A Must Know Trick | How To Keep Your Pointe Shoe Ribbons Lasting

 A Must Know Trick | How To Keep Your Point Shoe Ribbons Lasting

As you continue to use your pointe shoes,
the ribbons eventually may start to fray slightly but
the sealed end will stay in place, even if it has cracked.
These point shoes are some of my older ones which
are extremely worn down and so no longer used and have
only just started presenting frayed ribbons near the end of
their lifetime.

Hello! Hope all is well. Today I am going to share a quick simple Ballet trick to make your Pointe shoe Ribbons last. If you struggle to keep your Pointe shoe ribbons looking neat, this trick is a great way to do that. This post can be for beginners as some people may know this trick, others may have figured it out for themselves, but I thought why not share it for those just learning because this trick works. Share it with someone else to help them if needed.

Ribbons once cut to be placed onto a Pointe shoe can become 'tatty'. They eventually start to frey through wear and tear and this can result in ugly, messy and non-existent ribbons. People in my old Ballet class had this exact problem, and many had to replace the ribbons with new ones. Once person even had their ribbons attached by a few small threads because they had frayed so much.
The more they frey, the more the ribbon starts to shorten in length, eventually working it's way to where it is sown on the Pointe shoe. Once this happens, they can snap and break off the shoe. Not good if you're on stage or practicing multiple pirouettes or leaps in class.

Image of my Grisko Triumph's brand new and with
newly sewn ribbons.

Once you have sewn your ribbons correctly onto your Pointe shoe, follow the instructions below.

You will need:

• Lighter. Ask for permission or help if needed to stay safe as some Pointe beginners can be under 10 years of age x
• If you prefer a candle, be sure it has access to the flame.
• Plate to place underneath the ribbons when holding them or underneath candle.
• Your ribbons.

Steps:

Frayed ribbon

1. Be sure you have all items needed.
2. Take candle, place on a plate and light/ take the lighter and make a flame. Ask for permission or help if needed to stay safe if you or the person who the shoe belongs to is young. It's a good idea to have someone hold the shoe whilst you hold the ribbon over the flame to stop your shoe from getting in the way. 
3. With your free hand, hold the ribbon and face the end which is or may frey away from you. This end will be placed above the heat of the flame. 



Ribbon with melted fabric
making a plastic seal shown by a curve in
the ribbon above

4. Being careful not to burn yourself, hover the frayed end of the ribbon a few centimetres above the flame. As you do this you will see loose bits of the ribbon curl and ravel back to the end which they came from. Remove from over the flame and check to make sure all the end of the ribbon is sealed with the melted ribbon. Be sure not to burn the end of the ribbon. This has created a seal on the end of the ribbon ensuring nothing can break away from the cut end. The reason why it melts is because ribbons are made from Nylon, a fabric used in fashion made out of plastic.  

There you go, a simple trick to keep the ends of your ribbons that you tie neat and tidy. I have had the Grisko Triumph shoes for over a year and only now have the ribbons frayed due to months and months of wear and tear.


Hope this was useful and easy for you to learn. Happy dancing! 

Yours truly,

Caris

My Wonder Food For Mornings | Be Surprised How Good Porridge Can Be

My Wonder Food For Mornings | Be Surprised How Good Porridge Can Be

Hello! So you may be wondering "why have you decided to write about porridge?" Well... I will explain. I also like to blog about healthy foods, as mentioned on my blog in the title box and there is history behind my healthy food ideas. This is a

My favourite combination, Porridge
 with freshly chopped Apple. (Yes I took this
whilst making my breakfast haha)

post about one way which you could improve your diet in the mornings, especially helpful for us dancers who burn a lot off and eat like horses (well I do but yeah maybe you do too? ha). I have been considering blogging about this as I think it's something that I should share, especially for those like me who suffer from stomach upset when eating even the simplest of foods. So please bare with :) Now I am no food scientist, or any scientist to be exact, just someone who wants to share my experience of how good I think this food can be for you in the mornings. So here's another food post for you. Oh and if you don't like Porridge then that's fine :) 

I am a Porridge lover! I used to enjoy it when I was younger and have it with jam or fresh fruit on top. Yummy! Now when I'm having breakfast in the mornings, I have always had the issue of eating something and then becoming hungry within an hour after. Not good when you're out and about or doing physical exercise, like dancing. No matter what I ate, I was always hungry a little while after. Unless... I had Porridge. 

