What are these? A question I first posed to myself three weeks ago when I opened my recently purchased ballet shoes and out slithered these two pieces of elastic.

I spent the first week after the purchase, trying to find little holes or snaps that these ribbons needed to be attached. No luck. What were these things? If they were supposed to go on my shoes, shouldn’t there be directions? As if all the positions having French names wasn’t enough, these two elastic beige strings were confounding me. All other sports did not require a rudimentary knowledge of a second language. And this may sound futuristic, but the tennis shoes actually have holes for the laces. I know, now I am talking crazy talk!

Well thank you to the power of the Internet and no thanks to the Capezio marketing department (whoever handles packaging should really be whipped using these small elastic strings), I had a major discovery! These two little straps – I am supposed to sew them on to the shoe across the top so the shoe will stay on. I was wondering how I could have avoided that whole debacle during the back kicks.

Other than my massive epiphany involving the beige straps, I also have the following observations:

• I have a bruise on the top of my ankle. (Hey, I am reporting here!)
•  Tights are a necessity when wearing ballet shoes. (Sweat. Yeah, I said it. Even though I don’t think DKNY had this in mind when designing tights.)
• Practice doesn’t make perfect but you recover faster.
• Tall, short, overweight or thin, as with everything ballet is all about how you carry yourself. And just like everything else, if you love it, you can definitely see it.

No longer strapless,

Lynne with an E