Pointe Shoe
I have been dancing ballet for 10 years. My fascination with ballet started when my mother took me to see one of her high school students perform in the Nutcracker when I was about 5. I knew I wanted to be just like the girls on stage. I began taking classes the next year and performed in the Nutcracker every year from then on. I eventually worked my way to getting point shoes. That was the most exciting point of my entire dancing career.
A few years later I unfortunately broke my foot dancing and in the next couple of years after that injury, I had knee surgery. After these two pretty traumatic injuries, my dancing career came to a halt. I stopped dancing for a few years in high school but I couldn’t stay away for long and picked up dancing again when I went to college. Sometimes I regret taking a break and wonder where I would be if I never stopped, but I know it was what I needed at the time and am glad I found my passion once again.
This shoe represents the dedication I put into dancing, specifically by its physical appearance. The ripped up platform shows how much this shoe was used, which was about 6 months. Wearing these shoes, you can feel the floor through the platform that used to be made of thick layers of paper, glue, and fabric. The comparison picture shows a brand new shoe on the left and my old one on the right. The difference in these shoes shows the hard work that has been put in to dancing, and just in the span of 6 months of many years. Ballet is about being perfect in every way when dancing. Growing up and learning this way has caused me to be a slight perfectionist and to always try my best and I don’t regret any of it.
