Ballet

Pointe Shoes

A Principal Dancer will often have to wear one new pair of shoes in every single performance.

In typical ballet company female dancers go through an average of 80 pair of shoes a season.

For very demanding roles, like Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty) or Clara in The Nutcracker, it is not unusual for a ballerina to go through multiple pairs of shoes in one evening.

Young dancers must study ballet for at least 4-5 years before going en pointe. It requires a great deal of strength in the legs, ankles, and feet as well as strong turnout. It is also generally recommended that a young dancer be at least 12 years old before starting pointe.

In Ireland a pair of pointe shoes usually cost €80 and typically a pair only lasts for only 8-12 hours for a professional dancer.

Below are a decorative pair of pointe shoes made by famous the jewellers Tiffany & Co. Most pointe shoes are more practical!

Robyn Hendricks

South African-born Robyn Hendricks began ballet classes aged eight after her grandfather observed her dancing on her toes all the time. Growing up in an academic family, Robyn was the first family member to pursue a creative passion. Training in the Cecchetti Syllabus, Robyn travelled to Melbourne in 2001 to participate in the annual Cecchetti International Competition. During the competition, she was approached by The Australian Ballet School and was asked to audition formally for entrance into the prestigious national school. During her time at The Australian Ballet School, Robyn was one of four students selected to participate in a student exchange to Canada, where she studied for four weeks with the National Ballet School in Toronto. She joined The Australian Ballet in 2005. She was promoted to soloist in 2011, to senior artist in 2016, and to principal artist the same year.

Darcey Bussell

Darcey Andrea Bussell CBE (born Marnie Mercedes Darcey Pemberton Crittle) is a retired English ballerina. She trained at the Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School. Bussell started her professional career at Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, but after only one year she moved to The Royal Ballet, where she became a principal dancer at the age of 20 in 1989. Bussell is widely acclaimed as one of the great British ballerinas. During her twenty years as a dancer she won renown for her combination of a tall and athletic physique while dancing with soft lyricism. Bussell remained with The Royal Ballet for her whole career, but also performed as a guest artist with many leading companies including NYCB, La Scala Theatre Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, Hamburg Ballet and the Australian Ballet. She retired from ballet in 2007 but remains very committed to the dance world.