The Royal Ballet's Pointe Shoes Appeal

The Royal Ballet dancers Edward Watson and Mara Galeazzi have teamed up in order to launch the Pointe Shoes Appeal, The Royal Ballet’s annual drive to raise funds to keep the company in footwear, offering an insight into a vital aspect of their performance. The dancers act as representatives for the appeal, despite the fact Galeazzi is due to retire this season after 21 years with the company. As monumental as it sounds, it is true that each dancer gets through three or four pairs of shoes a week due to the sheer intensity of their work. Each shoe is handmade to individual dancers’ needs and often dancers, such as Watson, have the same shoemaker for many years, due to the craftsman’s unique understanding of their technique. Costs are therefore inevitably high in order to transport the dancers through class and onto the stage. At the Royal Opera House, the ever-busy Pointe Shoe Room is staffed by two full-time members of staff, and all dancers are responsible for preparing their shoes. Galeazzi, for example, often uses two pairs of shoes for a single performance, due to the demands of the roles she dances. Each dancer has their own pointe shoe ritual but it invariably includes sewing the fronts, gluing the insoles, attaching the ribbons and elastics, and applying shellac. Each season the dancers at The Royal Ballet use over 10,000 pairs of pointe shoes, and around 2,000 pairs of flats, making the combined cost of shoes, character shoes, elastics, ribbons and detailing relevant to each production over £250,000 a year. The Pointe Shoes Appeal therefore requires donations in order to make this commitment possible, from the craftsmanship that goes into making the shoes, to the careful hours of preparation, the discipline in the rehearsal studio and the precision required on stage. The Pointe Shoes Appeal will then be able to fund all the required footwear for the dancers involved.