Fit Tip Friday is DRN’s monthly column where pointe shoe fitters share their go-to advice. For our fifth installment, Riley Thomas Weber—dancer, teacher, and pointe shoe therapist—discusses why properly tied ribbons are crucial for support and stability, and why stretch infinity loops should be reserved for performance, not training. —Emily May, Editor, Dance Retailer News.
Ribbon has an anatomical purpose. It’s there to pull the shoe up into a dancer’s instep and to lift it up. It stops dancers from collapsing, and acts as a barrier to them falling forward out of the shoe. We first started seeing stretch ribbons when Elastorib came out. It was designed to assist in the reduction of strain on the Achilles tendon. I’m a big fan of Capezio and Bloch offerings. But when the full stretch ribbon came out, I said immediately: “Red flag.”
Stretch ribbon isn’t bad in itself. It’s great for dancers recovering from tendonitis or working through something. It’s when you take a full stretch ribbon and add it to shoes in an infinity loop that it’s a problem. It’s mainly done for aesthetic purposes. Granted, it doesn’t rub up against the Achilles so much, but it’s mainly just ornament at this point. Kids say that the infinity loop with stretch ribbons are easier and faster to get on, but it means they lose all the support from tightly cross-tied ribbons. People come to me and say, “My shoe falls off all the time.” I reply, “That’s because you don’t have ribbons and you’re not tying them. Don’t complain to me.” I’ll say this to a student, I’ll say this to a customer.
I saw a very famous now-principal dancer debut Sugar Plum. I was sitting right by the orchestra and I saw her shoes so close-up that I could even tell you the maker she was wearing. She had the infinity loop stretch ribbon, and when she did the very first step in the Sugar Plum variation, the shoe completely slipped off her heel. You wouldn’t have noticed from the balcony, but she did the whole minute-and-a-half solo with one shoe off her foot because she didn’t have that support.
It’s tough for retail stores, because from a business perspective, they have to do what the clients want. Now stores also make a good chunk of money from sewing the shoes for kids. I think the infinity loop and stretch ribbon is something that professionals can consider doing for quick changes during performances, but it’s not for dancers in training. In my experience, almost 100 percent of fitters who were ballet dancers agree with me.
Riley Thomas Weber is a dancer, teacher, and pointe shoe therapist based in Orlando, FL. He shares his knowledge on his TikTok and Instagram channels. You can find out more about him in this DRN article.