Expert: Dianne M. Buxton - 8/26/2008

Question
I have recently enrolled my 3.5 year old in ballet classes-just this month.  For the past year she has been dancing on her toes (like a ballerina-toes curled under) all on her own.  She loves to do it and walks around in circles all the time (I did not teach her this since I have never taken ballet).  I am wondering if it's something that we should just let her do if she wants to (it doesn't appear to be hurting her) or should we discourage it?  I saw in another post it isn't recommended that children under 12(I think) do this.

Answer
Hi Tracy. Unfortunately, you will have to persuade your daughter to give this up, right away. Being as young as she is, she may not feel strain with her tiny weight on her toes. But, dancers do not go on their toes with them curled - at all! They must hold them straight, with the help of pointe shoes.

Try to explain to her that she may hurt her toes, and prevent them from growing strong. Distract her with other challenges in ballet, like creative and elegant arm movements.

Explain to her teacher that she does this a lot and you need support from the teacher that this is incorrect, even if it does not hurt right now.

Ask her ballet teacher to help her understand that going up on demi pointe - on the flats of her toes, and arching up at the ankle joint, is what will make her strong later. I'm sure that if the two of you team up, without being too scary about it, that you will wean her off this.

Maybe her teacher can show her a new hard pointe shoe, and tell her this is what makes it possible to stand on your toes, when you're older. Your feet don't do this by themselves.

All the best, Dianne