My Russian ballet teacher Elena is really unique when it comes to dance teachers. She knows that the almost all of the children and adults who take her classes do not have their sights set on a professional career in ballet or dance. She teaches our class with a view toward increasing one's body awareness and for the sheer pleasure of dancing and challenging her students with new ballet skills. As any dance teacher, including Elena, will tell you --- I'm actually not ready to go en pointe. In fact, I'm nowhere near it. (You're supposed to have a certain amount of demonstrated strength, turnout, alignment and balance before you qualify for pointe work.) She has encouraged me, however, to buy pointe shoes so she can have me and some of the other students do about 10 minutes of pointe work in each class so we can slowly build up to it. She doesn't recommend it for everyone, but she's allowed me to buy pointe shoes because she knows I'm not going to try and go en pointe at home, without her supervision or do anything that might result in me breaking my neck. I guarantee you, no other dance instructor would be so liberal when it comes to pointe shoes. 
Buying pointe shoes involves visiting a trained professional (mine was a former professional level ballet dancer from the Royal Academy in London), who looks at the shape of your foot while your toes are pointed. I spent an hour trying on about 10 pairs of pointe shoes (each are handmade and the fit can vary dramatically even in the same size). I went en pointe near a barre built for 3 year olds (it literally went to my knees), and did demi plies in second position in each pair before she finally picked out the "right" (i.e. most forgiving) pair of pointe shoes for me.
*Note: In this picture, I'm not en pointe, but am positioning my foot so you'd get an idea as to what being en pointe looks like.
Last week, Elena marked on my pointe shoes where I should sew my elastic and ribbons (the stuff that keeps the shoe attached to your foot). As each person's foot is as individual as your thumbprint, sewing your pointe shoes is a very individual thing, and you will need a professional opinion as to where to sew what. Having finished my sewing last week, I was finally ready for my first ballet class with pointe work tonight. After padding my toes with protective silk pads, we spent about 15 minutes doing various pointe exercises. It was really exhilarating doing pointe work for that tiny span of time. It's definitely the next level up and it's given me a new incentive to work much harder. It's also increased my body awareness dramatically. En pointe, you have to concentrate a lot harder and think about what every muscle in your body is doing in order to keep your alignment and balance all your weight on your toes. Suck in the stomach ("more, more, more" Elena barks at me), squeeze the cheeks hard, pull the knees up all the way, relax the shoulders, raise and elongate the arm but break the wrist, pull up your chin and neck but keep them relaxed. There's so much to think about, but it's an exciting new chapter in my ballet hobby. For my own sake, Elena is also cracking down on improving my technique when it comes to the barre exercises. When they're actually done correctly, you feel every muscle working to the pointe of exhaustion. "Oh, it's supposed to hurt like that" was my latest revelation tonight. "Chin up! Chin up! Pull up your knees! Correct your sous sous! Fourth position!" Elena barks. As we're all trembling on our tippie toes, barely hanging onto our balance, Elena purrs "Enjooooy the pain, ladies!" while we wobble and sway like buildings in an earthquake.
