 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2020) |
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| Industry | Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1932 |
| Founder | Jacob Bloch |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Dance supplies |
| Website | bloch |
Bloch is an Australian-based manufacturer of pointe shoes and other types of dance shoes, dance costumes, and dance fashion accessories.
The Bloch company was founded by Jacob Bloch, a cobbler who emigrated from Eastern Europe to Australia in 1931. [1] Bloch began making pointe shoes in a workshop in Paddington, Sydney in 1932, when he noticed a ballet dancer struggling to stay en pointe and offered to make her an improved pair of shoes. Later, he made custom ballet shoes for Tamara Toumanova, David Lichine, Helene Kirsova, and other visiting Russian ballet dancers. With the expanding popularity of his product, Bloch began selling his pointe shoes throughout Australia.
The company has since expanded its product line with the addition of dance and street apparel and accessories. [1] Today, Bloch's corporate headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia, with a European head office in London. It operates one flagship store and 14 other stores across Australia, European stores in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Warsaw and one US store in New York; all other sales are conducted through independent retailers.
Bloch manufactures various types of shoes including pointe shoes, ballet flats, jazz shoes, character and tap shoes, ballroom shoes, dance sneakers, barre shoes and fashion flats, as well as a wide range of dance apparel, gymnastics and activewear.
Bloch employs a pointe shoe manufacturing method known as turnshoe. Bloch pointe shoes use three different recipes of paste in the toe box. [2] [ failed verification ] The standard paste, "paste A", is a firm, hard paste, that was formulated to withstand varying heat and humidity. "Paste B" is more malleable and thus allows the shoe to more quickly mold to the shape of the foot; because of its high malleability, this paste breaks down (i.e., shoe structural support degrades) faster than paste A. A third recipe, known as "TMT™" or "Thermo-Morph Technology" paste, is a heat activated material that allows the shoe to be molded to the foot when subjected to directed hot air from a hair dryer. [3]
Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serves the purpose of protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from ground textures and temperature. Footwear in the manner of shoes therefore primarily serves the purpose to ease locomotion and prevent injuries. Footwear can also be used for fashion and adornment as well as to indicate the status or rank of the person within a social structure. Socks and other hosiery are typically worn additionally between the feet and other footwear for further comfort and relief. Cultures have different customs regarding footwear. These include not using any in some situations, usually bearing a symbolic meaning. This can however also be imposed on specific individuals to place them at a practical disadvantage against shod people, if they are excluded from having footwear available or are prohibited from using any. This usually takes place in situations of captivity, such as imprisonment or slavery, where the groups are among other things distinctly divided by whether or whether not footwear is being worn.
A pointe shoe ; is a type of shoe worn by ballet dancers when performing pointe work. Pointe shoes were conceived in response to the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like and have evolved to enable dancers to dance en pointe for extended periods of time. They are manufactured in a variety of colors, most commonly in shades of light pink.
Pointe technique is the part of classical ballet technique that concerns pointe work, in which a ballet dancer supports all body weight on the tips of fully extended feet within pointe shoes. A dancer is said to be en pointe when the dancer's body is supported in this manner, and a fully extended vertical foot is said to be en pointe when touching the floor, even when not bearing weight. Pointe work is performed while wearing pointe shoes, which employ structural reinforcing to distribute the dancer's weight load throughout the foot, thus reducing the load on the toes enough to enable the dancer to support all body weight on fully vertical feet. But this assertion is disputed. Nothing in pointe shoe design prevents ‘slippage’ where, when en pointe, the dancer’s weight forces her foot down into the shoe until her big toe impacts the end of the toe box. Measurements have shown that the majority of her weight is then born by the big toe(s) regardless of the length of the second toe. Therefore, the ‘structural reinforcements’ do not and cannot distribute the weight load throughout the foot as claimed.
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