Ballet Shoes Cost $780,000 Annually

New York City Ballet spends about $780,000 annually on 9,000 to 11,000 pairs of footwear, with nearly 6,000 pairs stored beneath Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater. Dancers wear out 500 to 800 pairs of pointe shoes during the six-week run of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. Two weeks of Swan Lake consume even more because, according to shoe room supervisor and former principal dancer Linnette Roe, the entire company remains en pointe throughout the production.

Previous Fact Next Fact