One of the world’s most prominent ballet companies has introduced ballet shoes for non-white dancers.
Freed of London, the manufacturer that supplies many of the world’s biggest ballet companies, introduced two new colours – “Ballet Bronze” and “Ballet Brown” – designed for dancers of colour.
The shoes were created in collaboration with Ballet Black, a U.K.-based dance company that has been showcasing Black and Asian dancers in the typically white-dominated world of dance for the past 17 years.
“Although it may seem like a very small change to the outside world,” Ballet Black Founder and Artistic Director Cassa Pancho said in a press release, “I believe this is an historic moment in British ballet history and another step forward for culturally diverse dancers across the globe.”
Freed isn’t the first company to produce shoes for dancers of colour – with American companies like and Bloch Gaynor Minden introducing darker skin tone pointe shoes more than a year ago.
But Freed’s prominence in the industry means that more dancers around the world will be able to find a shoe that matches their skin with less effort.
Traditionally, pointe shoes were largely limited to the traditional pink satin shoe, designed for light-skinned dancers. According to Freed, the colour of the shoe must closely match the colour of the dancer’s skin, to keep an unbroken line and help make the dancer look weightless.
This meant that dancers with darker skin have had to dye or “pancake” their shoes – using foundation or powder makeup that closely matches their skin tone to colour the shoes.
The process is time consuming, taking multiple hours and several coats of expensive makeup. Pancaking also results in the shoe becoming softer, making the satin degrade and shortening the lifespan of the shoe.
“Pancaking has been the way of the dance world for years,” Ballet Black Senior dancer Cira Robinson said in a press release. “Having a shoe made to fit my skin tone is an absolute dream that I never thought would come true.”
The new colours are now available for custom orders through Freed.
