[Music]
hi dancers welcome back to my channel
I'm Claudia Dean and today I have a
really exciting video for you all I'm
going to release the best point shoe
hacks and I know you're all going to
love them so stay right to the end I'm
going to teach you all the things that I
used to do to my point shoes when I was
with the Royal Ballet in today's video
I'm going to be using the poches that I
used to wear which are block heritage I
love block I used to always wear block
point shoes I'm a big believer in them
they've got such an amazing range and so
many different styles to choose from I
really do know that there's a point sh
for every dancer out there in the block
range let's get straight onto it so my
first point shoe hack is about making
sure that the shank inside the point
shoe is actually 3/4 shank instead of
the full shank so I'm going to show you
how you create this I know that this
makes the line foot looks so much nicer
because occasionally I would find that
um whatever Point shoe I wore it was
just because I had really strong toes I
would find that my shoes would break
further down in the shoe when actually
obviously you always want your foot to
break up near the 3/4 in my bag I've got
all the tools we need for today so for
this first hack you're going to need a
good pair of scissors preferably bigger
scissors you're going to need need a
Stanley knife to cut the shank and
you're lastly you're going to need some
super glue I'm going to demonstrate just
using one shoe obviously you need to do
this to both shoes now we're going to
pull back firstly this gray part of the
shoe so you're going to pull this back
right probably up until about halfway
down the shoe can you see the wood here
this is the part we need to make a 3/4
Shank
so what you're going to do you're going
to push with your fingers you're going
to push the shank forward so it
detaches like that from the shoe and
we're going to pull it right the way
down again probably so it's about
halfway down to the shoe there now
depending on your foot so for my foot I
needed to cut the shank about 1 cm away
from that nail right there okay so mine
is going to be cut about
here if you find you've got quite a low
inep you might need to go a little bit
lower if you find you've got a quite
High inep you may need to cut even
higher you might need to go 2 cm up it
just depends on your foot just a
disclaimer if you are young please have
an adult supervise you doing this or
even just get your um parents to do this
for you just making sure that you're
safe while doing this because we are
using sharp utensils here now you're
going to take the Stanley knife and
you're going going to place it where you
actually want to break the shank so as I
said mine's 1 cm away from that nail
that's in the shoe now I'm going to
slice really
carefully draw a line along that part of
the shoe just be very careful when you
do that that is just so you know um
where the shank is going to be broken
now I'm going to bend that spot where I
have just cut so bend it in oh have to
use a lot of muscles for that and then
also bend it the other way you might
find in this process the shank might
actually break off it just depends on
your shoe now we're going to take the
scissors see where that line is we're
actually going to cut where that line is
and cut all the way
across Y and you might actually find too
when you get to about halfway it'll be
really easy to to break off like that
and there we have it we have a 3/4 shank
hack number two now this next step's
really important because I always found
that if I didn't do this I would
actually get really bad blisters
underneath my feet now you're going to
get your Stanley knife again and it's
best to just basically cut and shave
down the corners like so and again on
the other side just to make sure that
that part doesn't dig into your foot and
it's nice nice and
smooth there we go okay now this is the
most important part now you're going to
get your super glue and you're going to
layer it where the wood is and you're
also going to layer it here on the
shoe and basically guess what you're
going
to pull down the gray bit and look it's
as good as new and you let it dry I
always used to let it dry overnight but
I'm sure it's super glue so it's going
to dry really fast now it'll be nice and
smooth and you'll find you won't get any
blisters if you follow all those
steps look hack number three now did you
ever find that when you're dancing
perhaps ad AR on stage I mean there's
been a lot of rolls where I've had to do
pones on stage and gelle and things like
that um and the bottom of your point Sho
it can be sometimes quite unsteady
because of the wood uh just sort of on
the outer edges so what I like to do is
basically shave this section down so
that it's really flat and really smooth
and I'm going to show you how to do this
correctly take the Stanley knife and all
you're going to do firstly is start from
about the center of the point shoe and
shave little bits at a time so it
doesn't need to be big bits you just
shave little bits once again you'll
probably make a little bit of a mess
so just be prepared to clean that up
afterwards now as you can see if you
look from the side view see how smooth
that is compared to this side so
basically I actually think as well it
gives dancers a much better line on
point because it's so seamless here on
the side so let's take the other side
now and do exactly the same
thing okay and if you want you can also
do this section here um just lightly you
don't need to do it as much because you
won't feel that as
much there we go and there we have it
the underneath of the shoe all done hack
number four this one is to reduce the
noise have you ever watched dances on
stage and sometimes when they land from
big jumps you sort of hear the thud I
mean that's not IDE deal when you're in
point shoes but it happens because
obviously these are made of wood and
they're going to be loud but this little
hack it actually reduces the noise from
your shoes I would recommend actually
doing this on cement today obviously I
don't have a slab of cement so I'm just
going to do it on my tet and um
underneath here is chipwood so it is
pretty hard anyway you're just going to
do this you're basically going to take
the bottom of your shoe and you're going
to whack it as hard as you can on the
floor PS there's about to some really
loud
noise like that and I would actually do
this probably for about a good 20
seconds on each shoe I had to do this
before every performance at the Royal
