How to Point Your Feet in Ballet: 6 Exercises That Actually Work
Updated: 23 hours ago
By Chelsea Weidmann, ballet educator with 29 years of teaching experience and author of Artistry Inside Ballet Technique
Learning how to point your feet properly in ballet takes more than toe flexibility. You need ankle mobility and intrinsic foot strength too.
How to Point Your Feet in Ballet: 6 Exercises
Stretch your feet. There are a million ways to do this, but it can be as simple as sitting on the floor with your legs out in front of you, pointing your feet, and holding the position while you notice the stretch across the top of your feet. Next, flex your feet while keeping your heels on the ground and hold that position. Repeat four sets, increasing the time in each stretch with each rep.
Strengthen the intrinsic muscles of your feet. Pick up marbles with your toes one at a time and drop them into a bowl. Repeat with the other foot.
Massage your feet. Use your hands or a soft, small ball. Massage helps release tension and improves the elasticity of the soft tissues in your feet.
Don’t slop through your tendus. We do them every day, but the dancers who do them mindfully get the most benefit. The way you tendu is the way you’ll point your foot all day, whether it’s part of a développé or a changement.
Do TheraBand exercises. There are a million of these, and you’ve probably been shown at least half of them. They’re a great way to strengthen, stretch, and warm up your feet. If we had all the time in the world, I’d start every class with them.
Stretch your demi-point. We focus so much on getting that long line across the top of the foot, but you need to stretch the muscles along the bottom of your toes too. Healthy feet are mobile in both directions.
It’s so basic. It’s basic like ranch dressing, Candy Crush, and pumpkin spice lattes. But nine times out of ten, the dancers who ask me after class, “What can I do to make my point better?” aren’t doing these simple, basic things.
It only works if you do them.
Point with intention, not just effort
Pointing well starts with noticing what your feet are doing, which is a somatic awareness skill, and that’s one of nine elements of artistry. The Ballet Artistry Deck has six prompts for each one, so you can try a new experiment at your next class.
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