Embarrassing toes. Normal? Lol

[emily13]

But at all seriousness, I am embarrassed of my toes o_o

I'm a ballerina. 3 years in pointe shoes. My feet are /seriously/ oogly. WEll, not that bad. I mean...I do wash them. But my toes are dry, my toenails ain't perfect, and they just don't look like Florida flip-flop babe toes xD

Any have any suggestions for...er...fixing my feet? o_o
...Besides getting them touched up at a pedicure place. Tsk. Last time I went to get a pedicure, it tickled and I kicked the lady in the face and gave her a bloody nose.

xD

Thanks!
-...Emily (forgot my name for a sec! D

 

[emily13]

Haha. I do love walking around at school with flip flops and toe tape all over my feet!

People look at me and go "Emily, why are you so...proud of yourself today?"

Mt response: *Points to toes* "A dancer's bling bling! At a low cost of $2.75!"

 

[Laura]

A friend of mine goes to a podiatrist who does things to her toe nails to make them look better. My friend is in her 50's and has been dancing on pointe for decades -- still takes pointe class a few times a week!!!!!

 

[and123]

My massage therapist also does reflexology, and when she first started working on my feet, she noticed my lovely calluses and offered to help get rid of them. I said Don't you dare!

 

[danceronice]

I've pretty much accepted that what my skate boots haven't destroyed (skaters have AWFUL feet) my dance shoes are working on.

 

[emily13]

Yeah. Giving up my calluses would be tough. I named them :c

I'm insane xD

 

[wooh]

You can dance or you can have pretty feet, can't have both. At best, you can get ok feet, you can always pedicure them yourself. But dancing on pointe, they ain't going to look good.

 

[elisedance]

This thread has made me feel soooo good... Maybe we should start a foot section in the photo area - dancers trophy tootsies!

 

[lcdancesport]

Emily- I'm pretty sure if I attempted to do what you're doing in your picture I'd end up breaking something.

 

[waltzgirl]

I'd have to break things beforehand to do it!

 

[danceronice]

Emily, ever thought about figure skating? Do that in a lift and you'd get WICKED good PCS and GOE scores.

 

[Laura]

You can dance or you can have pretty feet, can't have both.

I wonder, though, if it depends on the type of dancing and how lucky you get with shoes. My Feldenkrais practitioner often comments on how incredibly normal and decent looking my feet are for a dancer. I only do Standard, I practice in shoes that I've added extra padding, I wear socks with toes when I practice, I only wear 2" heels, I make sure my shoes give me plenty of room through the toe box area...really, the only thing wrong with my feet are my bunions, which have been slowly developing since before I ever started dancing so I can't blame them on dancing.

 

[emily13]

Laura, I've got a bad bunion on my left foot. The tendons have gotten so stressed that I can't even lift that toe anymore, so we're going to be looking into surgery :S I wear 2 1/2 in heels, open toe. I love my shoes xD

Haha. I've done contortion for a couple of years now. Backbend contortion - much funnnn haha. I can't wait to start doing back bends (or whatever they are called) at latin and dance competitions! Do they doc points for TOO flexible backs? *Wonders*

 

[yippee1999]

Laura: I tend to agree with you. I suspect most folks are talking about pointe (ballet) dance in particular. I don't think there's anyway of getting around bad feet if you do pointe.

But for other types of dance, I don't think it's an issue...at least not with the types of dance I've done. I too only wear 2" heels or lower when dancing, and I make sure my day-to-day shoes are pretty kind to my feet. It's very rare I will wear shoes where it's appearance over comfort. Having "pretty feet" is important to me, so I do my best to be good to them, even if it means I don't look as polished or sexy as I might, were I to wear different shoes. I'll only wear uncomfortable shoes for special occasions, or in instances where I won't be walking on the unforgiving streets/sidewalks.

 

[danceronice]

My impression has been that dance, at least, is still not rewarding contortionist tricks as much as skating tends to (and in skating they've cracked down on catchfoot positions because, well, if we wanted to see Cirque du Soleil...)

Heh, I'm sure I don't help my feet by choosing appearance over comfort--but I need to practice with those three-inch heels anyway....sadly I can't wear heels at work. My feet don't like flat shoes anyway.