Being someone who suffers from an extremely sensitive stomach, with I.B.S, I have to be careful about what I eat. I.B.S is Irritable Bowel Syndrome and it is a sensitive topic for me and others to mention as this is an issue that can be stress related, something I struggle with and have all my life since little. I.B.S makes even eating food that others easily consume impossible. I suffered from bloating which flared up with anything I ate and make things seem dismal and depressive for me. I would get horrible cramping in my intestines because they were acting in a bad way to the foods I ate. They were acting like your body does when you're allergic to something. So I cut out the junk and ate all the healthy fibre foods, like porridge- yes I know I have mentioned "porridge" too many times haha.

Eating junk food is not a great idea for me and I can only eat small amounts, such as chocolate every few weeks. Factors such as how acidic or alkaline foods are affect me largely; even in the smallest amounts. Cereal and Milk in the mornings give me stomach pains from the Lactose in the cold Milk. In order to consume Milk alone, I have to heat it up to break down the Lactose. Preservatives in the cereals make me feel

 Take fresh fruit any type. Apple has fibre in it
and vitamins.

unwell, my stomach disagrees with them because they're not natural. But porridge? Just plain Oats. No added sugars or too high acidity levels. Not only does it calm my stomach, but it fills me up. Now there is a reason for my long descriptive introduction. It is because I am stressing that one food that is very good for you, be it because you suffer from intolerance like I do, you're hungry literally non-stop and want to cut down or just think you're diet needs a kick to get back onto the healthy side of life like mine did; this is worth a read.

The day I had porridge for the first time ever, IT
ACTUALLY FILLED ME UP AND I DIDN'T FEEL BLOATED OR UNWELL!! Finally now I could do things without being hungry or with a painful feeling when eating, finally I could be out and about for hours without a single noise coming from my stomach; without my having to grab food fast. To prove how well it fills me up, I ate breakfast at 8:00 am. I had 40g of Porridge and 150ml of milk. Porridge is heated to combine the Milk and Oats (I prefer heating it in a pan), meaning my stomach is fine with milk being consumed. I add a bit of Jam on top or eat it plain and I'm full. At 1:00 pm, a time of which my stomach would have been moaning about being hungry for hours, I had only just felt the slightest bit hungry. You can add fruits to your porridge such as Strawberries, Blueberries, Grapes, Banana or Apple (as you can see in my picture) which are high in vitamins, especially berries with their antioxidant qualities (like Blueberries). Add anything you like. 

So if you have similar issues as me with foods and have to limit your diet to a balance of healthy foods, you are always hungry once eating and are busy throughout the day or just feel that you need to switch your diet; why not try and incorporate porridge into your diet. Because the fact Porridge fills

Healthy, full of fibre and junk free!

me up, I highly suspect it would be great for stopping snacking between meals, something I used to do at college due to stress. If you're not a porridge fan then that's fine. It can be an advantage for anyone who wants to cut down on snacking or maybe even for those who are on diets, because you're full for longer, therefore reducing the amount of time you are hungry and reduces the amount of times you eat foods to fill up between meals.  Porridge is slow burning and full of fibre, which toxins in the body stick to in the digestive system removing them from your body; hence why junk foods made my stomach problems to flare up. The toxins were building up! Also, a final thing to add in, your body burns this energy slowly, meaning you can last longer. I have to say it's my morning wonder food and can be had before work, school, college or exercise (like my dancing). 

