Types of Ballet Shoes | Ballet Education

Flat – flat work involves wearing flexible ballet shoes which are typically made of a canvas material. Beginning students and professionals all practice with flat shoes, as they are great for working on technique. Some ballet characters traditionally wear flat shoes, such as the female Arabian lead in ‘The Nutcracker’ as well as many characters for younger dancers such as the angels and toy soldiers from ‘The Nutcracker’.

Pointe – Pointe work involves wearing specially made shoes to dance on the tips of one’s toes as their feet are fully extended. This means that a person’s toes must be able to support one’s full weight, which requires years of training and ankle flexibility. Sometimes, pointe work may be practiced after a flat portion of center floor, or teachers will hold classes entirely focused on pointe (barre and center floor).

Character Shoes – For both men and women, these are shoes with low heels that are usually black, beige, or white in color. These shoes are used for character dancing, which is a subsection of ballet that is meant to portray traditional European folk dances. Roles that typically call for character dancing include townspeople or visitors from another land. An example would be some of the visiting royals who dance at Prince Siegfried’s birthday ball in ‘Swan Lake’ (specifically, the Mazurka character dance from Act II).