According to McDowell (1994) the impending arrival of the French Revolution
brought ballet away from the courtly costumes of the past. This over-all change combined with the increasingly technical demands of dance meant that shoes were needed to meet the demands. The first pointe shoes were based on "straights" worn for ballroom dancing and without blocking in the toe. Specialized shoemakers popped up in every city that had a ballet company. The most famous shoemakers were found in Paris. Janssen, of Jannssen of Paris, was the most well known and was the maker of Taglioni's shoes. A close rival was Crait, who started in Lyons in 1823 but moved his operation to Paris in 1850. His shoes were greatly sought after and the great Adel Grantzan, from the Maryinsky Theatre, ordered her shoes exclusively from him. In 1879, he became official supplier to the Paris Opera Ballet. This Ballet Revolution saw the founding of many more pointe shoe firms including Ebermann of Berlin, Romeo Niccolini of Milan, Capezio in New York (1887), Gamba in London, Anello & Davide, & Frederich Freed. Some were created by accident, Salvatore Capezio, for example, was asked to make a replacement pair of shoes for danseur Jean de Reske when he was performing in Romeo & Juliet. With Capezio's shoe shop located near the Metropolitan Opera, and the prospect of more projects like this one Capezio decided to specialize in ballet shoes. The London based firm Gamba Ltd. was formed by an Italian waiter in 1894. Luigi Gamba is famed for designing shoes for Pavlova and Nijinsky. In today's world, Freed of London is the world's leading pointe shoes supplier, makeing over 1000 pairs a day. Dancers have their favorite shoe makers known by their makers stamp, and are fiercely attentive to the quality of their shoes as the tiniest variation in paper or glue in the box can mean the difference between agony and comfort. The weight of pointe shoes has also changed. Emma Livry danced in shoes, which weighed 34 grams each, whereas, Anna Pavlova's more modern blocked shoes weighed 74 grams. Makers pay great attention to their craft and can remold the lasts with plaster to change the last for a dancer's individual foot shape. The shoes are created in a very short amount of time but the treatment of the toe block requires it to be baked in a special oven at 140 degrees F(60C) for 14 hours. This cna be big business as a major ballet company will use three thousand pairs per year. In 1998, the shoe budget for the Royal Ballet in London, England, was in the excess of $170,000 (US). To try to recoup some of the costs, they sold off discarded pointes at $90 a pair. Nureyev's old shoes fetched $9,400 (US) at a Chrisitie's auction. Dancers go through several pairs of shoes per week and they rarely last longer than one performance. |
