You’re asking for trouble when you take nine fully fledged Snowflakes out on the town. You’re asking for vehicles to swipe curbs in the morning rush of the Melbourne peak hour. You’re asking for cyclists to dismount, for pedestrians to peek and for trams to ding their bells in delight. And you’re asking for pointe shoes to go where pointe shoes simply should not go: puddles.
This is what happens when you strike a deal with The Age newspaper in a bid to try a little something special to celebrate the opening of Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker – The Story of Clara in Melbourne.
Eager participants Kismet Bourne, Annie Carroll, Eloise Fryer, Halaina Hills, Heidi Martin, Karen Nanasca, Gabriella Raetz, Sarah Thompson and Stephanie Williams graciously donned Kristian Fredrikson’s spectacular costumes at the company’s headquarters in Southbank, only to decamp the safe hallows of the ballet studios to traipse to the banks of the Yarra on a drizzle-filled morning in ugg-boots and sneakers. Positions were taken, lighting tested and spots scratched by foot in the mud, wrapped in winter overcoats, scarves and gloves. A quick disrobe, pointe shoes strapped on and photographer Simon Schluter captured the pic which ran in the paper the following day under the headline ‘The first Snowflakes of June.’
Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker – The Story of Clara opens in Melbourne tonight (Friday 5 June)
what really worries me about this is that pointe shoes cost AT LEAST $80/pair and the Australian Ballet requests donations to cover these expenses, yet what looks like new and unused pointe shoes have been covered with mud and made unusable for dancing (even just practising) in. Couldn’t they have used pre-worn pointe shoes for the photo shoot?
Ah, those lovely pink pointes may have looked clean to begin with, but they were actually well used and no longer suitable for dancing in. We had all nine pairs cleaned up and they will be recycled for future purposes!
Well thank goodness they were recycled. It’s sad to see pointes go to waste. Although that’s an amusing picture!
Jen, I have received many autographed pointes over the last 5 years from dancers in the company, and at first glance, they look brand new.. until you touch them. They are absolute mush.
Even the most worn out shoes look clean. It’s incredible!
Love the pictures
I have got a pair of autographed pointe shoes and they look brand new too.
After I read your comment, I went and felt them too see if thery were mushy too, but they were as hard as rock.
I get what you are saying though and I think it is incredible how they can clean them so well.
the pointe shoes could be worn out and un dance-able,
as if you take good care they will stay clean,
and they don’t look new,
if they were new they would be all shiny,
and they’re clearly not shiny.
Very informative article. I’ve found your blog via Google and I’m really glad about the information you provide in your posts. Btw your blogs layout is really broken on the Chrome browser. Would be cool if you could fix that. Anyhow keep up the great work!
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for your comment – we’ve just done a test in Goggle Chrome on both a Mac & a PC and it’s viewing fine. Perhaps check that you’ve got the most up-to-date version?