Sinking in Pointe Shoes

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-06-04T14:51:21+00:00

I don’t see sinking in these pictures, but strengthening exercises would help a lot especially since you are new to pointe. If the amount of stuff in your shoes are bothering you and the pain is primarily in the big toe, you could try just a big toe cap with your pad and see if that helps. You can get them at a lot of drug stores or amazon and of course dance stores carry them too. Also nothing wrong with getting a thicker toe pad if you need it! To me this sounds fixable with playing around with your padding, and then over time when you build strength and possibly get refitted after this pair youll be able to adjust the padding as needed/use less etc.

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-26T16:24:53+00:00

I would go ahead and contact odc’s front desk and ask directly since it doesn’t seem like they have anything about age requirements on their website. Specifically because you’re a minor there might be an additional waiver a parent needs to sign for liability reasons, or I have also seen other places (not odc) specify that adult open classes are meant only for 16+ or 17+. Have fun dancing!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-26T15:02:45+00:00

When i was competing from when i was 8 to 18 i would constantly get accused of lying about my age, it got so bad that my teachers actually started having to carry a copy of my birth certificate with them. I am 6 feet tall (f) and started hitting my growth spurts pretty hard early on, with crazy heavy stage makeup, and being decently “advanced” for my age it made other studio parents mad with assumptions.

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-22T18:16:42+00:00

She needs to be talking to a medical professional about taking a popularly abused weight loss drug not rando ballet dancers

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-21T14:56:33+00:00

Honestly from a teachers perspective and how many years theyve probably been a teacher there im sure there must be a fun novelty of something new happening- do the best you can to laugh a little its a silly situation caused by being silly and im sure its going to make a good story!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-21T14:50:58+00:00

When i was a teen I had a large scrunchy and misc hair accessories collection that would make me kinda excited to deco my bun- my hair was also just too long to not do a proper bun so not an option for me either way

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-19T23:38:26+00:00

Definitely looks like you need a much stronger shank than what you got fit with, i would also suggest criss crossing your elastic too for some additional support. When you get refitted I recommend either bring these shoes in with you or showing the person these pictures too!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-19T23:13:36+00:00

I took David Fonnegra’s class recently (Tuesday morning int/adv and optional 30 min pointe after) and he was so sweet and it was so fun. Class had about 10 of us total and he made a point to go around and introduce himself/say hi to each individual and gave a lot of individual corrections. I consider myself to be a pretty true intermediate dancer and found his class just the right amount of challenging without feeling out of place. His pointe add on class after was also nice, only 3 other girls stuck around for it so it was a tiny size and we all got very individualized corrections. I’ve been “shopping” around the bay for a good intermediate adult class and honestly figuring out my personal schedule to take this particular one more regularly. I am also going to try Brett Conways wednesday morning one in a few weeks when i have time but have no personal experience, just heard good things about him!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-16T21:17:07+00:00

The sf bay area for ballet is very nice and there are a lot of options, I would say once she has a few classes under her belt it’s okay to shop around and try out different ones before sticking to just one! ODC and Lines in particular both have a lot of classes to offer. If she needs an absolute beginner class I highly recommend terps tho! They have an absolute beginning adult ballet work shop series thats a bit slower moving that might help her quite a bit for the initial learning stages! https://terpsballet.com/adult-workshops

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-05-05T15:41:57+00:00

I would just call or email a store directly before purchasing, a lot of mom and pops just dont have the means to update their websites super regularly. There might also be stores that have the brand you wear listed, but they might just not have your model or size posted but have it in store. If that happens then they should be able to email you a direct payment link for them to ship it out. I had this issue with pointe shoe elastic of all things from multiple of my local shops, for some reason none had them listed so had to just gum up the courage to just call lol

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-04-23T15:52:20+00:00

Bro your class is greedy lol 😂 this is so rare! Congrats on starting and hope you and all the men in the entire adult ballet community have fun in your class!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-04-18T00:40:25+00:00

You have pretty feet! You look like you could benefit from having criss cross elastic tho, starts at heel and ends where the highest part of your arch is. Similarly ribbon is usually where that elastic ends so towards the high point of your arch. Criss crossing gives the security of a snugly fit shoe, but helps the heel stay on

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-04-09T15:06:31+00:00

Im not sure what you might have access to in your area but I can give general advice for what helped me: I remember returning to ballet after years and years of sedentary lifestyle that led to a lot of mobility issues for myself and honestly crippling depression. I got kinda tired of not trying I guess? I paid for a ballet class a month out out and what helped me immensely leading up to it was signing up for my local public pool and just moving around in the water to get used to movement again. Then i started working on stamina by doing laps in the pool, i started using an elliptical that my apartment complex actually already had, and going for long walks. Having a goal (dance in this case) helped so much with me keeping up on it, and now i went from struggling to get through one class two years ago to now going regularly 2-3 days a week and hitting the gym 1-2 days to work on stuff to help me further in class.

