Pointe Shoes – A Rite of Passage

June brought the news that Hunter was promoted to Level Four at the San Francisco Ballet School. This is quite an accomplishment as Level Four is the year girls begin using Pointe shoes. We congratulated Hunter and carried on with our normal summer vacation plans in Camp Sherman. Returning to Pleasanton in August due to Parker’s wrestling camp gave us time to get things sorted out for another active year in the SF Ballet School program.

It’s a very demanding school expecting much from the young ladies in training. Hunter was definitely up for the challenge and couldn’t wait to get started. To progress at ballet requires concentration, dedication and a great support system.

Classes resumed and her new teacher informed them to get fitted for Pointe shoes as it would be a few weeks before they started exercises with them. On a rainy Sunday in September, I took Hunter into Berkeley to be fitted. Little did I know this was a huge milestone in a dancers’ career. I assumed we would try on two or three pairs, she would choose one and we would be driving back to Pleasanton in fifteen minutes. Our experience was far from that.

It started with the shopkeeper asking questions about her dance, which studio she started in, how long she had been dancing and what she likes most about ballet. She began studying Hunter’s feet trying to assess which brand and style would be ideal. Other prospective ballerinas started to flow into the shoe section with their mom’s. All noticed that Hunter was special as she was trying on Pointe shoes. When the mom’s learned that Hunter had been in the Nutcracker, they shared that with their up and coming cuties. The little ones held Hunter in the highest regard and were mesmerized with her as she went to the bar to assess the fit of the Pointe shoes.

Hunter was the talk of the store that day. I was proud of her accomplishments. Hunter is blessed with a gift to dance and I’ve always known that she will accomplish the goals she sets out but I didn’t expect that Pointe shoes represented a right of passage to becoming a young lady but clearly everyone in the dance studio did. I was one proud beaming dad.

Two hours later we had exhausted all the inventory of this little store and found an ideal pair of Pointe shoes for our ballerina. Hunter and the shopkeeper talked about how to keep them in proper form. We choose the ribbons and pads and were good to go. Choosing the right Pointe shoes are clearly important for the safety of their feet but this experience was so much more than trying on new dance shoes.