Why don men dance on pointe?
Men do dance on pointe, on rare occasions. They may be deliberately dancing women’s roles, as in the Ballet Trockadero. Some choreographers have had men wear pointe shoes for special effects; posters in this group have instanced Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream (based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream), in which a man wears pointe shoes to represent Bottom’s hooves (when he has been turned into a donkey), Mark Morris’s Hard Nut, (based on the Nutcracker), and some versions of Cinderella and of La Fille Mal Gardée. In addition, some men also find pointe work good for strengthening the arch of the foot.
