Should I start dancing on pointe?

As with any sport – sports is healthy but if you exaggerate it, then not.

Ballet is basically healthy – it goes into the extreme sports area or professional area – e.g. at the top dance, then the whole looks different

You can’t make a bit of a top dance – you need to train like a professional dancer so that your foot can stop this extreme load at all. If you only do 2h ballet a week, your foot will never be strong enough for that and the risk of injury is so high

Apart from the costs. Are your parents ready to buy you new ballet shoes worth 100€ each month?

Prerequisites for top dance (tanzcene.de)

Requirements for top dance are:

Plantar flexion capability of 90 degrees in the ankle joint, in combination with a vertical axis of the front limit of the lower leg, ankle joint and midfoot bone. This creates a biomechanically optimal leg axis alignment.

A movability in the large-tone base joint of at least 90° in the stretching (Dorsalextension) in order to be able to roll up and down in the tip shoe.

An Egyptian or cubic foot form – as “ideal” are short toes of approximately the same length. If, in particular, the second toe is longer than the large toe, pressure is produced on the middle foot bones, which can lead to irritation, inflammation and deformations with consequential damage.

Excessive force and neuromuscular control in the lower extremities, sufficient hull control, good control of the pelvic muscles, in particular of the abductors (without sufficient force in the abductors, there is a tendency to absorb (“turning outward”) in the ankle joint).

A minimum of 4 years on preceding serious dance training with at least 2 -3 classes per week.

Basic technical movements such as Plié and Relevé should be able to be carried out cleanly and accurately.

Standard tests should be carried out in order to check the maximum stability for force. These include the Airplane test, balance tests in the Relevé in Passé position of about 30 seconds, jump tests on a leg with a 16-time repetition among others.

At the age of 12 (but only) with appropriate training preparation and physical and neuromuscular suitability as well as the greatest possible development of sensomotoric systems, it is most likely possible to speak of a meaningful age to begin with the top dance.

Top dance, safe and in perfection, is a wonderful art form and of course belongs to any training in classical ballet.
However, in the field of amateurs, for children and adults, the execution of top dance should be critically questioned, especially if the necessary conditions mentioned above are not present.

“The argument that ballet would only be ballet if it were danced on top must be refuted: educators (…) of amateur classes are cordially invited to focus on a combination of technical classes and choreography. If amateurs have the opportunity to dance beautiful, classic choreographies in their performance frame, the longing for the ballet will be better stilled than if the same amateurs with high instability, uncertainty and risk of injury are tormented.” (Kaufmann, Judith-Elisa. 2016. Dance Education & Dance Medicine: The symbiosis of the future. Remscheid: Rediroma publisher.

I would also like to add that in the selection of a ballet school, in particular if it is taught top dance, it should be checked very accurately whether the teachers are also orientated to the above-mentioned necessary conditions. know these at all.
An integration of the pupils or the child into a class that simply corresponds to the age, a permit to participate in the top dance, because he simply belongs to the ballet or because the child wishes so much (except for mothers who want to fulfill their own dream by the child) without prior checking of numbity, is absolutely negligent and in the worst case harmful to health.