Being a creative person, I sometimes struggle with having ideas that are deemed as too big, out of reach and plainly ridiculous. But as I grow older, I’ve seemed to become more committed to making them happen.
Over the last 2-3 years we have had numerous messages from South Island dancers asking when or if we were planning to visit the South Island on our Pointe Tours.
This solidified for me, that there was indeed a need for more access to Pointe Fittings and Pointe Brands down in the South.
So on the 1st April, after some tedious admin, we (Myself, Milan, my Partner and Mum) flew down to Christchurch for our first ever South Island Pointe Tour.
We had fittings with students from huge range of studios including:
- Agape
- Anna Lee School of Dance
- Aurora Dance Studio
- Convergence
- Garden City Dance Academy
- Jenna McKenzie School of Dance
- Levings
- Southern Ballet
- St Margarets Theatre Dance Academy
A lot of dancers had similar issues with their shoes which included, not being able to source them due to their Russian origin, the shanks not working with their arch, the boxes braking down too quickly and a lot of shoes were plain and simply too hard for them to articulate in.
It was eye-opening to see how many shoes were just a few tweaks away from being so much better for them and I thoroughly enjoyed educating the dancers and their parents more on pointe shoes, what they should do for them and how many different options there actually are out there.
Additionally, being down there in person meant I could connect with some teachers and industry experts I’ve been meaning to see for a while now, what a treat!
The three days were filled with first seeing the sites of Christchurch then fitting from 2pm-9.30pm each day to make the most of balancing family time with business!
6 suitcases, 3 days, 21 hours of fitting and 40 students later we completed the Christchurch Pointe Tour for 2024 and what an amazing experience it was.
Thank you’d to: Mum, my partner Jordan, Georgina Barr, Sasha from Evolve Studios, Antoinette McKay for all of your support leading up to and during this trip.
Knowing me, I will have yet another trip down south planned in no time, but where should we head too next? Let us know where!