I will not comment on the technical merits of your students (others have done that), but if I were you, I'd spend a few hours with photoshop to make those pictures look more professional. I wouldn't buy a product with amateurish-looking pictures on it. Your pictures, besides looking flat, also display a poor choice of background and lighting. Cover those current outlets, and if possible, make a uniform background. The grouping of girls is too spread out and there is no focus/detail to catch attention. The picture should have be taken from farther away, and the focus trained only on the central girl. Those horizontal lines! It looks like you have taken those pictures on a boat during a storm. It is extremely hard to make such a situation work well in a picture.
If you cannot afford a professional photographer for your project, can you find a kind parent who has a good hand at photography?

To compare, look at Triskit's second picture. The camera is focused on the second girl, the other three are slightly out of focus, as is the background, providing a natural frame around the girls. Their faces look natural and relaxed. That's the kind of school I'd like my daughter to attend!

Good luck with your project.

Ive been following this thread for a while now and I just have one tiny thing to say;

I was put on pointe when I was 10 (back then I was so happy about it you have no idea!) right now...not so much. Im 24 now and Ive already had surgery on 1 toe, to remove a nail. The 2 pinkie toes, those nails dont even grow anymore. All my toes are deformed and are what you call 'hammertoes' and the worst part; people who started on pointe later than I did are able to do so much more on pointe than me!
So if you wanted living proof of why its bad to put 10 year olds on pointe, here i am. If you need photos for proof Id be happy to provide them.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here are the results of dancing en pointe too soon. Makes me want to cry.

Vista, I have friends and relatives with feet that look like that and worse, who have NEVER danced a day in their lives.

Pointe doesn't always do that. Often, it's genetics that do it. My sister-in-law, who never EVER did anything remotely resembling ballet, has feet that look far worse than yours.

Serendipity42 wrote:

Vista, I have friends and relatives with feet that look like that and worse, who have NEVER danced a day in their lives.

Pointe doesn't always do that. Often, it's genetics that do it. My sister-in-law, who never EVER did anything remotely resembling ballet, has feet that look far worse than yours.

You don't have to go on pointes (too early) to get feet like that. Walking on high heels can cause this too. Toes like above had to deal with too much pressure on them, more than they could carry. Whether it's from pointes or high heels doesn't matter. And yes, sometimes is genetic. My brother in law has misformed big toes. Never wore pointes, never wore high heels.
But it's not ONLY genes who cause this! For most women it's high heels.

Like my favorite orthopedic surgeon says: "I prefer to see a TRAINED foot in pointes, above an UNTRAINED foot on high heels".
We often discuss the appropriate age for kids to go on pointes. Most say 'around 12', some say 'earlier'.
How about 'what is the appropriate age for kids to walk on high heels' (other than making fun with Moms shoes)? It's the same thing: too much pressure on bones not ready for that yet. We are not talking here about 'playing', but serious walking/training. THAT is the difference.

And, even with full grown bones you can get misformed bones: just walk on high heels the complete day, every day, for several years. And if the bones don't misform, the joints will.

"And, even with full grown bones you can get misformed bones: just walk on high heels the complete day, every day, for several years. And if the bones don't misform, the joints will."

And a swayback....have you seen women who walk in high heels? My back hurts just lookin' at them!

So are y'all trying to say that you condone 10 year olds that clearly DO NOT and CANNOT have fully developed bones to be put in pointe shoes?

Would you like medical proof? I know of published medical articles that I can link to this thread if there is confusion. Yes, high heels can be bad for your feet too, so start a thread for that. Want other things bad for your feet...foot binding is bad for your feet, running improperly is bad for your feet, basketball players can have bad feet, but that isn't what we are talking about.

We all understand not every 10 year old will have deformed feet from pointe, but why would a responsible teacher take that risk especially when they are recreational kids and don't have the technique?? I just don't understand taking such a huge risk when you don't know how a child's foot is going to react. Starting them at 12 isn't going to delay some kind of crazy professional career especially when the studio isn't even geared towards that.

I'm sure that vista5 is well aware what has caused her feet to be what they are today and so is her doctor.

We all know there are other things that cause bad feet, pointe is not the only problem that people face and many people never do pointe and still end up with bad feet.

However if you ask any doctor they will tell you that pointe work on a dancer that can't control their back and leg muscles is going to be dangerous, especially if the growth plates of said dancer aren't closed...pointe work as demonstrated in MSD's photo's.

I really can't believe that I'm having to come onto a ballet forum to say this!

MSD-
i shant comment on the dancers themselves...

the photography...

get hold of a tripod and a camera that can focus on more than one object/person within the shot. (hire one or maybe ask parents of the dancers if one can be lent)..take pictures in the highest quality possible (have a few memory cards on hand, or a large capacity one)

this will improve the quality of the photos..

arrange a day and ask all the dancers to wear leotards of similar colours or purposefully go rainbow and make sure everyone has a different colour. make sure underwear is hidden or not worn for the photos. (when i was little we had white leos and skirts and had to wear white or skin coloured underwear and we were 6 so it is possible to get some kind of uniformity)
make sure everyones hair is done in nice buns with hair gel and nets etc (for exams we had a lovely lady come and do our hair and tie a ribbon round the bun... for girls with short hair they had a little bobby pin with a bow attached to pull one side of their hair back... though this lady managed to get my bob style hair into a perfect bun every time!)
again a talented parent could maybe volunteer to help with this on the day.

plan poses and perfect the technique for pictures, go over and help them reposition etc if needed.

try black and white as it can make pictures seem better than they are for those who are not familiar with exposure and colour settings etc or arent well versed with editing.

finding well known photos and recreating them could be fun. and will likely make the calendar more popular for those other than parents of children in the pictures.

lastly, find a good company to print them for the calendar in good quality.


it might be nice to offer very relaxed ballet classes at the hospitals for the children, the calendars are a nice idea but could be frustrating seeing others doing what they would love to be doing... so getting them involved at the same time would be great

Not my feet thank heavens! But this IS the result of pointe work done to early and too extreme. This is my mentor teacher who danced professionally from the age of FOUR! As a teacher she was extremely cautious and conservative in putting children in pointe shoes. I have great feet despite dancing en pointe, and have two sisters who never danced and have both had bunionectomies. Here is the rub: I most certainly would have had problems with my feet had my teacher not been so careful.

