Apple released its newest suite of emojis this week, and it includes: an onion, a sloth, people of various genders and skin tones using wheelchairs, a waffle, a yoyo, and, crucially, finally, a pair of pointe shoes.
Until now, ballet dancers have had to use the flamenco dancing lady or the two girls in bunny ears to represent dancing. Now, ballet’s got its own thing, and it’s… fine. It’s fine. They got the shape of the shoe right, and they got the curve of ideal ballet foot right, too. There’s even a tiny gather of satin on the bottom where the toes meet the foot, just like you’ll find on a pointe shoe.
When you apply for a new emoji, you have to demonstrate that people will actually use it in text conversations and social media posts, and how they’ll use it (did the folks who submitted the eggplant emoji imagine what would become of their creation? I suspect not).
The application for the pointe shoe emoji, which was submitted last year, is worth a look. It proposes the emoji as a way to represent “the art of ballet,” and it’s telling that the designers didn’t choose a tutu for that purpose, or a woman. They chose a pair of pointe shoes. Specifically, a pink pair.
The application for the pointe shoe emoji points to the association of ballet with grace. “We would expect the ballerina or ballet shoes emoji to be used to represent grace, or an ironic sense, to represent clumsiness.” And, emphasizing the shoe’s status as an ultra-feminine object, the proposal imagines its use “in posts about young girls or announcing the birth or expected birth of a baby girl, even in the absence of any ballet-specific context.”
Other possible uses: barre class, and to convey the phrase “on point.” As in, “babe, your eyeliner is [POINTE SHOE EMOJI].”
When the application was published, along with an example of what the image might look like, New York Times dance writer Siobhan Burke wrote that it looked like “a pink loafer with ribbons,” and she was right: it was kind of shapeless, and very, very pink. The final version isn’t quite as exuberant: it’s the kind of salmon-y colour you’ll actually find on a white dancer’s feet.
And that’s the only colour option you have for now, which is disappointing, because in the real world, pointe shoes, finally, come in a range of skin tones. Real life ballerinas of colour had to wait 200 years for ready-made shoes that match their feet and legs. If they wanted any colour besides pink (and, it should be noted, not all do), they had to use paint or foundation to DIY themselves a pair. Which takes time and effort and money (foundation ain’t cheap!), and can change the way the shoe fits and wears.
Now, brands are finally making pointe shoes in beiges and browns, so that dancers of colour can extend their leg lines without spending hours “pancaking” their pointes.
Unicode already knows that humans come in a range of colours. Pointe shoes do, too. If the emoji is going to represent “the art of ballet” then it shouldn’t represent an all-white version, because that’s not what ballet is, should be, or will be in the future. And if Apple can give us multiple shades of thumbs up and middle fingers, it can do the same for pointe shoes.
Ballet-ween
American ballet schools and companies get into Halloween big time, and in the days after there are often photos and videos of dancers taking class in excellent get-ups. But for me, nothing will ever beat this video of a member of the Cincinnati Ballet taking class in a T-Rex costume. Enjoy.
That’s it from me this week. Thanks for reading.