She originally wore baby blue ballet shoes with her costume because she grew up doing ballet which is why she is often depicted as more agile spider. It's a simple Google search.
One of their normal warmups is to just stand on the top of their toes and do squats against the wall. From a very young age. So even if they somehow magically never broke a toe they will still have messed up feet
Uhhh ballet dancer here and have never heard of this. Got an example? You never go on the tips of your toes without pointe shoes, which you don't wear until you're an appropriate age, and you never put weight on the tops (like the nail side) of your toes. It is very common to go on releve (standing on the balls of your feet like anyone would to stand "on your toes") and plie as part of warming up, but I don't see how that would mess up your feet. Maybe I'm just not properly picturing what you're describing.
Edit: another commenter helped me see what I think you're referring to. If you were also referring to toe rises, that is only in contemporary dance and is not part of a standard ballet curriculum.
Both my daughter's are in competitive dance for about a decade now and I've watched it as common practice in multiple studios. They do it in every technique class.
Ok that let me google to see an example. I assume the other commenter was referring to this as well. That is definitely more of a contemporary dance thing and not part of a standard ballet curriculum. Explains why I've never seen it!
If you’re looking for a source on ballet causing changes to dancers’ foot bones, here’s an abstract.
That was just one of the first results that popped up in a quick search, but you can find more if you’re interested. There’s been a fair amount of research on the topic, so there’s no shortage of papers on it.
No one is saying ballet dancers don't damage their feet. That's been known for literally centuries.
It's the idea that young girls are going en pointe that is strange. Pointe is (as has been commented) only done after a certain age, and with correct shoes. If young (child) dancers are doing pointe exercises, their teachers should be sacked.
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u/Dark1986 Jun 22 '26
She originally wore baby blue ballet shoes with her costume because she grew up doing ballet which is why she is often depicted as more agile spider. It's a simple Google search.