Pre Pointe Assessment

For those of you who don’t know, I offer Pre Pointe Assessments.

This entails coming to your dance school, (or home visits or you coming to me).
I look at the various important attributes to seeing if a dancer is ready to start pointe work, or if they would be best starting with demi pointe shoes, (also know as soft blocks or soft pointes).
Plus advising the dancer of what they can do to get themselves ready for pointe in the future.

Teachers have found this to be beneficial to their schools because believe it or not, sometimes teachers cannot always tell 100% if a student is ready. Sometimes, we don’t actually realise till we actually fit them and see.
Personally will never fit a dancer unless I feel she is ready.
There is no set time that a dancer is ready and it should be assessed individually.

Did you know, that in Australia and the US especially – it’s common to have dancers go for a pre pointe assessment with a dance physio?

Some Of The Factors Taken Into Consideration For First Pointe Shoes At Pre Pointe Assessments:

If I see a student who I feel would benefit from a dance physio, I also mention this.
When assessing a dancer to start pointe work. There are many factors that should be looked at.
Some of these include:

– Any previous injuries? Or health conditions?
– Core Strength.
– Strong back.
– Alignment of the back and hips.
– Turnout and ability to maintain sufficient turnout.
– Knees and the ability for straight knees.
– Does the dancer have hyper extension? And are they doing the correct exercises to help with this?
– Arches.
– Good adequate demi pointe.
– Flexibility of the feet and ankles.
– The degree of rotation in the ankles (measuring how much rotation there is. It is known that there should be at least 180 degrees of rotation in the ankle for pointe work).
– Strength of the feet and ankles.
– Alignment of the feet and ankles and in fact the entire body.
– Is there supination or pronation present in the ankles?
– Toe strength and alignment.
– Ability to show strong well placed one footed relevés.
– How many ballet technique classes per week is the dancer taking?

Using demi pointe shoes prior to getting first pointe shoes is extremely helpful.
Along with doing exercises for feet, ankles, turn out, knees, core strength and more.

Some of the ways that demi pointe shoes assist in getting a dancer ready for pointe work include:

– Strengthening ankles.
– Working and strengthening the intrinsic foot muscles.
– Teaching the dancer how to work their feet better.
– Getting used to the confinements of the box of a pointe shoe.
– Improving demi pointe.
– Balance and alignment.

In rare cases, some dancers sadly do not have the attributes required to do pointe work.

For more information, and to book pre pointe assessments please contact me.

Photo: with Eleanor from TalentsTheatreSchool fitting her demi pointe shoes. And this year I fitted her actual pointe shoes!

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