Who invented pointe shoes for ballet?

Answer 1

Though pointe work has been around awhile, it was 20th century Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova who was attributed to inventing pointe shoes. It was said that the famous prima had high arched insteps. This resulted in her being vulnerable to injuries while dancing on pointe.

She also had other foot problems. Her slender tapered feet put too much pressure on her big toes. She inserted toughened leather soles into her shoe to compensate for this. This gave her extra support and flattened and hardened the toe area. This formed a box around the toe and modern pointe shoe was born.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointe_shoes



In 1832, the famous ballerina Marie Taglioni was the first to dance a full length Ballet (Les Sylphide) en pointe, although her shoes were much different than the pointe shoes used today. They were most like regular ballet shoes, with the ends "darned" or reinforced with extra thread. Most likely, dancers used these pointe shoes before her famous performance, but she is the first to dance a full length ballet in them, and is thus given the credit.