Bill was doing a program on muscles and tendons for his show and as part of that, visited a ballet. While there, he noticed that all the ballerina’s pointy shoes were bloody. This is part of the struggle of dancing on pointe, yes, but Bill decided that ballet shoes needed an update badly. Since ballet shoes really haven’t been updated in recent years, Nye decided to create a new one.
(Fact Source+patent: 1 2) Follow Ultrafacts for more facts
This man just does not quit with the awesome.
More reasons Bill Nye is the best
American Ballet Theatre corps Kaho Ogawa 10 pirouettes
Friendly reminder that if you ever use the term “ballerina” as a pejorative, you deserved to get kicked in the kneecaps by one. And trust me she’ll do damage.
Audrey Hepburn with ballet coach Lucien Legrand, the first dancer and choreographer for the Paris Opera Ballet, at a dance rehearsal for her film Funny Face, Paris, France, 1956.
You see these fuckers? They’re my pointe shoes. Now, I don’t know how much you guys know about ballet, but pointe is a style of ballet where the dancer dances on their toes. There’s a wooden box like thing on the tips, and is flat on the front, which makes us able to dance on our toes like we do. It’s called the box or platform. These shoes need to be the perfect size, otherwise the dancer can easily seriously hurt themselves. If the shoes are too small, their toes could break, but if they’re too big, they could snap their ankles. No two pairs of shoes are the same, so you can’t borrow anyone else’s. They need to be yours because otherwise the shoes won’t fit with your foot and how you dance.
These shoes range from 50-85 dollars, depending on where you get them and what they’re made out of. They’re stiff as a board when you first get them, so you need to break them in. Breaking them in takes months. You have to dance in stiff, hard boxes until the shank and vamp finally takes to your foot. You will bleed. Some people actually cry because the pain of breaking the shoes in is so bad. Once they’re finally broken in, dancing in them is wonderful, even if it still hurts a little. But when they’re broken in, they only last a few more months until they fall apart completely. Then you need to get a new pair and break those in.
In order to dance on these shoes, you need the proper cushioning for your toes, whether it be cotton, a soft gel slip over your toes, or wool. Your toenails need to be as short as you can make them, so that your nail can’t splinter and dig into your skin as you go up. Sometimes it happens anyway. Before a dancer can even consider dancing on the floor away from the bar, they need to practice for months, perfecting their balance, the set of their core, where their shoulders need to be, and how to go up.
Going up is key to staying safe while dancing pointe. If you go up wrong, theres a 95% chance you will hurt yourself. To go up, you need to roll up from your heels to the tips of your toes, flat, and with precision. If you hop up, you’ll break your ankle. If you roll the wrong way, you’ll break your ankle. It literally needs to be perfect. Before leaving the bar, you need to be able to balance for about sixty seconds, to assure your instructor and yourself that you will be save doing forte turns and pirouettes, as well as gran-jete, glissade, leaps, and even waltzes.
The next step is grace. You can’t blunder across the stage. You need to glide, flowing from each step to the other. The dance needs to look like a single step, moving continuously from each pose to another. Fingers need to be extended, necks elongated, shoulders down, chin up, stomach and butt tense and in, legs and back straight and toes pointed and turned out. The dance must always continue, even if you hurt yourself. If you can still move, you can still dance. If you’re bleeding in your shoe, there is no stopping and fixing it. You finish the dance and when it’s over you patch yourself up in the dressing room and continue on with your next dance if you have one. If you fall, you make it look like it was supposed to be in the dance. Your facial expressions and body need to reflect the music, so if you have a melancholy song, you must look forlorn, and depict it through your body and eyes, as well as the set of your mouth. Same as if your number was happy and upbeat, you need to reflect that.
There are two major styles of ballet: Russian and Italian. An ideal ballerina knows both forms, and can tell the difference between the two. A dancer must follow the song with it’s beat as well, and the tempo can go from counts of four to sixteenth counts.
Pointe dancers sometimes need to put resin on their shoes so that they don’t slip and risk breaking an arm, or even their neck. But if you put too much resin on, your shoes will stick, and you’ll fall while trying to turn.
In conclusion, DANCE IS A FUCKING SPORT, OKAY? ESPECIALLY BALLET. WE RISK OURSELVES EVERY PRACTICE AND SHOW, SO DON’T YOU DARE FUCKING TELL ME THAT WHAT I DO ISN’T A SPORT. I PRACTICE FOR HOURS, JUST AS EVERY OTHER PERSON WHO PLAYS SOCCER OR FOOTBALL OR LACROSSE. I GET HURT AND I FALL AND I GET BRUISED AND I BREAK THINGS, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE WHO PLAYS ALL THOSE OTHER FUCKING SPORTS.
DANCE.
IS.
A.
SPORT.
So kindly fuck off if you think otherwise.
ballerinas are so fucking metal
Ballerinas are the most underrated athletes.
GUYS SHE IS SPINNING ON HER TOE.
ALL HER WEIGHT ON HER TOE.
HER TOE.
TOE.
Thank you someone for finally acknowledging this.
People always make ballet seem like such a wimpy, easy sport.
While we are dancing, we have to:
ALL THIS WHILE STILL IN OUR STARTING POSITIONS NOW DO ALL THAT WHILE MOVING AND LOOKING GORGEOUS. AND EFFORTLESS
You try holding your leg by your head without touching it and turning on the tips of your toes and wooden shoes and tell me ballet isn’t hard.
People always say “don’t be a ballerina” and “don’t be such a pussy”
when really ballerinas and vaginas are probably the most hardcore things
AND BALLERINAS WITH VAGINAS ARE JUST STRAIGHT UP METAL
SO DO NOT TELL ME BALLET IS FUCKING EASY AND NOT A REAL SPORT
Most ballerina’s are also known for dancing until their feet bleed, bandaging them up and getting back on with the show.
jfc ballerinas are so fucking metal
I want Sherlock and Molly to dance at John’s wedding. Like, everyone is out there dancing and swirling around and Molly is just standing there and so is Sherlock and they somehow just end up awkwardly dancing and oh my god I want it so bad.
Just noticed that the picture behind amy looks like ballerina or a girl in a gown but also kinda looks like a silences head upside down
oh holy fuck
I always try to dance when this song comes on because I am the Queen and I like to dance.
To the casual observer, this young couple look just like any other teenagers in love.
But pretty Katie Hill and her boyfriend Arin Andrews share a unique bond - they were both born as the opposite sex.
Katie, 18, spent the first 15 years of her life as Luke, son of a Marine colonel, while Arin, 16, was born a girl called Emerald who excelled at ballet dancing and won beauty contests.
Both struggled with their sexuality all through their childhoods and were teased and bullied but their lives were changed when they both began hormone therapy and later met at a trans support group in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and instantly fell in love.
Katie said: ‘All I saw was a handsome guy. We’re perfect for each other because we both had the same troubles growing up.
omfg this is the cutest thing ever
Hey, I live there!
I feel like this will be me one day :3 I’m happy they found each other!
I need this. It’s beautiful…
jenuinehoe
