The narrator of this video was the British radio and newsreel announcer Bob Danvers-Walker (1906-1990) who was the famous off-screen voice of Pathé News cinema newsreels during World War II and for many other post-WW2 voiceover works.

I bought my first pointe shoes in September of 1967. I was 12 years old. The shoes cost $10.00! We didn’t have Jet glue then. When the box became soft my teacher poured spirit gum into the shoe and then rolled it around to distribute the glue all over the inside of the box. Made them last quite a while longer.

Ballet shoes are the perfect example of "if it's not broken, don't fix it"

Can we get a “Josephine Becomes a Pointe Shoe Maker’s Apprentice for a Day” video?

I love that sometimes we get happy, joyful reactions like this. It's a great contrast to the cup shoe reactions.

The clips of the Freed factory, I just love them! So much respect for the skill!

I know nothing about ballet aside from what I've learned from your channel that the algorithm suggested one fine day... And I'm still loving your videos! It always struck me as very odd that there seems to have been some innovation concerning the fit of the shoe or how to make the shoes "healthier" for the dancers' feet, but nobody seems to have invented the material that would make the shoe more durable. Instead, it looks like the ballet shoe industry has an interest in keeping the quality low enough so that that dancers are required to buy buy buy new shoes all the time. That's absolutely unimaginable in any other job that requires special clothes/shoes (e.g. safety shoes). Maybe I'm missing some of the information here? Educate me, ballet people!

Would love to see more ballet/pointe shoe history videos.

You ever going back to filming fittings? I miss those.

The music, the voice, the shoes! Did you see the big Pearl earring? Everything ballet is elegant!

I love how geeked out you are, nothing better than doing what you love for a living! Thank you!🐦🐦✌️❤️🤗

Josephine, do you have a comment on the box shapes? Most dancers in the 50s appear to have a tiny little box on their shoes - Fonteyn is a good example.

Absolutely agree, not everything needs to get reinvented. That was awesome.

Yes Thank you for sharing this. I've never known how they were made. This warms my heart. Love it.😍

I believe that one particular maker has a glue formula which wasn’t passed on and today’s glue isn’t as good, however that may be different now. Were Marie Taglioni’s shoes glued or darned to make them as hard as possible? She’d be astounded at what today’s dancers acheive.

I love watching pointe shoes being made.

Lovely video, loved the narrator voice and its beautiful colours. Thanks a lot for sharing it with us ❤❤❤

This is amazing!!!!! I wanted the makers to slow down so they didn't hurt themselves! So fast!

it’s so cool seeing how pointe shoes are made, and I love how it’s still pretty low-tech!

This is awesome! I'd love to know if any of these makers are still alive. I'd love to hear their stories and commentary on this video

I can truly tell that when you go to this shoe place that you really never work. The old saying if you enjoy what you do you never work. I hope the industry understands your passionate contribution.

Omg I love your videos I’m huge fun it’s so fun to watch!!!

You’re making me really excited for when I’m able to wear pointe shoes(which is in while,but still)

My Mom gave me ballet lessons at the age of 5. This is so reminiscent!

This was great to see.

Interesting they were using kidskin in violent colours, canvas and 'even' satin. I wonder why they moved to just satin.

I’m looking at my mother’s point shoes from the 1950s. They’re still beautiful!

So when "Bob" is on vacation and "Fred" is smearing glue the shoes will feel different. And each batch of glue is probably a bit different. Facinating. I read an article about a British shoe maker that preferred workers that knew nothing about pointe shoes so they didn't have to "break 'bad' habits".

I had my first pointy shoes 58 years ago (France, Repetto), the last ones about 35 years ago...I looked at somebody's shoes recently: I recognised them...

this was so cool!!

You're so interesting! Really enjoy your videos and interesting comments and information 🏆💐👏

woow interesting!

Big fan I love watching your videos!

The Freed factory video is really cool.

I think you have a great voice!

It's interesting to see older ballet and how they don't really seem to push over the box on pointe. I wonder what caused that to change. You'll get yelled at in class these days for not pushing more forward.

Splendid.

