Lesley Mealor, BPA Dance Performance

Pointe shoes, while strong enough to support a dancer’s full weight on her toes, are surprisingly delicate and don’t last a very long time! Ballet dancers are constantly trying to figure out innovative ways to make their pointe shoes last longer. While no pointe shoe will stay in great shape forever, there are a few ways to give them a fighting chance at lasting a bit longer than normal! To make pointe shoes last longer, you can use Jet glue, darn the boxes, rotate your shoes, store your shoes properly, and always remove the padding.

Ballet is challenging enough when you have good vision, but for dancers who need glasses, things can get even trickier. While it’s true that you rarely see professional ballerinas performing in glasses, young dancers are a different story.
Ballet and other styles of dance are possible to do while wearing glasses, but some steps and styles are harder to perform bespectacled. By securing glasses properly, and choosing the right frames, you can dance in glasses easily.

The first step to using a turn board is to focus on balance and core strength. Turn boards are slick on the bottom, and they will be incredibly unsteady and slippery for a first-time user.

Have you ever seen a soccer player wearing basketball shoes? Or a football player wearing ice skates? Probably not! In the dance world, dancers are expected to wear the kind of shoes that correspond to the style of dance they’re taking. You do need to wear ballet shoes to ballet class most of the time. Occasionally, there are instances where other footwear is acceptable, but the best shoes to wear for ballet are ballet shoes!

Ballet shoes have unique qualities that make them appropriate for ballet class, just like jazz shoes have specific functions for that style of dance. For more about jazz shoes and why they’re necessary for learning jazz dance, check out our article Can I Wear Ballet Shoes in a Jazz Dance Class?

Dancers put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into their art, and the same goes for their shoes! Ballet and dance shoes can wear out pretty quickly for a few reasons, and dancers and parents are always looking for ways to prolong the life of their shoes.

Poor quality materials, overuse, growth spurts, and mistreatments are just a few of the reasons that dance and ballet shoes wear out fast! In order to get the most use out of your dance shoes, follow our tips and tricks!

In nearly every photo or video of a ballet dancer, you will notice they always wear a few key things – a leotard, tights, and their hair in a bun. The bun hairstyle is a staple of the ballet world, but you may be wondering why that is.

Ballerinas often have to wear their hair in a bun to adhere to a dress code, because of the traditional aesthetic that the ballet world follows, and to keep their hair out of their face while dancing.

If your dancer is looking to improve in ballet, there is one tried and true solution – practice at home! Most young dancers don’t take enough hours of class per week to get away with not practicing at home and still expect to see results, whether that’s balancing longer in an arabesque or finding that additional rotation in a pirouette.

In lyrical dance, we combine the best of the worlds of ballet and jazz, sometimes with a little modern thrown in for fun. But with so many styles fusing into one to create lyrical, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what dancers should focus on when practicing at home. Luckily, there are several easy and fun exercises you can do with your dancer that will help them improve in lyrical dance!

Jazz dance, with its origins in African music and culture, has long been a way to celebrate, communicate and entertain. The history of jazz dance isn’t often taught in the studio setting, but understanding where this commercially successful form of dance comes from, and how it has evolved, is an important part of improving as a jazz dancer.

Dancers dream of getting their first pair of pointe shoes! The beautiful satin slippers are sturdy enough to support the beautiful pirouettes and arabesques that dancers perform, but there comes a time (and it’s sooner than you would think) that pointe shoes become unusable. 

A pointe shoe’s lifespan ranges from 2 months to one year, depending on your age, skill level, and schedule. There are some handy tips and tricks you can try to extend the life of your pointe shoes!