Web of muscles OR: Why we wear slippers instead of socks

Under your foot is a web of muscles we call, collectively, the intrinsic muscles. They do so much work for us!

By Henry Vandyke Carter - Henry Gray (1918) Anatomy of the Human Body

There is both dorsal flexion and plantar flexion of the foot (top and bottom, respectively). The easy way to remember which is which is to think we "plant" our foot on the ground and that is the plantar side of the foot.

We definitely need both types of flexion to do ballet but when it comes to releve, pointe work and just basically pointing our feet, we rely on the muscles on the bottom of the feet and toes. The problem with this is that we tend to think of them as one muscle when they are in fact, dozens (almost a hundred!). The result of this is that we grip the bottoms of our feet and toes when we dance rather than activate and lengthen them.

One way to do that is to wear slippers with soles rather than socks.

"But I can articulate all the muscles of my feet and my toes when I wear socks!" you say. "Plus they're so comfy!"

Both of these things are true. However, when you wear slippers that have some sole (and nowadays, people only wear split soles rather than full), you give your feet some structure and you give your muscles something to work against and in turn, help strengthen them.

Another reason to wear slippers instead of socks is to give the foot a shape that finishes the line and helps guide the toes inside. Not everyone can point their feet and have their toes look like a perfect point; ballet slippers help the toes find that shape and train the muscles to keep the toes in their place.

A ballet slipper will also lift the medial longitudinal arch of the foot which is the long arch on the inside of the foot that, when active, domes the foot (hollows it out) and lifts it off the ground. Strengthening these muscles and this arch is critical to pointe work and to maintaining a high releve in demi-pointe for multiple turns, etc.

Happy dancing~