Can you leave a link to this video? l would like to watch the whole thing. thanks :)

The comment about cheap ballet shoes needs to be explained: back then, "normal" shoes were also still made by hand and were considerably more expensive than today. (But they also lasted longer and could be repaired)

These are exactly the way our shoes were when I was dancing 1960s - 1970s. There was Capezio, Freeds and one other American company (name escapes me presently)…and Repetto if you were very snobbish as they were only available in France. Freeds had one style but lots of different makers (like now) and if you were in a company they would be made especially for you). Capezio had about three models. No different cuts and depths and shapes of boxes. The shoes were smaller and sleeker but they were not at all customized to the shape of your foot. Nobody wore toe pads. We cracked our shanks and cut them if we wanted. The boxes were small and the glue wore out very quickly. You felt everything. Hopping on pointe was a wretched experience. Lambs wool was actually useless. Bleeding toes - tops of toes bled right through the satin. Pointe shoes today appear the size of sneakers compared to pointe shoes from that era

How can the shoes be turned insude out if the box is hard? Has it not dried yet?

1:04 ✨✨Josephine and the pointe factory ✨✨

Can we talk about, how stunning Josephine is looking is this video 🎉

Omg, this quality :o

The first one ❤

I tagged your IG in a video this morning and you've gotta see it! I hope you haven't seen it before because it's kinda mind blowing and I'd love to see your reaction!

This would have been a B movie shown before the main picture instead of all the annoying adverts we get now. Iconic voice too.

Luv u and ballet

You have a nice voice!

It would honestly be nice to have a pointe shoe that lasts longer than a few hours though. Watching videos of ballerinas summarizing what they do to customize each shoe, it looks like they spend maybe 8 hours sleeping, an hour to eat all 3 meals, and then half of that time dancing while the other half goes to preparing pointe shoes. The pointe shoes are one deterrent for me to do ballet classes or to let any daughter of mine take ballet classes because it's such a definitive milestone for ballet as a dance form and dances are so SO dependent on them, yet it's something that is independent of the dancers themselves. I don't think any other dance form is THAT dependent on the customized fit of something external to the dancer; obviously you want good dance shoes for any dance, but ballet is the only one where the shoe and more importantly its fit to the dancer's foot so profoundly defines the quality of that dance. Even something like tap dancing which is all about the tap shoes can really be danced via regular shoes, I mean tap dancing had started as a street dance, and even if you go pro Irish Riverdance style you don't need to practically do a cast mold of your foot to create a danceable tap shoe. For ballet shoes that are so unforgiving, the fact that you're forcing dancers to basically do 50% of the work for every one of the 20k or whatever pairs of shoes they go through in a professional career, even if each pair takes 40 minutes, that's still years of their lives devoted to nothing but customizing these shoes. And then if you're a student who has to buy your own shoes, you have to be cognizant of the price and therefore you're discouraged from fully customizing these shoes, which may compromise your performance. And then each shoe can't even be standardized to the same dimensions since they're hand made, so you're playing a game of chance with how and how much to customize each shoe, which, again, only lasts a few hours with robust dancing. So while it's fascinating and great for business to see this long-running tradition of shoe-making, I'd argue that the longevity IS something to be fixed and improved upon, and it's disappointing that there's been either no incentive or no innovative advancement for this.

Josephine❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😄

Is that the Freed factory ?

Hi I loveeee your vids

Hate to ruin the fun, but wouldn't it be better if we made shoes that last longer ? Although the respect of tradition is important, I think that economy and ecology (and of course making sure the shoes fit and don't hurt the dancer) is the priority.

Figure skates have been overhauled. I don’t know why there hasn’t been more of an evolution with ballet shoes.

Did you notice the red point shoes for those who didn't see go back and rewatch

You should watch the film ballet shoes

My mom was on pointe in the late 50's and early 60's. And I still have her pointe shoes for keep sake. They are interesting to see how they were made compare to now. 🩰

Is there any way to figure out which company this is? Like is it Freed because they made shoes for Pavlova who was mentioned?

Has she seen the underwater ballet? Its amazing! Here on KZfaq. :D

Has anyone noticed that the workers were wearing suits and ties for work? Loved this vid

_all the ladies now wearing G&M, feeling like futuristic space folks_

Early 1 hour

The shoes take longer to make than it takes for a professional dancer to wear them out to the point(e) of needing replacement. Pun absolutely intended, lol.

Hi first!

"Cheap to buy..." 😳 If only...

Do you realize that you spoke over Danvers when he was speaking and was silent when he was silent?

This stuff shouldn't be nearly so interesting, but it is.

Why are they called blocks in the shoes when it is really just layers like paper mache?

Don’t some ballet dancers only wear pointe shoes made only by ONE SPECIFIC craftsman? 🌴☀️🌴

I love these videos and you Josephine but you talk over too much. If we listened to the video we would know what was going on. You could stop the playback to comment.

It is disgusting - children's dance has been turned into a fake, drama-laden meat market.

No wonder the shoes are so freaking expensive. All hand made. Yikes🩰🩰🩰