Expert: Dianne M. Buxton - 7/21/2010

Question
I have a 16 year old daughter who loves pointe and looks great when she is up - something about her over extended arches.  However, she has added some weight during the past year (up to 150) and I am worried about her ankles.  She has also broken the boxes on two pair of pointe shoes.  Is this due to her weight and can she harm herself?  Is there a weight limit to pointe?

Answer
Hi Deena. Breaking the boxes on pointe shoes is typical for those with over-extended arches, or hyper-mobile arches. The added weight doesn't help - yet what does help is a daily exercise routine to strengthen the tiny sole of the foot muscles for controlling movement in the pointe shoes.

There is a book called The Perfect Pointe Book that outlines theses exercises and shows dance students how to test themselves to monitor how they progress strength-wise. I truly recommend this to any dance student, as the knowledge in it will help prevent ballet injuries.

If you and your daughter would like to preview the book, the author presents it at:

http://balletpointeshoes.info/

It is a download with photos and videos.

Your daughter will find that as she gets stronger and more accurate in her ballet movements, her shoes will last longer.

She can also strengthen her feet by wearing the worn out pointe shoes as soft shoes - the structure of them will challenge her foot muscles during the regular class barre work and center too.

As far as her weight goes - another item I just found out about this week is a creation of Deborah Vogel, a dance medicine specialist ; The Inner Dance of Success Weight Loss Program. It is a brain train program for young dancers (or anyone) to establish the right habits to stay thin - not all the diet nonsense but a real life program.

It is a CD and can be ordered from here: http://dancers-weight-loss.blogspot.com/

All the best for both of you and the dancing! Dianneweight,pointe shoes