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The Aspiration is a shoe built for the student The shank is a new construction combining 3 iron board full, 3 iron board cut 3/4, and 3 iron board centerpiece. This will encourage the shoe to bend at "three quarter" while still providing support.
BREAK-IN INSTRUCTIONS
A little extra time needs to be taken to break in these shoe types. They are made with a harder paste than Technique B and are therefore susceptible to "snapping" if treated roughly at first. Once broken correctly they have a long life span.
Doing barre is the best way to break in a pointe shoe. We understand however that you can't stand at the barre with a new pair of pointe shoes and expect to do a tendu, so the shoe needs to be prepared for barre by gently softening the shank and box by hand. Concentrate on the demi-pointe area of the shank being careful not to crush the box. Then work your way up to the heel gently massaging the shank until it is at a point where tendu and releve to demi-pointe is comfortable. Softening the box is not always necessary and is left up to the individual. If softening is necessary then concentrate on gently softening the sides of the box. Lots of dancers stand on the top of the box in order to soften and widen it. We advise that standing on the box or squashing the box can permanently damage the shoe. Please do so at your own risk. If you must stand on the box, you need to concentrate the pressure on either side of the box centre. This is important because the top centre of the box is the weakest point and prone to the most damage if stood on.
Once the shoes are ready for barre, 1 to 2 hours barre will be a sufficient time to shape them to your foot. At this point the shoes will be evenly softened with no weak points resulted from incorrect breaking technique.
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