Moving on with the list of ballet class essencials!

Accessories: now that’s where fashion and personal taste come to ballet class. Adults usually don’t go nuts in colors (although it would be fun having that in class), so they tend to wear black leotards and tights. Right? Do tell me if it’s different for you! So skirts and leg warmers can be whatever color or size because, doh – black goes with anything. Shorts are either black or grey, from my experience. Black makes the hips look smaller, I do know that! But these days I don’t mind wearing funky skirts, with colors and patterns. And leg warmers are so much fun! Plus, unless it’s really hot, like, you know, these past few weeks, it’s much better having them on for class. Amazing the difference they make. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I do have matching leg warmers and skirts, and no, I don’t wear shorts in class – tried to, but my bum looks even bigger and I hated it.

Now prices: skirts can be bought for about 10-15 dollars, leg warmers range from anything between 5 and 25. You should have one of each at the very least. You don’t need a let warmer but admit it, you want one now.

Pointe shoes + padding/protection: now that’s a completely separate category in ballet budget. Good part is, you don’t need it right away. When you’re starting ballet, pointes are a distant star in the night sky. But then, one day your teacher gives you the green sign and you get so-excited-about-it-omg that you don’t really give the costs a thought. You don’t care about it, to be honest, until you have to pay for the credit card.

When I got my very own green sign, after I recovered my senses and left the hospital (hee hee kidding!) I had already made some research: pointe shoes start at 30 dollars here, but my first pair cost around 45-50. Shoes only, mind you! Then another 35-40 for padding (I always think of ‘protection’, because that’s what goes between the toes and the goblins that bite our feet that come absolutely free with pointe shoes!). And let’s not think of the other things you buy because, you know, you’re in a dancewear store, kicking off a new phase in your ballet life, so why not taking that cute skirt or new leotard? Impulse ballet shopping is a reality, people.

But then you should ponder the facts: if you are about to start en pointe and you do have budget for that, why not buying the best shoes for you? Comfort-wise.

Months before I got the green sign, I remember one day before class when the teacher and the studio owner were hanging out with us in the dressing room, and the owner said we should definitely get Gaynor Mindens for our first pair. And I thought “Yeah right, I don’t have that kind of money, ma’am! Plus, it’s the first pair, I can’t spend all that in my first pair! What if I can’t go en pointe at al?!”

So there. A hundred bucks wasted in goblin-infested shoes.

Which takes us to the expensive Gaynors I proudly wear now. Yes, they cost 100 dollars in their website but – people! Remember this economics truth: the “Brazil cost”. Yep, the guys in the international news are right, things here cost more because we don’t have infrastructure, and taxes are ridiculously high, etc. etc. So guess how much those things cost here! Twice as much, like everything else. And the super fancy Eurotard padding costs around 80 dollars, my friends. Add a little impulse ballet shopping like I mentioned before and we have a credit card company getting very excited. Oh and don’t fool yourself: no one gives you free elastic and ribbons. So add 10-20 dollars to that receipt.

Transportation/parking: I don’t have to pay for parking – studio #1 has parking spots and free valet (not as fancy as it sounds, the guy keeps turning the air conditioning on just to move my car around), and I walk to studio #2 (yay! love it). But we do need gas for the car, and when I hit mine I had to take the bus to studio #1, so some money spent there. And if I had to use the parking in studio #2, I’d have to pay 5 dollars every class.

Are you keeping track of all that? How much did you spend so far?

We’re not done with math yet, though. There are some extras we should consider, too. Stay tuned!

Think about this: is there a more temperamental thing than pointe shoes?

I usually have pointe classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. So on the first class of the week, pointe shoes always feel awkward.

They feel tight, kinda hurt on the big toe, sometimes I even wonder if I got the wrong ones! And these are always my Gaynor shoes, because Prima Ballerina makes us wear pointes almost for the whole class. So over 1 hour with them on, until she asks us to use the soft slippers for some jumping and embarrassing twirling in the end.

Oh and you cannot understand how light your legs feel after 1 hour in pointe shoes, when you take them off. You should try, it’s like one of those exercises in the Army where future soldiers need to climb hills wearing heavy clothes and equipment. Once you take them off, you feel light as a cloud.

Same happens on Wednesdays, but then they are not as awkward. But you know, they’re still pointe shoes, and depending on the teacher’s mood they feel really tight by the end of class.

Then on Thursdays I decided I should try my old shoes again – the ones that had invisible goblins inside, biting my feet off while I tried to take ballet class? I thought I should try them on at least once a week, because Gaynors give me a hand going on pointe – in case you don’t know it, they are made to make it easier for us. That’s why some people are against them, because you could simply stop exercising your feet to make them stronger and you’d still be en pointe. I personally disagree, and I can be pretty lazy by the end of class. Lazy people will just fall from pointe if they don’t try enough, believe me – using Gaynor or anything else.

So two weeks ago I think I got 45 minutes of class in the old shoes – goblins were awake by the end of it, but I think it is really good having more than a pair for class. Last week I couldn’t go after warming up in them, though, those bastards were biting me hard, so I went back to the Gaynor Mindens to finish class. And by the way, I can only wear them with my heavenly Eurotard protection. Those things really know how to keep goblins away.

Now – don’t you agree? Aren’t they temperamental?? Why do they feel so awkward after a couple of days? And why do they hurt sometimes, and not every time?!

One cannot trust pointe shoes. Watch your step!