Yours truly,

Caris

3 Simple Tips I Believe Help | Coping With Nerves When Performing

3 Simple Tips I Believe Help | Coping With Nerves When Performing 

Nerves about performing. Everyone gets nervous, it's a natural response. I can be a calm person but at the same time I can be a fairly nervous person too and tend worry a lot over the smallest of things. It's who I am and its always been my own way of coping since I was young: worry lots then find out that everything was fine and hey you survived. However I am learning to be calmer and not worry too much over things and this will improve as I get older. It will improve with time, with experience of multiple situations or surroundings and gain confidence from these experiences.

Same applies for nerves before a performance. I love to perform, despite the fact that I can get stressed easily, similarly to anyone else who would most likely feel nervous before going on stage or performing too. I have taken part in quite a few dance shows, school drama productions and even summer workshops finishing with a production after just five days. So here are my tips to make sure that nerves don't get the better of us.

I have struggled to concentrate with leaps in dance.
I just couldn't stop thinking about how to do it but the day
this was taken, I was calm and just thought go for it and I
managed this leap!  Photography
by Georgina Bradley

1.  Go for it. What I mean by this is just try your best, go for it and do what you need to to put on a great show or performance. You never know, you may perform even better than you did in the weeks of rehearsing leading up to the performance. I know I did. In rehearsals for my dance schools summer show, I was in the grande finale and had to do pirouettes when I had only been doing Pointe work for a few months. Pressure. I kept messing up in lessons or getting it one day and not the next. But on the night of the show when I had to do three pirouettes in the time space of roughly five seconds, remember to smile, bring my foot round to get to my finished position then run to the line before the fire works went off. You know what, I did it perfectly! :) When I went off stage my dance teacher told me that I was great and said well done. So go for it and try your best :) And it makes me glad I moved away in time before the Catherine wheels went off at the front stage. No joke they had these!
2. When performing don't over think things. It may appear odd me saying this but honestly, keep a cool head and do what you got to do. Over thinking will stress you out. This will put your concentration off. When I preformed in my old schools Christmas production I struggled with my lines. A lot of these lines were hard to get correct, it all for some reason jumbled up in my head. All the words seemed like tongue twisters. However, when I kept calm and didn't over think what I was meant to say, a few days before the performance I managed all my lines! Not easy when you're on stage pretty much the whole time, narrating the performance through your character. 
   
3. Have confidence in what your doing. I know you may be thinking "It's easy to say that but hard to have confidence" and I agree. Confidence isn't something that you develop over night, but you can help influence how long it takes. For me, getting stuck into different experiences such as being in productions helped and I would just think "Just do it otherwise you never know what could happen". For me personally, travelling to a college far away was another thing that built my confidence however unusual this may seem for confidence building. Having to get two buses there and back allowed me to feel confident in myself and become more independent. And if you struggle with confidence, I'm not saying the only way to raise confidence is to go to a college far away. No. I am proving my point that confidence will develop as you get older and as you experience more things. So basically just go for things you want to do, don't hold back because you're worried about peoples opinions or failure. The greatest inventors discovered things by not backing down. That's something worth
   remembering :) 

There you go. My small yet simple tips to help with nerves when performing. Once you hit the stage or the floor just go for it, don't hold back and this persistence to carry on without letting yourself feel nervous will help you when performing. Nerves are natural and they want to stay minimal in our life to be sure they don't affect our performance :) Hope this is useful information :) 

Happy dancing!

Yours truly,

Caris

DO'S and DON'TS For Starting Pointe Work

 DO'S and DON'TS For Starting Pointe Work

Hi, it's been a while since I have posted and apologies as I haven't been well for some time(nothing super serious no worries). I decided to write a small bit about things NOT to do and the correct thing to DO on Pointe that you will need to know. This post is mainly aiming at those starting Pointe work but anyone can read it of course. I would just like to say am not an expert but have taken dancing lessons for nine years and so am sharing what I have learnt. I am just writing my own opinions and views and I have nothing against anyone who disagrees with what I say as you are entitled to have a free opinion, we all are.


There may be a slight imbalance of DO'S and DONT'S, however these are key points that I think every dancer on Pointe would need to know. But for now, let's get started:

Example of correctly tied Pointe shoes
modelled by me.

