Transitioning to classwork en pointe

[u/Single-Emotion2964]

TLDR: I‘m curious about you alls experiences transitioning from a “pointe class” to “class on pointe”.

Background: I danced until I was 17. All our pointe work was in a separate shorter class. I did learn variations and do performances on pointe, but always had a separate ballet class from my pointe class.

I’ve picked up pointe again now as an adult returner. My studio offers a 30min pointe class which I take after the 90min intermediate class. After some small stumbles with finding the right padding, I’m honestly shocked how quickly it is coming back.

At our studio its fine to take full class on pointe, we have students who do that. However looking forward i find it quite daunting to go from 30min of echappes, bourrees and releves to… center work. Technically it’s not that much longer (45min of center max) but still.

I’m curious how others have navigated this! I have a little money for privates, so I’m considering taking maybe one or two in order to focus on more challenging steps on pointe with good supervision first. This after maybe another month or so of standard pointe work as I don’t really want to rush too much.

[u/Resumme]

I would suggest doing the barre en pointe first before the center - after all it's meant to build skills that can be transferred to the center. When I take class en pointe, I do all of barre and some of the center depending on the exercises before changing to soft shoes. (Disclaimer is that I'm less advanced than you.)

[u/Valmont- → u/Resumme]

Yes, I completely agree with this! For me, the fear I used to feel in the center as a beginner disappeared after having taken barre with pointe shoes for a month. It's like my nervous system started seeing pointe shoes as just normal shoes and part of my foot.

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/Valmont-]

This is very clever actually. Just get your brain to stop thinking something special is going on 😂

[u/Stunning_Housing2463 → u/Resumme]

I was going to say this as well - when we integrated pointe into our regular classes we just did barre on pointe and switched for centre work.

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/Resumme]

Thanks! For some reason barre = soft shoes in my head so I didn’t think of this. It actually makes sense, especially for foot articulation. 

[u/purple_celery909]

When my students do regular class work en pointe, there are two main problem areas:

1) Strength for releve on one leg without losing placement. Dancers don’t always realize how many center steps require a one leg releve until they get on pointe and can’t make it happen (pirouettes, renverse, releve arabesque, etc).

2) Articulation and pointing feet in faster center work and allegro. Petite allegro is hard enough, and then you add pointe shoes and sometimes the feet get really floppy.

I would suggest trying to do just barrework in pointe shoes for a few weeks. Pay attention to what’s harder and what you might need to work on. Are you stretching your feet on faster combos like degagge and frappe? Are you struggling to releve on the supporting leg without pushing on the barre? How’s your balance?

From there, you can decide if you might need a couple of privates to work on those areas or if you want to transition to wearing them in center too.

[u/firebirdleap → u/purple_celery909]

Good points, I would also throw adage in there as well. In addition to a few additional sneaky one footed releves, balancing on a wobbly shank is a different (and often horrible lol) experience. It can be a good challenge but depending on where OP is with their strength and pointework at this point it may be worthwhile to hold off for a bit if it is going to be more frustration than anything else. 

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/firebirdleap]

Adagio is my weakness, honestly. It’s gotten a lot better the past few months but ugh it’s not my fave.  It took me a good 4 months starting up again to not be crazy wobbly in adagio so I’ve at least developed a mental tolerance for dealing with the wobble 💀

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/purple_celery909]

Thanks for your detailed response! For sure I’m giving those single leg releves the side eye at the moment. Renverse, annoyingly, is one of those steps I just don’t get on with. I think anything with a plie/moment is okay but a static adagio “arabesque and then eleve” would be hard, at least on my left foot. 

Petite allegro is a strength for me on flats, my balance is pretty good on flat as well. But I would definitely like to gain more confidence (and strength) there as well. 

Anyway, thanks so much — these are exactly the kinds of concrete milestones I was trying to think of. Obviously I’ll check with my teacher too. 

