The first thing I am consistently asked when people find out I dance en pointe is, "Doesn't that hurt?" The second thing they say is: "You must have really strong toes, don't you? I do too, I can stand on my toes, see?" They then proceed to balance (if you can call it that) precariously on the rubber ends of their Nikes, knees bent, arms flailing, for about half a milli-second.

My answer to the former question is simply, no. Once your toes go numb, you can't feel a thing. (haha) In all truth, though, a dancer shouldn't be conscious of their feet while dancing. Sure, we're acutely focused on every miniscule detail of our body, but we can't think of how our feet feel or else the dance has an earthbound appearance.

My answer to the latter question is: of course! Dancers have strong, defined, flexible, albeit ugly, feet. The same is true (minus the ugly) for the rest of their body, as well. However, dancing en pointe is less from the feet than from the abdominals, thighs, calves, ankles, and back. Sore feet come from blisters, too-tight and constricting shoes, and rubbed off skin. Pointe work in and of itself kills the ankles and legs.

An assumption that I find amusing is that there is wood in the toe of a pointe shoe. People must hear the term 'box' (the area of the platform, vamp, and pleats) and think there is wood in the shoe. In fact, the shoe is made of little more than satin, flour/water, and paper or canvas!

Cross-section of a pointe shoe