1. Don't: Tie ribbons loosely and sloppily, recipe for disaster believe me. When tying your ribbons, you need to firstly make sure they're the right length, to do this, they need to be long enough to cross over, under and around your legs and ankles and to be tied while being supportive to your feet. I started Pointe work with no elastic to keep my Pointe shoes on, so tying Pointe shoes was EXTREMELY important as you need the shoe to hug your foot and support your ankles and feet; reducing chances of injury (warming up also reduces these risk A LOT) and provides a more stable base to perform on so to speak. This will basically be allowing you to perform floor and bare work correctly and to perform to your highest ability, a key for any success in dancing. You will see in the picture of me in my Pointe shoes how your ribbons should be tied. This is how they should be tied and once knotted, the remaining ribbon must be tucked under in the gap on your leg between your ankle bone and tendon on the back of your foot. As you can see, where the ribbons are attached to the shoe there is no gaping or bunched up ribbon. This is a sign of correctly tied Pointe shoes. Remember the key to know when the ribbons are tied correctly, when standing the ribbons should be flat not crumpled or bunched up and should be flat against the sides of your foot.
2. DO: Tie your ribbons and tuck the remaining ribbon under. This will prevent you from standing on them, prevent the knot of the ribbon being knocked and coming undone and to make your feet look presentable and professional. There is nothing more unprofessional than having someone wearing Pointe shoes where the ribbons are trailing on the floor. Not only does this look bad but it can be a hazard to you, especially when fully standing on Pointe as you could trip over the ribbons. So be sure to tidy those Pointes up :)

   

   This is how your feet should look when standing
   correctly. In this image my shoes aren't broken in completely and
   are brand new, making them look straight upright at the back.
   This is normal for new Pointe shoes. To note: at the time my
   ribbons had not been trimmed yet so I couldn't
   tuck them in.

3. DON'T: Stand on full Pointe without any support when first starting. You can cause a lot of strain and damage to your feet, ankles and knees when first starting Pointe and standing on them fully. Not only is this dangerous for your health, but a injury can result in a disability to perform at your best and this can really alter your aims of succeeding on certain steps for Ballet. I don't mean never practice, but what I mean is when your a beginner, it's best to wait for your dance teacher to inform you on things that you can do when beginning. If your teacher says "practice rising up onto full Pointe with support" then you can do that but do it with support to keep your balance and reduce risk of injury.  

   

   Practise can be made easier with cushioning. Try
   Ouch Pouches which protest feet from injury and cushion them
   I fully recommend them :)

4. DO: Work your way up with practise and be patient. Pointe work takes ALOT of practise and patience. It can be physically challenging to hold yourself up on your toes and balance. But with practice you'll master that and when the basics are mastered, you can begin to try harder things. For example, when I was first learning I first started with strengthening my feet, ankles, legs and knees at the bar. Once I had strengthened myself, I was able to move along the bar, followed being able to move across the floor without the bar and then go onto harder things such as Pirouettes. Now I can do multiple Pirouette across the floor however, I can do that because of patience and practice :) If I wasn't patient and didn't practice, I'd most likely be nowhere.  
5. DO: Warm up before dancing. Pointe work can put a lot of strain on your feet, ankle, legs and knees and so having warned up muscles can help with performance and reduce risk of injury. You will learn warm ups in lessons when beginning Pointe work but the most useful I found was to rise up and down from your feet to your toes until you're all warmed up. Not warming up can be risky, can cause injuries and these injuries in turn can ruin your performance chances as it will make it harder to perform certain techniques, making progression even harder. So remember, always and I mean ALWAYS warm up before any exercise.

So there you have it, a few simple DO'S and DONT'S that I believe all Pointe beginners should know. I hope this was found to be useful and detailed.
If you would like to read more about tips for Pointe work, why not check out my previous posts about more important things for Pointe beginners- Key Things To Make Pointe Work More Comfortable: for beginners, and the second part to this post- Key Things To Make Pointe Work More Comfortable: a little bit more to remember

Happy dancing to everyone,

Yours truly
Caris

POST UPDATE!

