| ballets, the bravura ones, with fewer jumps but many pirouettes and bourrées – Patricia McBride in Tarantella |
| The reluctant one percent: Who are they? |
| Why aren’t toe shoes made from more lasting materials? Because leather, rubber, plastic and synthetics are loud, clumsy, painful and, most important, ugly. Freed’s shoes, like the dancers who wear them, are beautiful, with a necessarily finite life span. “And you girls in the New York City Ballet use almost twice as many shoes a year as any other company,” Kohler said accusingly. Then he winked: after all, it means more business for Freed’s. |
| We are indeed a “Freed’s company,” with almost 99 percent of our shoes sent from London every year. (Kohler is still trying to find out who the few dissenters are.) We order approximately 50 pairs per girl, four times a year. The American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet order 60 pairs per girl, twice a year. “Suzanne Farrell orders over 350 pairs a year” – one a day – Kohler said. |
| He came to watch a NYCB class while we were in London to try to see why we are so hard on our shoes. He noticed that, |
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| unlike the ABT or Royal Ballet dancers who follow a more traditional classical training, we tend to pounce onto our pointes. Less concerned with the development and display of the calf and ankle, and with the foot slowly “rolling up” onto pointe, we virtually jump onto our toes. I was reminded of Balanchine. “Bang!” he would shout, “Get there! What are you waiting for?” And he would clap his hands quickly and sharply. Kohler thought we were more dependent on the shoe for support than other dancers who strive to create the illusion that the shoe is merely part of the foot. Balanchine liked the shoe to look like a shoe – separate and clean, with shiny ribbons. He did not like us powdering the satin to achieve a more subtle onstage effect. Special orders comprise 75 percent of Freed’s production. If a dancer is not satisfied with her shoes, she will not wear them. With humility and earnestness, Kohler said, “We try to keep our ladies happy.” But this is impossible. Both the ballerinas and shoes have their eccentricities, and to find a perfect match on any given day is rare. No two toe shoes are alike, and no two pairs are alike, even though crafted by the same maker. He too has his good and bad days. A finished shoe cannot be altered, so returned |
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