Technique Problem or Fit Problem? Reading Pointe Shoes as a Teaching Tool [LIVE ONLY]

⚠️ Live-Only — This session will not be recorded.

You've said it before or at least thought it. "Why can't she pull up through her arch? Why does she keep sickling? Why is her ankle so unstable on pointe?"

Before you give that correction one more time, there's a question worth asking first: is this a technique problem, or is it a fit problem?

Most ballet teachers were never taught to think about pointe shoes as a pedagogical tool. We learned to teach technique. We learned to spot errors. We learned to correct. But the shoe itself — the way it's built, the way it fits, the way it interacts with a specific dancer's foot — that's usually left to someone else.

The problem is that a poorly fitted shoe doesn't just cause discomfort. It actively works against a dancer's technique. It creates compensation patterns. It produces the very errors…