Post #7- En Pointe

“It takes a long time to develop a body for dancing- especially the feet. The pointe for girls have to be, as I always say, like an elephant’s trunk; strong and yet flexible and soft. It takes some time”.
-George Balanchine

Todays Genius Hour was the day I have been waiting for. Today was the day I finally got to get back en pointe. Today was a fun day as it was the first time in a long time that I had put my pointe shoes on, but it was also a challenging day well because... THE PAIN!

          
                                                                                         via GIPHY

Going into this weeks Genius Hour session, I had a set timeline and plan of how each visit to the studio would go, but I found myself again this week having to make adjustments and rework the timeline because, well, I felt like my toes were about to fall off!

Day 1

When I go into the studio I warmed up my feet, did all my stretches and then put my pointe shoes on. It felt a little but I was excited to jump right into the exercises. I started off with the pointe warm up basics: rises on pointe and rises with pile in first and second position and rolled through my feet to really work my arches and get my feet adjusted.

After doing these exercises the first couple of times through, I felt as through I wasn't on top of my blocks, or getting up on to my shoes as good as I would have liked to or as good as I did in the past. Because of this I decided to add in some pointe strengthening exercises to really work my feet and keep on repeating the exercises above so that I was satisfied with my position on pointe. After doing this for a couple minutes, I had to stop. My toes were throbbing!!!! The arches of my feet felt like mush and I had not even got to any of the actual pointe exercises I had planned to do that day! I could not even get past the warm up. Because of this I decided that I would take a break, as I had attempted and made enough progress for the day and return back to the studio tomorrow to work on some barre exercises on pointe.

Day 1 in the studio back on the pointe shoes!

The Next Day 

Well now it was the next day and this meant time to do some pointe work at the barre. Only one problem... I couldn't, My toes were bruised and sore and I couldn't bare to touch the tips of my toenails. I guess I'll try again tomorrow!

Day 2

After resting my toes for a day, I was ready to do some pointe at the barre. In the studio I worked similar exercises I did the previous week at the barre to prepare me for centre work, except this time on pointe and I would say it was definitely a success. My toes however, they still hurt - a lot, but who said ballet was easy?!

The Next Day

What was supposed to be day 3 of my pointe technique now had turned into another day off because there was another problem.... my plantar fascitis. Plantar fascitis is the inflammation of the planter fascia which is the firm tendon on the bottom of the foot that connects the heel to the toes, basically your arch. While doing ballet and especially while rising onto pointe, this tendon is constantly being pulled. This is a chronic injury in which I have had fro years, due to my dance training and by jumping back into pointe again, must have aggravated it. This injury causes a sharp pain in the arch of your foot almost feeling like your foot is about to tear in half! It hurt as soon as I started walking this morning which definitely meant, I could not dance today. But theres aways tomorrow! 

Day 3

Today I transferred all my skills from the barre to the centre on pointe. This session was more difficult as I no longer had any support or a barre to hold on to. It was just me on toes in the centre! In the centre I worked on travelling steps and worked on my balance, turns and kicks.
Centre for went a lot better than I had expected, especially considering how hard the warm up and barre work was for me. Once again after a little setback I am exciting for next week when I combine all my hard work and everything that I have learned so far into the most exciting session of all, my ballet routine!