Ballerinas and pro dancers: How do you take care of your feet?

Do you think professional ballerinas and those other pro dancers have some kind of secret ritual for taking care of their feet since it’s literally their livelihood? Like, do they get a dedicated manicurist or a private pedicurist on speed dial or something? From what I can tell, they’re basically dealing with constant blisters and all sorts of nasty stuff all the time😲 Their feet are probably as beat up as a set of tires on a long-haul trucker😍

Same here, though I mostly just stick to the record player. 😁

It’s an absolute fact that ballerinas have different feet than everyone else—I know because I’ve seen it firsthand with my own people.
Having spent twelve years immersed in the world of ballet, I have to be honest: there are moments where I genuinely curse the day I ever decided to go en pointe. Between the constant, nagging calf pain, the endless blisters, and dealing with muscle inflammation at least once every couple of months, it can be brutal. But then again, isn't there something incredible about that specific feeling when you realize you can actually conjure something extraordinary just through your own imagination and movement?

I spent years in ballet—years of dealing with bruised nails, bleeding toes, and all that lovely trauma. I never once stepped foot in a nail salon, though. I’ve always handled my own foot care, and honestly, they look great today. My routine is simple: once a week, I soak my feet in a basin with some basic shower gel—hot water, ideally—to soften everything up, then I just clear away any dead skin with a razor if necessary. Doing this once a month, followed by an exfoliant and a good moisturizer, is plenty. There are a million different creams on the shelves these days, so a professional pedicure feels entirely redundant. I never had issues with ingrown nails, just those constant little cuts on my toes—I used to be covered in Band-Aids until liquid bandage was actually invented.🙂That's just how I've handled it.🙂

Honestly, I’m dealing with the exact same thing where my nails just keep peeling off, but I’ve kind of grown used to it at this point—which is actually what worries me the most, because my toes are pretty much always wrapped up anyway.

I honestly don't get how anyone can dance through that kind of pain😲 It’s like, think about it—a ballerina’s legs are basically her instrument, just like a singer’s voice is their whole deal, right? So shouldn't there be way more focus on specialized care, recovery, and actually treating those injuries properly instead of just pushing through it?😕

I never dealt with ingrown nails nearly as much as my friends did—it was always more about my cuticles. Even when I had issues, there was always a new nail growing underneath, so it wasn't exactly a crisis. Honestly, a pedicurist can't do much if you aren't proactive—at least not the ones I’ve used. They massage, apply creams, paint the nails... things I can easily do myself. They have all these fancy gadgets for foot massages now, too—but at this point, nothing really hurts anymore; after a while, you just get used to everything.🙂

Singers don't have to deal with debilitating physical agony, and if they happen to "catch" a sore throat, doctors work absolute miracles for them. It’s never that simple for dancers, though—a pedicurist isn't going to fix your issues, and if you actually bother seeing a physician, they’ll just lecture you about things that don't matter without offering any real solutions. According to the medical establishment, the best cure for a dancer's struggles would be to simply quit ballet altogether and stay home to watch mindless soap operas.😛
Taylor Swift, when exactly did you decide to walk away from ballet, and what was the real reason? (And let's be honest, nail problems aren't the answer here).

It wasn’t about my nails—I just lost interest in chasing something else entirely. College, social life, and frankly, the spark just died out. I feel a pang of regret today, I suppose, but I think I made the right call—given that you can't exactly build a career on ballet these days... Though, if I'm being honest, the move from Chicago to New York didn't exactly make things any easier.😢

Losing nails... Ugh, just gross! 🤮

Haha, it sounds absolutely hideous—but honestly, it doesn't look all that bad, considering there's always a perfectly healthy new nail waiting underneath🙂

Sure, people love to point out that you don't make a killing in ballet, but honestly? It's not like there's some massive windfall waiting for me that would ever justify giving up what I actually love doing. 😍

Honestly, you wouldn't believe the state of my feet after pointe work. If you could see my nails and the soles of my feet after a grueling session of contemporary ballet, you’d be horrified. And that’s just when I have a standard repertoire; throw in a month where I'm juggling classical pieces, modern sets, and performing at an opera house in heels, and you'll realize there isn't a podiatrist in the entire US who could fix this mess. For pointe work, having thick skin around your toe joints is actually a blessing because it helps prevent those nasty blisters. Similarly, with modern dance, having calloused soles actually helps reduce friction during turns, making it much less painful than if I had soft, pampered skin. It’s just the nature of the job, I suppose. During my first week of vacation, I make sure to head straight to some secluded beaches—not just to hide my feet, but to conceal all the bruising, otherwise, people might think I'm being mistreated.

When it comes to modern ballet, my instructor mentioned it’s actually pretty brutal, but I’m still only in my second year of high school. Right now, my curriculum is mostly focused on classical ballet, character dance, folk dance, and dance theory—it feels like most of what we do is just the technical side of things. We don't even touch modern ballet until our junior year, which is also when they introduce historical dances, and honestly, that part actually makes me a little nervous.

Hey there, Maria Rogers63!
I’m the mom of a little girl who is just wrapping up her first year of elementary ballet school—that's after she already spent three years in those preparatory classes. Her feet are pretty much "turned in," which basically means she doesn't have that natural physical predisposition for ballet, though she absolutely loves it. That said, she really struggles with a lot of the exercises and positions... I was wondering if anyone here has gone through something similar?