Actually there’s no “wooden block” in our pointe shoes…never has been, never will be. The hard toe of a pointe shoe is basically paper mache - layers of glue, fabric and paper, covered by pretty pink satin. The hard shank is made of reinforced paper or cardboard. We deserve all the respect we get and then some!
And this isnt’ Great Debates but yes I do have a cite for that… http://www.dancer.com has a nifty section on the history of pointe dancing and another section on “what’s inside your pointe shoes”.
There’s nothing I love better than a good Zork reference. Hmm. Now that I’ve typed that, it seems terribly, terribly sad. Oh well. If you want me, I’ll be hanging out West of House.
Some ballerina friends of mine had informed me that it’s a wooden block. :-/ Anyway, soft shoes for Irish dance are made out of leather. Nothing else. It’s basically like going up on your bare toes. Anyway, enough of this hijacking…