It's not sometimes genetics, it is genetics in the first place. Quite many people have a tendency for bunions. Those are caused by a hereditary weakness of tissue in the metatarsal and forefoot area. The toes spread (splayfoot) and the tendons and ligaments pull the big toe inside. It actually is only prevantable by running bare foot the whole life.
I have bunions, too, and a tendency for Hammer toes. All this developed in my late teens, even though I almost never wore heels and started ballet in my mid twenties (I already had the bunions back then).
Genetics are the reason why sometimes you have two girls who had exactly the same training in the same professional academy since they were like 9 years old and one of them has really beautiful feet while the feet of the other girl can look almost crippled. The genetics has to be there for developing feet like shown in the pictures above. Everything else, like doinig pointe and wearing heals is just a promotive factor.
Absolutly correct is that this person would probably have less problems if she never had danced or started pointe a few years later then she actually did. Most likely the bunions wouldn't be that huge.

This looks like the kind of self-serving denial we see so often in the face of strong evidence that something is damaging:

"There is no proof that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer" --- Tobacco Industry, 1950 through 1990's. (Other things cause lung cancer too: asbestos, pollution, bad genetics, etc).

"There is no proof that fracking is bad for the environment." --- Oil/Gas Industry in response to toxic fracking chemicals turning up in peoples' drinking water. (You can you prove it, it's all underground and out of sight.)

"It is very premature to draw any conclusions of any causal links between fighting [in hockey] and C.T.E. There’s just not enough evidence to support that.” --- Dr. Echemendia, a neuropsychologist and current chairman of the NHL and NHLPA concussion working group. (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative disease found in individuals who have been subjected to multiple concussions. Again, genetics, bad luck, etc. were blamed for the CTE found universally in dead hockey enforcers, who suffer multiple concussions through a career based on boxing with bare fists.)

"No Evidence to Support Carbon Dioxide Causing Global Warming!" --- Required Mantra to be a Republican in Good Standing, post-2008. (The climate changes for other reasons, how can you POSSIBLY prove that ANYTHING we are doing has an effect? If our coastal cities flood due to rising sea level, it's just bad fate).

So we can just add this one to the list: "Starting pointe as a child has never been proven to cause even one case of bunions or hammer toe." Repeat it often enough and loudly enough, and maybe Santa Claus will make it so.

'So we can just add this one to the list: "Starting pointe as a child has never been proven to cause even one case of bunions or hammer toe."'

Except for the fact that this is true. Even the medical people in the 'scary place' next door have said it.

If a child is put on pointe too young, without the required degree of strength and without the growth plates being sufficiently closed hammer toes and bunions will be one of many problems they could face, it will just be one of the more visible ones.

Sorry vista5, I'm very glad that they're not your feet but my commiserations to your teacher. I also had teachers that had been put on pointe at that age and had similar consequences to have to deal with later in life. I always had a huge amount of respect for them because they searched out how to teach without causing injury instead of being in the 'I did it that way so will you' camp.

I guess some do learn from other peoples mistakes, others however never will.

I just can't believe there are so many people defending a teacher who puts a student on pointe shoes too early, without the proper technique. Yeah...screw it...if their feet get messed up we can just say they were genetically predisposed to this and not take any accountability. LOVELY.

vista5 wrote:

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here are the results of dancing en pointe too soon. Makes me want to cry.

That looks ALOT like my feet, except for the nails! I dont have em anymore...

There is a big difference between a child in a Russian ballet academy and an American child who takes ballet twice a week. I can't believe people are even thinking of making the comparison.

I also can't believe that there is even a discussion on whether or not children can and/or should go en pointe younger then 12. Surely it would be better to err on the side of caution? Okay, their feet may not be ruined, but it's fairly universally agreed that they probably will be, so isn't it better to therefore play it safe?

Why put a child en pointe at 9 or 10? What advantage will they gain? Most young dancers (especially recreational dancers) will never move on to a professional career, and even if they do, two or three years of early, poor training en pointe is not going to help. Can I go so far as to suggest that a teacher putting her students en pointe so young is thinking about things other then the safety of her students? (Speaking in general terms, as the topic seems to have moved away from the original post) Because the only reason I can thinking to put a recreational dancer en pointe so young is more about the teacher's pride (like it looks good to have such young "advanced" students). If someone can point out another good reason to me, I would really appreciate it.

^
Oh, I know another reason: add a pointe class, get more money!
Unethical.

Just to show how the background can affect a photo... This rather crude manipulation took me about 10 minutes using the GIMP, and I am not an expert at all.

Suniva wrote:


I've seen lots of recitals where the beginner pointe class made me cringe, seeing how poorly they got up on pointe. But these girls do recreational ballet once or twice a week, and they want to try pointe. Most will give up in 2 or 3 years. Why not after all? Stop the bashing. They try, and they enjoy this experience.

Because if they go onto pointe before they are ready, even if it is 'to try' they could severely damage their feet and SHOULD not be done.

The painful picture that refuses to die...