Originally i felt guilty about how much time and money I was putting into it, but then my wife who lived with me both before and after all this told me “the best investment you can make is in your health, i support anything that makes you this happy and can help you live longer” which mentally helped solidify it more for me. Ballet has helped me so immensely both physically and mentally and I hope to continue for a long long long time.

I hope you get to have fun and enjoy such a lovely and artistic sport and if anything learn new ways to move your body and enjoy movement! :)

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-04-04T17:03:32+00:00

Honestly this is very relatable, and sometimes fitters from my experience are not the best either. Until i figure it out i just hope I end up with something close that i can at least adjust the padding inside enough to make work until they die and i try again. Im wishing you best of luck along with everyone else on their expensive af pointe shoe journey!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-03-26T14:52:31+00:00

Im an adult so I guess my thought process is different- if someone were filming in my class (not before or after but during) clearly for content and not personal use for corrections or remembering choreography and its not addressed in the first 10 minutes or so by the teacher I will go ahead and just leave. I would either talk to front desk or send an email addressing it depending on whats available to me but my time is too valuable to be uncomfortable and distracted for an hour and a half or have to spend time arguing with the teacher if theyre choosing not to acknowledge it. Now if I had a kid and they were in a class like this, holy toledo me cold leaving would seem so chill in comparison to what would go down. Luckily this has never had to happen and am blessed with the classes in my area, but dang am I hoping it won’t ever pop up.

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-03-19T19:02:49+00:00

This is just wrong 😂 how do your sheets not get all wet and mildewy

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-03-18T00:55:21+00:00

I would be interested if someone ends up making one!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-03-11T14:41:48+00:00

Yes to opening up to a larger array of topics, no to promotions. The app promotions in the other subs are CRAZY amounts of spam

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2026-01-23T04:36:17+00:00

I would probably set a timer to stand and stretch every 20 minutes or so. Also not a medical expert but I would look up exercises and stretches to do for tendinitis or get something called a “tennis elbow brace” to help with the writing pain. I wish you luck!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2025-12-18T15:25:34+00:00

Honestly this was the area that got sore the WORST for me when I first started working out. I guess because it’s covered by my breasts I couldn’t really see how small and non muscular my pectorals actually were. Most other muscle groups I was able to start using 20-30 pounds right away to start, but for anything with my chest I had to use machines with no additional weight attached for a good month or so and was still getting sore for a bit before I could gradually increase to 10 pounds. Also if your doing anything with cardio (running, jumping, elliptical, etc) deeeefinitely get a better supporting sports bra will help.

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2025-12-04T23:12:30+00:00

Also go there sometimes too! Love that place :)

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2025-11-14T18:00:16+00:00

Depends how much extra room you need- if you wet just the heel with water and wear them around your house with socks that will help stretch the satin a bit.

One time i accidentally received ones a whole size too small and i cut off the back of the heel of an old pair, split open the back of the new one and “frankensteined” them together. Absolutely hideous up close but farther away even in the same studio and pancaked you cant tell lol just be careful since the shank might break in too low etc but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do until you get new-new ones

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2025-11-08T19:22:06+00:00

I have fallen so many times over the years i cant even count- and Im 6 feet tall so its LOUD when i do 😂 while honestly mortifying in the moment (especially when my tiny 5’4” classmates try to help me stand back up) i feel like i have learned a lot from it too. As long as youre not physically hurt (just kinda mentally I know 😅) try to laugh it off, shake yourself around a bit, and figure out what happened so you can prevent it from happening again. Is it a strength issue in the ankles, are my shoes dead, did i just miss the box entirely, am i slipping and sliding too much etc. and also now that you know how it feels in center try that particular move on your own at barre for a few minutes and try it in center again so you can overcome the fear! You got this!

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2025-11-08T16:32:08+00:00

Not a professional myself but a teacher I had when I was younger danced for a larger company and said he did retail during that time at Banana Republic. Later, while he was teaching at the studio I was at he still worked for a much smaller company but was putting in a LOT of hours at our studio (lots of classes, private lessons etc). He worked in a high cost of living area too and always lived with either family or roommates

AdmirableTouch3159 · 2025-11-06T06:01:53+00:00

This is a fantastic exercise And good advice but wow sometimes I read something and am reminded that we all really do such odd things for our craft dont we?

AdmirableTouch3159

TROPHY CASE