Grishko Pointe Shoe Fitting

SHOES WITH HEART
"Looking for the right shoe lasts for the whole ballet life," says Svetlana Lunkina, Bolshoi Ballet principal. "Repertoire changes, responsibilities increase. If I weren't 100 percent sure of my shoe, I wouldn't be convincing." Grateful for her Grishko "Maya I" models, Lunkina thanked Alexander Shemenyov, her cobbler of five years, face-to-face and invited him to see her perform. Though he has several clients at companies worldwide, Shemenyov knows Lunkina's order (size 4, width X) by heart. Once, noticing a lapse in orders, Shemenyov said he was afraid Lunkina found a new cobbler. "I felt so relieved to find out she was on maternity leave!" says Shemenyov. Soaring through 250 to 300 pairs of shoes each year, often 2 per performance, Lunkina's only special request is to specify different shank strengths. "For Giselle I prefer a very soft shoe, for Don Quixote, a stronger shoe," says Lunkina. "My shoes fit perfectly, I don't need to think about my feet, I simply melt in my role.

Svetlana Lunkina photo Vladimir Glynin

"A brand-new pair of toe shoes presents itself to us as an enemy with a will of its own that must be tamed." -Toni Bentley

CONTACT DETAILS For appointments or shoes.....

E-mail pointeshoefitting@me.com

Telephone 07810803996

“Grishko are proud to have Linda working closely with us at Move It and thankful for her ongoing feedback in response to new shoe development”

Linda took over the Dance Laines Pointe Shoe Fitting Centre in July 2005 from Esther Juon. Esther introduced Linda to Grishko and Pointe shoe fitting. Originally, by profession, Linda was a trained specialist theatre nurse. There, she saw first hand the damage that badly fitted pointe shoes could cause. Together, this background, her training as a ballet dancer herself, and learning about pointe shoe fitting inspired a real passion for trying to prevent the damage that could be done to a young dancers feet due to wearing incorrectly fitted, or wrong styles of pointe shoes.

Having thoroughly examined the needs of a pointe shoe to support the foot, Linda will now only fit GRISHKO Pointe shoes. Grishko shoes meet all the demands she requires for a good, safe fitting. Grishko's are designed to fit the foot snuggly with the boxes and vamp high enough to give the optimum support that the metatarsal heads of the foot require,. This is extremely important when working with the soft cartilage of young dancers feet until they reach maturity. With the choice of styles of Grishko shoes available (to suit all shapes of feet), the different shank strengths and the 5 widths every style comes in, a good pointe shoe fitter is then able to fit the majority of dancers perfectly.

Linda also works very closely with Amanda Hill Distributor of Grishko shoes in the UK. Amanda is as passionate about shoe fitting as Linda and together they run one day courses, teaching the correct fitting of Grishko Pointe Shoes to fitters, teachers and students on a sound background understanding of anatomy and function. Linda has also fitted pointe shoes at Move It every year- an experience that is both exhilarating yet frustrating- trying to achieve a good fitting in such a short time on a wide variety of dancers of different standards is a challenge (not to mention exhausting!!) !!!

Linda says: " Grishko's need to be fitted correctly, when this happens the foot and shoe becomes one, creating the perfect ballet line, beautiful. I can never use any other make of pointe shoe to create this. I am always learning, each foot can bring me a different set of demands. I will spend much time with each dancer, finding out what they need from a shoe, what their problems may be , and sorting out the damage/difficulty that other makes of shoes may have caused them. I am extremely fortunate that Grishko will also adapt any pointe shoe, allowing me to find the perfect shoe for any dancer if required. All I want is for a dancer to be able to concentrate on what's important and that’s her technique! Grishko Pointe shoes enable me to do this like no other shoe ever could- so the dancer can simply dance! "

Healthy Feet in Pointe Shoes

Article from Dance Review May 2011 written by Amanda Hill and Linda Reid-Lobatto, please click to open and read...

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