Breaking In
Dancers break in, or soften, new pointe shoes in order to improve their fit and thus eliminate the discomfort caused by new shoes. Various methods are employed for breaking in new pointe shoes including deforming them against hard surfaces, striking them with blunt objects, wetting the toe boxes and then wearing them, and heating them to soften the glues, but these methods may shorten a pointe shoe's usable lifetime.
Read more about this topic: Pointe Shoe
Famous quotes containing the word breaking:
“With their ever breaking newness
And their courage to be new.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Cities are ... distinguished by the catastrophic forms they presuppose and which are a vital part of their essential charm. New York is King Kong, or the blackout, or vertical bombardment: Towering Inferno. Los Angeles is the horizontal fault, California breaking off and sliding into the Pacific: Earthquake.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)