Ballet it was a must in fact all the
dancers in the company had to do this to
make sure we sounded like little fairies
when we landed from all of our jumps
hack number five now let's go into my
bag of tricks and I'm going to get some
rosin and also some paper towel and with
the rosin we're basically going to pour
a little
bit out about that much and then you're
going to take your paper
towel and basically this little hack is
to dust your point shoes with rosin
instead of Calamine Calamine definitely
100% makes your shoes Go funny when it
dries it pulls you back from point so
I'd really recommend you use rosin
instead of Calamine and basically I'll
show you what to do all you're going to
do is put your paper towel into a little
square like this dab a fair bit on and
scoop some up and basically you dust it
all over the point shoe like
[Music]
so
and Tada look we've got matte point
shoes and it's amazing because it
doesn't change the way they feel on your
feet at all it's exactly the same as
same look as Calamine but it's not
Calamine so I'd recommend this also if
you're worried about rosin at
competitions because I know some
competitions you're not allowed to wear
Rosen don't worry just be really careful
you don't get too much on the base of
your shoe just focus on sort of this
outer area and it'll be absolutely fine
hack number six we're going to take our
Stanley knife again and we are going to
basically draw little crosses there's
some here actually already on the shoe
but I do even bigger ones to make it um
really obvious because this hack here
will basically make sure that you don't
slip at all on stage it is the best
thing to grip the underneath of your
your shoe to Studio floors or stage
floors so I'd really recommend you doing
this to performances there we go and
it's really you'll find it grips so much
more when you do this hack number seven
now we're actually going to remove this
top part of the satin here on the shoe I
feel like the material underneath is
much more grippy material we're going to
remove this now take your Stanley knife
and just do like a little sort of try
and corner it so you grab a bit of the
satin and when you've got a little hole
there you're going to grab your scissors
find the hole that you've torn with the
Stanley knife and now you're going to
cut and you might need to use your hands
to lift it up a little
bit and you cut all the way
around and make sure you cut all the way
down as well so we cut all the way down
here and then we come all the way back
up to finish it
off and we can make it
neater by trimming the
outside
Perfect Look hack number eight now back
to my bag of tricks and we are going to
get a little container filled with water
spray we are actually going to
spray this section of the shoe here
because this part where your bunions are
when obviously your foot's in the shoe
where your bunions are I feel like it
needs to be much softer than any other
part of the shoe so the water will
actually make it much softer but let's
do
that and then I just let it dry for
maybe 24 hours but it's water once again
it probably will dry really fast back to
my bag of tricks and guess what I've got
in here shellac of course now
shellacking your shoes makes your shoes
last so much longer and the biggest tip
with shellac is make sure you put it on
when the shoes are brand new don't try
putting shellac or jet glue on once
you've worn them it just doesn't work
take your shellac and do it and what I'd
recommend is actually putting the
tiniest
bit
in the top like I'm talking hardly
anything at all because the last thing
you want to do is to spill this stuff
all over your shoes you're going to take
the shellac and basically I would say it
depends on your foot once again but as I
mentioned before my foot always broke
further down so I used to pour my
shellac under this part of the shoe oh
it looks like I need some more okay so
let's pour some
more about that much so the tiniest bit
down the
bottom and look there we go a little
goes a long way with
shellac there we go and seriously that's
how much I used to put on and I used to
put it exactly in this spot and it
worked perfectly if you find your feet
um more bendy here obviously L you put
it down here now the next place I'd
always put shellac was down in this part
of the shoe because the box of my shoe
used to always break much faster than
anywhere else so I'm going to show you
how to do that this time I actually
would recommend pouring nearly about a
cap fied of schlack into the top now
you're going to get the cap and you're
going to pour it
down there into the shoe and you can see
see it see how it's kind of like loose
at the moment now you're going to smoosh
it around
so it fills the whole top part of the
shoe and almost make sure there's no um
excess shellac sitting down the bottom
so see how now there's none in
there that's what you want and this will
basically harden up the box part of the
shoe and also here cuz we put it on the
back now let it dry definitely for 24
hours maybe even 48 hack number 10 now
once you fully prepared your shoes and
you've shellacked them you've cut them
you've made them 3/4 shank you've done
all that to them I'm going to teach you
a little trick on how to make sure your
point shoes don't slip off your heels
cuz I know this is like a dancer's worst
nightmare so when you put your stockings
on you're going to do this now we're
going to put our tights on we're now
going to pull this up above there so now
basically your point shoe is going to be
sitting here on the heel so bare skin
which is going to grip so much better
than it would with tights now we're
going to take your shoe and we're going
to put it
on and I'm going to show you how to get
rid of this
Gap now you're going to grab your excess
rosin that you use to dust your shoes
and you're actually going to get that
and dab it
all over this part of your heel
so your tight and the rosin blend I have
also seen dancers do this with white
paint and so we used to use that for
Swan Lake so I've seen dancers use all
types of things here so you can use
white paint or you can use rosin there's
a few different things anything that
basically Blends in with your tights so
here is the finished shoes
everyone and I love
them I haven't been on point in so long
it's the weirdest feeling but this is
exactly what I used to do to my
shoes thanks for watching everyone and
don't forget to like comment and
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enjoyed this video share it with your
friends if you loved it as well bye for
now