Ugh....the world of pointe shoes is maddening!

Bear with me as I am not a dancer, but I have to bitch about this.

So Dd1 started with pointe shoes in January (she turned 12 in early April) and was sized in Bloch. Her feet grew slightly and in about 6 weeks the shoes were completely uncomfortable and she had problems getting over her feet in them and by week 8 they were dead. So we go back to the store and she tries on pretty much every Bloch shoe in the store and none of them are right so she ends up with Gaynor Mindens which last about 3 months before she says they start giving her problems, but I figure 3 months is a longer than average life of a pointe shoe. So I took her to another store last Sunday that was recommended by friends, and DD1 was fitted in Russian Pointe and she is happy with them....however her teacher talked to me after class tonight and said the Russian shoes are too hard and that we should’ve talked to her first when we needed to switch.....this was all news to me and to Dd1 because the teacher has never said anything (from when we switched from Bloch to Gaynors) to anyone about consulting with her first even in the initial letter promoting Dd1 to pointe or recent emails. Her current solution is to bend the Russian shoes herself before each class and then have DD wear the Russians for bar work and the Gaynors for non bar work. To make matters worse Dd1 said the teacher called her out in the middle of class and said she was going to talk me about her shoes after class and then Dd1 said another one of the students (who Dd1 thinks is one of the teacher’s favorite dancers) said “oh you should just switch back to Bloch.” I could really deal without all of this drama and I just wish the teacher would’ve talked to the parents as whole about getting fitted past the first pair of pointe shoes (when she was originally there). Dd1 already thinks the teacher doesn’t like her dancing so it is kind of discouraging.



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Sorry! I agree that if the teacher had specific desires for the class so far as shoes, she should have told you about them! I never went en pointe, so I don't really know enough about the types of shoes listed to know what the real difference is, but I DO remember friends dealing with bad fit & it seems like if she needs those for proper fit, it's what she needs!

I understand your frustrations!!! Why does the teacher care what brand it is? I don’t know anything about ballet, but I used to figure skate. Different boots fit different types of feet better. As long as you have ones that fit, the brand shouldn’t make a difference.

That sucks. I know nothing about ballet, but have dealt with coaches wanting specific brands of things and I appreciate them being upfront about that. They really need to do better at making that it and repeated often.

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Originally Posted by AnnieW625

Dd1 already thinks the teacher doesn’t like her dancing so it is kind of discouraging.

I hate that for her.



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Yeah, she should have been more upfront about brands and their differences. Besides being expensive, you can really damage young feet with enpointe if they aren't done forming (which typically is age 12 or even older). So you want the "right" shoes! I don't really know the difference between brands (DD's studio does not do enpointe until a later age), but that's exactly why I'd want a handout or discussion about the different brands and what they suggest/why.