Chron.com – By Molly Glentzer – Houston Chronicle
Near the end of Houston Ballet’s new Cinderella, the Stepmother melts to the floor like the Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. You would, too, if you were in her shoes.
They’re like the shoes every ballerina wears, only bigger. Much bigger, about a men’s size 11.
In real life, the Stepmother and her fussy daughters, Grizabella and Florinda, are men. With real men’s feet. And there’s only so much room in a toe shoe for a real man’s foot plus tape, Band-Aids, toe gels, “second skin” jelly and lambswool — the ballerina’s padding arsenal.