengthen as well as growing so don’t assume that her second, third and fourth shoes will automatically be the same make or model as the first ones.

 

If you have all your appointments on the same day, don’t be afraid to ask for the shop to put a pair aside for a few hours so you have several to compare before choosing one.   Good luck!

[Peony]

Grishko also do a ‘light’ shoe called novice for beginners.  I think Anna is right, aim to book as many of the big shops (dancia, Bloch, freed, capezio)  as possible on the one day as I think you’ll be pretty limited in each because of the size. 

[SissonneDoublee]

11 minutes ago, Peony said:

Grishko also do a ‘light’ shoe called novice for beginners.  I think Anna is right, aim to book as many of the big shops (dancia, Bloch, freed, capezio)  as possible on the one day as I think you’ll be pretty limited in each because of the size. 

Also, build in coffee shop breaks to rest feet as you walk between the shops. Otherwise feet can swell and you wind up in a wider shoe than your DD actually needs!

[NJH]

16 minutes ago, Peony said:

Grishko also do a ‘light’ shoe called novice for beginners.  I think Anna is right, aim to book as many of the big shops (dancia, Bloch, freed, capezio)  as possible on the one day as I think you’ll be pretty limited in each because of the size. 

a lot of people are very  quick to dismiss Grishko  without  considering  their full range , they have a number of ' last families'  ( which freed classics  have a lot of  variation with maker  , the  basic lasts are all  similar  so if you don't have a freed foot )  and there are the 'novice' build options   with Grishko  and  if you have a confident and competent fitter   a whole load of build options that people don't  even  get with  'Company level' service from  certain other big names) ... 

the best  fittings i've had have been quite long  , my most recent fitting  despite this being  serious pair  number 4  ,   was  a couple of hours with   the fabulous Leanne  but we  went on a  tour of   everything in the Grishko range that might fit me  before ending up with the  Maya 1  Special edition which is currently an Leanne exclusive 

 

[Peony]

The only problem with anything that isn’t a stock shoe at that age is that it’s quite likely they will have outgrown it before it’s received! 

[Pas de Quatre]

Are there no shops in your area? Most good teachers go with their pupil for a first fitting - as they most of all know the pupil's strenghts and weaknesses. 

[Sara-Anne]

1 minute ago, Pas de Quatre said:

Are there no shops in your area? Most good teachers go with their pupil for a first fitting - as they most of all know the pupil's strenghts and weaknesses. 

Not directly we are in east London. So we need to go in to central London. I’m an ex ballet dancer myself so I have a pretty good idea of her strengths and weaknesses, just a bit out of date as to what is available now!

[Pas de Quatre]

In that case I would also recommend Dancia.  They have a good range of brands and styles. Good luck - let us know how it goes.

[Sara-Anne]

11 minutes ago, Pas de Quatre said:

In that case I would also recommend Dancia.  They have a good range of brands and styles. Good luck - let us know how it goes.

Thanks!

[alison]

Wouldn't being accompanied by a teacher contravene some Covid regulation or other at the moment?

[Pas de Quatre]

I accompanied a pupil last Saturday for a fitting.  The poor girl was meant to have them in May, which happily coincided with her birthday, but that was not to be.  Anyway we booked a fitting, they have a limit on the number of people in the shop, and within the shop they have a dedicated pointe fitting room with a further limit.  Only one adult can be in there with the dancer and the fitter, so the mum waited outside the doorway in the bigger shop.  She could hear what was happening and could peep in occasionally.  Everyone was happy with this.  We found an excellent fit - first lesson will be on Friday!  

[FlexyNexy]

My DD has narrow and very bony feet. She tried all shoes available but her preference is Grishko 2007 from start. For performances she uses Gaynors but training Grishko hard shank. 

[NJH]

On 07/10/2020 at 10:10, alison said:

Wouldn't being accompanied by a teacher contravene some Covid regulation or other at the moment?

in what way ?

[glowlight]

25 minutes ago, NJH said:

in what way ?

 

I think that given this is a business arrangement (ie the teacher is doing this as part of their job) it would not contravene COVID regulations - as long as social distancing could be maintained within the dance shop.

Edited October 8, 2020 by glowlight
typo

[Sara-Anne]

4 minutes ago, glowlight said:

 

I think that given this is a business arrangement (ie the teacher is doing this as part of their job) it would not contravene COVID regulations - as long as social distancing could be maintained within the dance shop.

Yes you are probably right, but I wouldn’t expect our ballet teacher to risk travelling in to central London on the tube at the moment unless it was really necessary 

[glowlight]

2 hours ago, Sally-Anne said:

Yes you are probably right, but I wouldn’t expect our ballet teacher to risk travelling in to central London on the tube at the moment unless it was really necessary 

 

Agree totally

 

[NJH]

3 hours ago, glowlight said:

 

I think that given this is a business arrangement (ie the teacher is doing this as part of their job) it would not contravene COVID regulations - as long as social distancing could be maintained within the dance shop.

yep exactly  

[Sara-Anne]

So we went for our fittings today and she had ended up with a pair of grishko 2007 pro flex which look lovely  and she felt were the most comfortable/ easiest to get up on

[Dance*is*life]

I didn't know that Grishko also has a shoe with a more flexible sole - all the ones my students come back with are really, really hard, which are fine for experienced dancers with high arches, but disaster for newbies.  Possibly the pro flex that you bought are not available here, but could be ordered online.  Are they flexible enough to roll up through the balls of the feet?

[Sara-Anne]

6 minutes ago, Dance*is*life said:

I didn't know that Grishko also has a shoe with a more flexible sole - all the ones my students come back with are really, really hard, which are fine for experienced dancers with high arches, but disaster for newbies.  Possibly the pro flex that you bought are not available here, but could be ordered online.  Are they flexible enough to roll up through the balls of the feet?

Yes she can roll through. They are really flexible, my daughter doesn’t have the strongest or most flexible feet, I was a little worried she wouldn’t be able to bend them at all or get up on to the shoes but they are really good actually. I’m impressed! 

[Peony]

56 minutes ago, Dance*is*life said:

I didn't know that Grishko also has a shoe with a more flexible sole - all the ones my students come back with are really, really hard, which are fine for experienced dancers with high arches, but disaster for newbies.  Possibly the pro flex that you bought are not available here, but could be ordered online.  Are they flexible enough to roll up through the balls of the feet?

Haven’t tried the pro-flex but the novice comes with a super soft shank (which I believe can be put onto any other shoe as a special order). They’re too soft for me, but I presume that’s because I’ve got a high arch and am adult size! The thing I find with grishko is that it’s just the section at the Demi pointe that is rock solid, the rest of the shank isn’t that hard. I’ve only had the ‘roll through’ models but that section still doesn’t give a lot. I think the pro flex is meant to be more flexible there. 

[NJH]

14 hours ago, Dance*is*life said:

I didn't know that Grishko also has a shoe with a more flexible sole - all the ones my students come back with are really, really hard, which are fine for experienced dancers with high arches, but disaster for newbies.  Possibly the pro flex that you bought are not available here, but could be ordered online.  Are they flexible enough to roll up through the balls of the feet?

few too many people are quick to dismiss  Grishko on the basis of limited stock  held by local  shops who  try to fit all kinds of brands ...   it;s not been helped by  Difficulties Grishko have with  finding a territory manager for the UK   who  knows enough  aobut the product and is a good  enough  territory manager for what is a  quite specialised product