Hi, I wrote a post on my ChattyBlonde blog called 'Healthy Nails: My Own Small Things I do to Keep Nails Healthier when Painting Them' and thought that it would be worth a look at. If you haven't had a look on my other blog, click the link and have a read. Please check it out, you may find it interesting ;)


 Byyyeeee!!!

Check out my Halloweeniness (is that even a word??)

Check out my Halloweeniness (is that even a word??)

Hey,

I just posted up a Halloween post and have left the link here for you to check it out if you want to on my other blog Caris' Blog :)

Thank you,
Caris

Key Things to Make Pointe Work more Comfortable | A Little more to Remember

Key Things to Make Pointe Work more Comfortable | A Little more to Remember

Hey,

I previously posted a post on key things that you can do and use to make pointe work more comfortable and I realised that I forgot some other key things that are small but should defiantly be remembered when doing pointe work. This is just a mini post this time as it's only a few things that I forgot to mention in the first post. Again this post is aimed at those beginning pointe work but you can still read this if you want. As I always say, I am not a professional dancer but an average person who's hobby is dance (Ballet) and who wants to share information with those just like me.

First off, manicure needed. When doing pointe work, obviously you are pretty much using the strength of your feet etc and pointe shoes to enable you to stay on your toes. By standing on your toes, your feet and ankles will receive pressure as your weight pushes down onto your feet, and of course your toes. Having toe nails that are long can cause issues when doing pointe work. For example, pressure is applied on your feet and of course your toes when standing on pointe (standing on your toes) as your weight is also pushing down, this makes your toe nails push into your toe and can be extremely painful. I have ingrown toe nails from Ballet but got this before starting pointe, I didn't take good enough care of my toes and soft ballet shoes can be quite tight, and so this resulted in ingrown toe nails. Another thing that didn't help for me, was the fact that my toe nails grown quite quickly, making it hard to keep up with them. However, my Ouch Pouches (mentioned in previous post) are very helpful as I hardly feel the pressure applied on my ingrown toe nails. Be sure that your toe nails are cut nicely as to avoid pain when on pointe, and avoid ingrown toe nails. If you feel like your nail and skin are starting to get caught, you can also tape around your toe (where the nail is) and do in a way so that you hold the skin with the tape, by the nail and gently wrap it around your toe. This separates the skin and the nail so that the nail doesn't get caught into the skin. After removing the toe tape from your toe, allow your nail time to heal.

Be sure to remove any foot protection
things (such as Ouch Pouches)
from your shoes to allow them
to dry out/air off as well.

Let them dry! After using your pointe shoes, be sure to remove any padding or protection that you use for your feet inside the shoe (like Ouch pouches) and leave your pointe shoes to 'air off'. Pointe shoes need to stay strong, and moisture won't help them as it breaks down the glue used to keep them strong. Following this, don't attempt to break your shoes in even more by not leaving them to air off, as this will just damage them.

Following the need to let your pointe shoes 'air off', purchase a mesh drawstring bag (also known as a breathable mesh drawstring bag) to put your pointes in after they have been used. This will allow air to flow into the holes in the bag and enable your shoes to dry out/air off. I have a mesh drawstring bag that I purchased from a dance website and it's definately an essential for ballet. Plus allowing cool air to reach your shoes will stop most of the bacteria left in your shoes from your feet (yep nice thought there) from breeding as they like warm, moist conditions and therefore your shoes won't smell like a dead, slowly decaying rat (good similie there haha) If you're not sure what I am talking about, are interested in or are in need of buying a bag like this heres a link to a site called http://www.dancewear.co.uk/  where they have a mesh drawstring pointe shoe bag for sale -https://dancewear.co.uk/products&subcat=4 You can also find one on many other dance websites and shops but this is just a suggestion.

 I hope you found this useful and if you would like me to do anything, please suggest to me in the comment box below.

Thank you for reading,

Yours Truly,
Caris