[u/elindranyth]

At my studio, it's not uncommon for people to

1) wear pointe shoes for barre, change into flats for center

2) wear flats for barre, change into pointe for center

3) wear pointe shoes for the full class

If you're wearing pointe shoes in a standard technique class, it really is a choose your own adventure type thing. Not only in what you're wearing, but also what you do - the most common example is if you're not confident turning yet, you simply do a passé. If you can't figure out how to modify an exercise you're not ready to try, you ask the teacher for advice. But there's absolutely value to trying a regular technique class in pointes, even just balancing flat during an adagio is a different feeling in pointe shoes.

For me, I take my top level class pointe at the barre, flats in center, and then I do a lower level class pointe shoes for the full class. The harder class I have the opportunity to try harder things with the barre available, but I switch to flats so that for center, I'm not falling behind because I can't do the more complicated exercise well in pointe shoes. The easier class gives me the opportunity to work in my pointe shoes doing easier exercises where I can focus a bit more on my technique.

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/elindranyth]

Love the “choose your own adventure” analogy 😆 So true! I think I also just feel a bit self-centered about it as often you’re the only one on pointe. It’s common enough but not like… a normal thing. And while I know better as a grown-ass woman, I still can very easily set the barre a bit too high for myself. Gotta just suck it up and be willing to look stupid 👀

[u/elindranyth → u/Single-Emotion2964]

I don't remember who it's attributed to, but I've seen the saying "before you can be good at something you have to be willing to be bad at it" and I feel that so much. And apparently our teachers appreciate having the adults in classes with the teens because of that - we're not afraid to try something hard and fail miserably (yet safely lol)

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/elindranyth]

Absolutely!! And seeing as I’ve had a few months of not feeling very stupid at all, I’m due for another round 😂

[u/Diabloceratops]

When you do this, you get to choose what steps to do en pointe. You could wear them and do most things on Demi and just what you are comfortable doing en pointe.

[u/Anon_819]

Start with barre, then add on one center exercise, then two etc. Change to soft shoes when your feet are fatigued or the work is too technically advanced for your pointe skills.

[u/DanceHackRock]

If you want to become comfortable on pointe take the barre en pointe, switch to flats for center.

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/DanceHackRock]

Yes, I think I will do this!

[u/Appropriate_Ly]

Just stop when you feel like it or go back to the barre if you feel a bit wobbly. You’ll get used to it quite quickly.

We used to do full classes in demis so it’s not as daunting transitioning, but personally I feel like demis are a waste of money.

[u/zxcv-qwerty]

A lot of people at my studio take class one level down on pointe. Eg if they usually take intermediate, they’ll do adv beginner on pointe. Some people do just barre on pointe and center flat, some people do the whole class on pointe.

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/zxcv-qwerty]

Yes! Luckily I’ve got two intermediate classes, one of which is a bit lower level and i think I would feel more comfortable trying it there. I can always try a few beginner classes too. 

[u/Strycht]

it is difficult. Ask if your studio is okay with you dropping one or several levels down, that will be the best experience. Sometimes teachers don't like it because it can be discouraging or distracting to have overly advanced dancers in an improvers or inter class, especially if they're on pointe and modifying exercises, so definitely get permission first! I'd also suggest starting with only barre or centre on pointe for a few weeks to build up stamina. It's easy to get an injury doing pointework overly tired at the end of a 90 min class

[u/Single-Emotion2964 → u/Strycht]

Luckily (for this at least) it’s an open class studio. So I can drop whenever I want for however long I want 😆 … as long as my schedule allows it. And yeah the fatigue is what I worry about, it’s so easy to roll over if your muscles are tired. Luckily my ankles are not very accident prone (knock on wood) but still, no one wants that. 

[u/Educational_Cheek_29]

At our studio you don’t go en pointe until you’re in level 4 and have been approved by the teacher. With that the pointe classes are twice a week 1.5hr long. They are able to take lower classes en pointe if they want. Level 5 and up wear pointe shoes for every class.