This article highlights the short life and the high cost of your average pair of of pointe ballet shoes. The American Ballet Theatre spends $7,500 a year for each ballerina’s pointe shoes which are generally constructed with techniques that have barely changed since the shoe’s development.

Given the advancements in footwear and material knowledge over the past fifty years, why are we still using these classic techniques instead of taking advantage of modern technology to make point shoes that are more comfortable and last longer? This is what happens to the feet of ballerinas wearing traditional shoes.

Whenever I meet somebody from the ABT, I harp on one point: if it’s the American Ballet Theatre, why do they use the British spelling of theater instead of the American one? I strongly believe that we, as Americans, should proudly use our spelling for theater. To my mind, using the British spelling implies that our theater is inferior to their theatre and that the best we can seek to do is ape European theatre instead of proudly presenting our theater as the equal or better of anything in the old world.