Maia gets quoted in the Wall Street Journal!
Maia was interviewed last month by Emily Steel in the Wall Street Journal about comments she and I made on the various pointe shoes videos on Youtube. Interestingly enough - Emily shared the same POV as we did on these girls setting themselves up for pain and trouble without proper instruction.
Emily wrote an article on the front page of today’s WSJ about it and quoted Maia!
On Their Toes and Asking for Trouble, Self-Taught Ballerinas Go Online
Since Louis XIV established the Royal Academy of Dance in 1661, formal ballet has never been a self-taught art. Aspiring dancers have been trained under the supervision of professionals. And ever since the pointe shoe was invented in the early 1800s, only girls who had spent three years or so taking lessons ever got permission from their ballet teachers to buy toe shoes.
But now Web videos are shaking loose the rigid hierarchy of the ballet world. Aspiring ballerinas are recording videos of themselves dancing and posting the results for people to look at and critique on the Internet. ….. [content omitted]
……Young dancers usually don’t start putting on toe shoes until the age of 11 or 12. And even when children are ready for toe shoes, they often suffer through lessons with bloody, blistered toes. "My toes are always sore," says 12-year-old Maia Charanis, who dances four days a week with the Dancer’s Studio/Backstage in Alpharetta, Ga
Maia in action…
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