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Day 137 - Thursday 30th July 2020

Location: London, UK 

COVID-19 / Coronavirus Outbreak

Lockdown

I have taken ballet classes since I was about 3 years old.  In that time I have had many pairs of ballet shoes.  I'm remember the excitement of graduating from elastics to ribbons and then getting my first pair of pointe shoes - these are seminal moments for a dancer.

I recently came across this item on the BBC news from 2018: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-46025716

I found it quite astounding that black dancers have had to cover their ballet shoes in foundation to get them to resemble their skin tone until very recently.  It took until 2018 for Freed's, one of the best known dance shops in the world, to produce a pointe shoe not in satin pink.

Whilst it's great that they are doing it, why on earth has it taken this long?  I'm honestly gobsmacked and saddened for the many dancers who possibly felt that ballet was not a world for them, because literally, the shoe didn't fit.

Image from Freed's website:



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