What is your pointe shoe secret? Episode 7: Anna-Babette Winkler
- Ikuko
- Aug 25
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 27
Episode 6 of the What is your pointe shoe secret? blog series features Anna-Babette Winkler with the English National Ballet (ENB).
Anna-Babette, from Munich, Germany, joined the London-, the U.K., based company in 2018. After winning the Corps de Ballet Award 2024 and being a finalist of the Emerging Dancer 2024, she has been promoted to the rank of the First Artist for the new 2025-2026 season. Congratulations!
Apparently, Anna-Babette occasionally swaps leotards with Emily Suzuki, her colleague and a Prima Materia regular (Emily appears in the movie clip of the Corps de Ballet Award, wearing a Gelsey leotard). So I asked Anna-Babette if I could interview her for this post and she said yes!
Let's find out about the secret behind her soft, seamless, proper, classical and beautiful line. Please keep it mind, though, that it takes lots of strength and hard work to achieve the line, in addition to pointe shoes.
A spoiler alert: she has Greek feet.
What brand of pointe shoes do you wear?
I wear Freed of London.
What model and maker? Why do you like them?
I am now wearing the Freed Studio 2 model. I really love it as it’s a very light shoe and it’s very quiet to run and jump - this is really important for me as I find it really distracting when my shoes are loud. The insole is also very flat which is nice for finding my stability for example in adage.
What is your size and width?
My size is 6.5 and the width is E, which is almost the widest in this style.
Since when have you been using this brand?
I started wearing Freeds when I was 15. My teacher encouraged me to wear Freeds as they mold to the foot really well and you can really work on articulating your feet and not relying on the shoe too much. I also had about 2 years wearing Suffolks, however I switched back to Freeds last season.
Do you ask for any customisation at the manufacturer side?
No, I don’t ask for anything. I wear the shoe as it comes. The Studio 2 is a stock shoe which means that you cannot customize it. It’s not a problem for me though as I am so happy with it as it comes.
Do you do any customisation yourself? If so, how long does it take for you to finish customising a pair?
What I do to my shoes really varies. I usually break them in doing some relevés at the barre and wearing them for centre in class. I always pop out the sole in the front of the shoes as then the shoes break in the right spot for me.
I darn the front of the shoe really lightly - I find if I darn too much it tends to hold me back and I don’t go completely over the pointe. What is really important for me is to smack the bottom of the tip of the shoe on a hard surface, this makes my shoes nice and quiet and also gives me a more seamless feeling when going through my feet.
I definitely use pointe shoe glue at the tip of the shoe so the platform doesn’t lose its shape. Sometimes I also redarn the shoe to make the shoe last a bit longer.
Sewing my shoes takes me about 30 min for one pair. I try to always sew shoes in advance so that I always have a new pair ready to use when I need it.
Can you share a picture and short movie clip or two of your pointe shoes with us?
Image credit - William Simmons This is how feet are supposed to look like!- Movie clip credit: William Simmons
Do you like soft shanks better or hard shanks better?
The shank in my shoe is actually a hard shank however it really doesn’t feel hard when I wear it. I have tried standard shanks, but the shoes will just die really quickly when I wear them. I will have to say I prefer a hard shank, however, for me it actually ends up feeling soft.
New shoes or old shoes?
Definitely old shoes! New shoes never feel like they are part of me when I first put them on. I always feel good in older shoes when they have really moulded to my feet, and they break in the right place. It’s always hard for me to say goodbye to a pair of shoes when it’s dead, I really try to wear it until I am certain it’s not wearable anymore.
What support or protection do you use, i.e. toe pads, taping, toe spacers etc? Do you recommend any specific brands and products?
There is no day on pointe for me without hypafix! I always tape every single toe with it, it’s basically a thin plaster tape that feels very kind on the skin as it is not too thick. I wear silicon caps just on both my big toes, this also helps me even out the line of my 1st, 2nd and 3rd toes as my second toe is a bit longer than my big toe. As toe pads I just cut off the front bit of some sneaker socks and use that. I tried many times with the silicon style of toe pads however I find my feet get way too sweaty and the whole box ends up feeling too tight. Using the front of the socks did get some getting used to as I feel the floor a lot more, but I definitely prefer it.
Do you use elastics and ribbons of any specific brands?
Luckily, we get our elastics and ribbons at work. For elastics I have this netted elastic which I get in our wardrobe department. For ribbons I just use traditional pointe shoe ribbon.
Have you tried any other brands before? If so, why did you change?
I tried Bloch and Suffolk as well. For the most part however I have always worn Freeds and I think they work best for my feet. Freeds have so many different types of shoes and they are really great at finding exactly the shoe that will fit you best. I have been with them for many years and have worn many different makers over the years, always adapting for what works best for my foot.
Do you use different shoes for different roles?
I always wear the same type of shoe but I always choose my shoes really carefully depending on what I am going to dance in them. If it is something that requires me to move fast or jump I will always use a softer shoe that’s well broken in so I can move quickly and quietly. If it is something that is more adagio and that maybe is a long time on pointe I will always choose a newer pair, so the box is more supportive when I am up on pointe.
How long does a pair of shoes last?
This is really a hard question. Sometimes it can sadly only be a few days, but sometimes there is also a miracle pair which lasts for a month. I try to always have about 5 pairs of shoes at the same time so I can wear them in rotation, that definitely extends their lifespan and also in this way I can manage to have different types of pointe shoes ready for different things.
Lastly, what is your ambition for the new season?
This season I am excited to face both familiar and fresh challenges. It is my ambition to grow as an artist, build more strength and keep refining my technique every step of the way.
--
Hypafix mentioned in the text is Hypafix® . One noun is corrected to its plural form. The text is unedited otherwise.
Updated on 27th August 2025 to correct the verb tense in the excerpt. There is no change to the text.
