How to Tie Pointe Shoes the Right Way: Guide for Beginners

If this is the first time you’re going to use pointe shoes after permission from your teachers and taking classes, then you may be confused about using these shoes properly. 

Generally, ballet dancers are taught by instructors at ballet studios how to wear pointe shoes, still, some students learn them the hard way. 

Pointe shoes are quite different from conventional shoes and need to be properly wrapped around the feet for proper fittings. 

These shoes come with ribbons and rubber straps to tie around the ankles so that they could grip your feet and you can do ballet dance or practice pointe technique securely. 

You should know how to tie pointe shoes if you’re performing ballet technique at a studio or doing pointe rehearsal to master the skill. 

If you don’t know how to tie pointe shoes, I will show you the right method step by step below:

How to Tie Pointe shoe Step by Step:

how to tie ribbon shoes

I hope the following steps are going to help you to tie pointe shoes and learn the modern dance on feet: 

1. Prepare for Pointe Shoes

If you have completed your ballet training and are going to start the pointe technique, then it is time to wear pointe shoes. You just need to have a pair of Pointe shoes to learn to tie ballet pointe shoes.

Pointe shoes come with toe pads that you must wear before you actually wear your dance shoes

Make sure your shoes are properly fit and have ribbons and rubber straps that are required to properly fit your feet. 

2. Keep Your Feet Balance

When wearing ballet shoes, you need to ensure your feet are balanced and straight as you can do it by keeping them flat on the floor. Just put on pointe shoes and hold your leg straight in the vertical position. 

3. Tying Ribbons 

A pointe shoe comes with two ribbons on the left and right sides of the shoe. One is inside the ribbon and the second is outside the ribbon. 

Start wrapping the inside ribbon across the ankle and keep wrapping it around the leg upside. Similarly, wrap the outside ribbon across the leg starting from the ankles to upward. 

how to tie pointe shoe ribbons

Once you wrap both ribbons around the legs, make sure they properly fit around the legs. They shouldn’t be too tight or loose because they will create problems with dance ballet pointe. 

Normally, ribbons come with enough length so that they can be wrapped around the legs. Wrapping them around the ankle and the legs gives your feet the stability and grip that is needed to move on your feet with perfection. 

4. Make a Knot

Once you complete the process of wrapping ribbons around the legs, the final step is to make a knot with both ends of the ribbons. 

Make sure your ribbons’ ends come in the front position to make a knot over the ankles. There is no rule in keeping the knot of ribbon on the front side of the foot. You can make a knot on the back of the feet behind the Achilles tendon. 

However, just make sure your ribbons are cross-wrapped over one another so that they don’t lose when you move on your toes going En pointe. 

5. Tuck the Knot

Tuck the knot

The last thing you need to do is tuck the knot. You can do it by putting the knot inside ribbons wrapped around your legs. You can push the knot inside the ribbon using your finger. 

The shoes look organized and clean when properly wrap ribbons around the legs. You’ll get a great fit when you know properly how to tie pointe shoes.

Conclusion

Learning how to tie ballet pointe shoes is really important because it gives you a secure, snug, and comfortable fit to help in dancing ballet. Ultimately, it will benefit you in performance and secure movements on the dance floor.