I have been performing ballet for four years, and my friend says I'm going to ruin my feet. Nobody I dance with is having problems, but I am worried. Does anybody know about the long term effects on feet from dancing?

If your pointe shoes are well-fitted, you shouldn't experience any long term problems with your feet. If you are relatively new to dancing on pointe, be sure to have your shoes professionally fitted and then checked by your instructor.

If you've only been dancing for 4 years, you should be either new to pointe shoes or not yet using them. If you were put in pointe shoes under the age of 11 or with less than 3 years of experience, I recommend that you find a new studio that will be more responsible. Being put in pointe shoes too young or before you are strong enough can be dangerous.

If your instructor doesn't insist on checking the fit of your first couple of pairs of pointe shoes, consider changing studios. A good instructor will insist.

Forcing your turn-out, landing jumps without bending your knees, or other mistakes in form can destroy your hips, knees and ankles. Again, your instructor's job is to watch out for those things. If you have an instructor who is insisting on "perfect turn out" without paying attention to whether you are turning out from the ankles or from the hips, you'd better move to another studio.

If you have a good fit and a good instructor, ballet is incredible and it's good for body and mind. A few years ago, Sports Illustrated placed ballet ahead of American Football in terms of difficulty and endurance involved in the sport. I think it was number 1 or 2 overall.

[This message was edited by Sarai on 06-11-02 at 11:10 AM.]

My teacher only let me start dancing on pointe two years ago. That's a little early for you, but I was dancing at the studio for three years before taking ballet. Now I know why she has been so fussy about all of the other stuff! She actually went with me and my mom to buy my first pointe shoes. My only injury in the four years has been a sprained ankle, which I got playing another sport (basketball).

It sounds like you have a very responsible teacher. Guidelines of age and time studying are simply guidelines - the real test is one of strength (and skeletal/muscular maturity - even the strongest 9 year old can't be ready for pointe shoes). If you'd been dancing for years before you began ballet, you were probably quicker in picking up the proper techniques to build the strength you needed.

Don't worry - as long as you're in good hands, ballet will only make you stronger.

I did ballet for almost 10 years and my feet are doing fine.
They got hurt from time to time, but bruises are normal. At the end there is not harm done.