Ballet has always had a complicated relationship with gender. In the classical roles we watch on stage, men play princes and heartbreakers who leap high in the air and take up entire stages with large ...

Pointe shoes start out beautiful - satin works of art, each made with a graceful purpose in mind. But behind the beauty are hours of hard work, discipline and pain. The shoes can give a trained ...

In professional ballet, the female dancer often appears light and airy and seems to float lightly into the air without effort performing en pointe (on the tips of the toes). By contrast, the male ...

Like most ballet dancers, I vividly remember getting my first pair of pointe shoes. They were by Gamba — a legendary Covent Garden maker that now belongs to the French house Repetto. Always eager to ...