Image - ballet danger Cira Robinson jumping in the air with a badass look on her face. Her pointe shoes are glossy brown and match her skin tone.
Cira Robinson started “pancaking” her ballet shoes when she was 18: “I use foundation. The colour is Caribbean coffee – it’s basic cheap make-up, but it works. Pointe shoes come only in the traditional pink, unless they’re red for a show. It would look strange if there was a pink shoe at the end of a brown leg, so it helps with the line. My pointe shoes are brown because my skin is brown.”
When I first saw this photo I didn’t even see Cira’s pointe shoes. If she were wearing the light pink shoes I wouldn’t have seen the magnificent extension through her legs right past her toes, and that’s kind of bullshit because Cira and all other dancers of colour are having their craft compromised by dancewear that only suits white people.