Keeping Your Feet Warm | Pro Tip from Melody Staples Hammell

Our current Featured Guest Melody Staples Hammell is a former principal dancer with Charleston Ballet Theater. We asked her to share some pro tips that she learned during her extensive career. This week's tip is perfect for this winter season.

Melody says:

Theaters are soooo cold!!! I would get all nice and warm and put on my pointe shoes (which were stone cold), and then the cold would leach all the warmth from my feet so that I would have to go onstage with cold feet. Yuck!

But then, I thought about how warm my body keeps my heart and lungs and started putting my pointe shoes inside my costume bodice/jacket. Problem solved. I would warm up and then put my feet in tennis shoes to keep them warm until it was time to put on my pointe shoes. They would actually be so warm that they would warm up my feet a little when I first put them on. It’s definitely nicer to perform with warm feet than with cold feet!

Image: Special thanks to Flora McLeod, former student of Melody's and dancer with American Repertory Ballet.