By Danielle DeVor

Pointe shoes have drastically changed since their onset. While still beautiful, today’s shoes are very different from the shoes of Marie Taglioni. And my, how far we have come.

In Marie Taglioni’s day, pointe shoes were very simple. They were made from pieces of satin ribbon sewn together and attached to an oak tanned leather sole. There was no shank, no boxing. All there was for support for the dancer were some extra stitches where the platform should be for some minor support. By the time she died in 1884, pointe shoes were very different than the ones that she started out in.

In the 1890’s, the Paris Opera were using shoes that had some boxing- mostly at the platforms and a little near the area where the corset satin met the sole. It was simply a little glue with a little bit of paper in between the satin and the inner cotton lining of the shoe. They did have some light shanking material.

Fast forward thirty years to the days of Anna Pavlova. Pointe shoes now had true boxing. Added to the glue and paper were pieces of burlap. A good bit more glue was used, but the boxing still only made a true platform. The boxing did not extend to cover the toes.

Pointe shoes didn’t change too much in years after. Boxing did extend to cover the toes, and in America and England, some pointe shoes were made from leather instead of satin for durability for student use.

During World War II, canvas and burlap were needed for the war effort, so when supplies were thin, especially in Japan, some pointe shoe boxes were made from balsa wood. After the war, this practice stopped completely. In America, mostly the shoes were made with the same materials, but had much more glue in the boxing to make the shoes last for the longest time possible.

During the 1950’s and 60’s, pointe shoes were nicely boxed, had decent shanks, and were lightweight yet supportive. Freed, Selva, and Capezio were the main shoes sold in America at this time. And in New York, one could find Gamba.

Pointe shoes continued to be pretty much the same until the 1980’s and 1990’s when companies began experimenting with using synthetic materials in their shoes. Schachtner of Austria made their boxes from synthetic glue and their shanks from carbon fiber. Gamba made their 93 and 97 models with carbon fiber shanks. Baryshnikov had a pointe shoe that had a natural shank, but a type of plastic glue was used for the boxing. And Capezio and Bloch began using some synthetic materials in their glue to help the boxing last a bit longer. Sansha stopped using bamboo for their replacable shank system and switched to carbon fiber shank stems. Specifically in the 1990’s, Gaynor Minden came on the scene with their completely synthetic shoe which features a box and shank that are one piece made from a more flexible type of plastic.

Today, Bloch has its own synthetic type shoes which they call TMT technology. Essentially, the boxes and shanks are made from a type of plastic that can be remolded with heat. Gaynor Minden is still going strong. But most dancers still use traditionally made shoes without plastic. The traditional shoes seem to be so popular because of their flexibility. It will be interesting to see if traditionally made shoes will be replaced by synthetic materials completely in the future, or if the synthetics will fall to the wayside.

Ironically, the death of the way pointe shoes are made is not coming from the materials, but from the lack of people wishing to be cobblers. Dancers may be forced into synthetic shoes made by machines simply because of a lack of work force. Only time will tell.