Janette Mulligan —
Keeper of the Pointes
I was 12 years old when I put on my first pair of pointe shoes and it’s still such a fond memory. I was so proud to be moving up to pointes. In the weeks prior our dance teacher had told us to soak our feet in Condy's Crystals to harden them up and prepare us to go en pointe. Six young dancers from my Townsville dance school went to see Mr Aspinall at Aspinall’s Shoe store who ordered in the pointes specially. We were bubbling over with anticipation. Mr Aspinall and my dance teacher fitted our pointes and also gave us crochet toe covers which my father would stretch and stick to the top of my shoes to protect them. I was so excited when I got home I spent hours dancing around in my new pointes.
That was the beginning of a wonderful career spent dancing en pointe around the world as a professional ballerina. My dancing career led me eventually to the top rank of Principal Dancer at English National Ballet (ENB) and I was privileged to be able to dance on some of the most famous stages in the world. When I was dancing at ENB ballet superstar Lynne Seymour taught me to prepare my pointes by cutting three quarters of the shank out and placing a big piece of elastic across the front. She had extremely flexible feet similar to my own and explained that the elastic would keep my feet in the pointes and make them stronger. She was absolutely right, I was able to dance an entire three act ballet in one pair.
I had the chance to perform so many amazing roles throughout my career that it’s hard to choose a favourite... some that come to mind are Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Tatiana in Onegin and Glen Tetley’s contemporary work Sphinx where I would dance for 20 minutes straight en pointe. Harold Lander’s Etudes and Swan Lake were my favourite technical roles. After performing the pure, intricate pointe work I would stand side stage and truly feel like I had achieved something… that I had bought a little bit of magic to the audience that night.
Upon retirement I returned home to Australia where I now work as Ballet Mistress and Artistic Coordinator at Queensland Ballet. Part of my role is the ‘Keeper of the Pointes’ which includes fitting pointes on dancers, monitoring how many pointes they use and trying out new shoes as pointe shoe manufacturers update their technology.
When I danced in England I would use shellac to make the pointes last longer but due to the humidity in Queensland shellac does not set as well. I teach the dancers to use Jet Glue (a professional grade glue that can be applied to the shank and inside of the shoe) to make the shoes last longer and I also encourage them to use ribbons. The opportunity to pass this knowledge on to the younger generation and guide them to become the best dancers they can be is truly a pleasure.