A teacher preparing to teach a punitive pointe training class
A reader asks: After reading about punitive pointe training from my December 27, 2009 entry ‘Jill pads and punitive pointe training’ Risa asked “Can you explain deeper what kind of pointe training used as punitive pointe training? I really interested to this topic”
The section of the entry she is enquiring about is: “Anya and punitive pointe training: Because Anya is a masochist and enjoys brutal pointe sex along with other specialties she accepted a commission from a unit of Taryn’s Adult Media Empire to advise the Swiss head mistress on what additions should be made to the classical syllabus for pointe training to heighten its punitive aspect and exactly what the disciplinary regimen should consist of to achieve various levels of pain for training purposes. She will also examine the physical plant to see if any changes need to be made to introduce ‘solitary barre’ punishment and if there is need for any additional machines and devices creative punitive pointe training can require. The trip will also give her an opportunity to see Castle Deiter for the first time since its renovation with Tanaquil and one of her lieutenants, who used to be one of Deiter’s girls, giving the tour.”
Punitive pointe training, the details: PPT can and will vary from school to school and from teacher to teacher. I see it needed when a student with potential doesn’t take her pointe classes seriously enough and isn’t performing at the level she is capable of. I think that is showing disrespect for the art and the tradition of the skills being handed down from one generation of dancers to the next. Therefore, every teacher who administers punitive point training under my supervision wears a short (classical) tutu and pointes and is on pointe with the student being disciplined during her entire disciplinary session.
There is nothing elaborate or particularly special about the punitive pointe training regimen I use. Well, not to begin with, although the punitive regimen calls for the woman undergoing PPT to take class with a special vaginal plug inserted. The plug is inserted to give the student something to block out of her mind – a lesson in partitioning - while concentrating on the steps she required to perform. It also has a more sinister purpose if it turns out that she is very stubborn and refused to be compliant.
We find using classical steps and poses at the barre and then center work are usually enough to bring a student with a recalcitrant attitude in line. Using steps from the classical idiom provides justification for the very intense training needed to make certain the student in question has that step, combination or pose committed to memory and the stamina to perform a long series of an exercise correctly.
We first have a dancer undergoing a punitive training regimen do a twenty minute barre – in pointe shoes – to make certain she is well warmed up. Then we take her through a series of steps depending how naughty she has been. Basic steps like:
Relevé from straight-knee positions, fully rolling through the foot while both rising and descending is very important.
Relevé from demi-plié, springing strongly from the heels and drawing the toes slightly under the insteps so the feet are in first position on pointe with the toes directly under the heels. It’s important to work through demi-pointe when returning the heels to the floor.
Échappé on pointe, in second or fourth position. Standing in fifth position, demi-plié, then spring out to second position on pointe, pushing off strongly with the heels. The feet can be exchanged, front, back after an 8, or 16 count or changed each time you close.
Relevé en Arabesque, with the left leg extended back in arabesque à terre well turned out from the hip, demi-plié. Spring up into Relevé on the right foot extending the leg back parallel to the floor. Lower through demi-pointe to demi-plié maintaining strength in back not permitting the left leg to drop and keeping a strong point in the left foot. Repeat 8 or 16 times on the same foot then repeat the series on the other leg.
Administering PPT: The class is taught by a very experienced instructor. I teach PPT with a 30 inch riding crop with a thin leather tress on the end. To make corrections I flick the tress against the sole or toe-box of the dancer’s pointe. The steps are basic, but the number of repetitions is not. We start with fifty 16-count reps on each foot and go through the series of steps while I judge the mental attitude of the student. If I don’t think she is cooperative and giving me her best effort we go through the process again with one hundred 16-count reps on each foot. This will generally separate the determined from the serious bloody toes masochists. Very few students can do one hundred 16-count reps w/o going rubber-legged and falling off pointe at which time the girl is grounded until she can perform the required amount of discipline successfully.
Occasionally a teacher’s authority will be directly challenged by a new student who has been to a more liberal school as far as pointe training is concerned. Or, one who has burnt out and no longer cares, but doesn’t want to quit. It those cases as a last resort to bend the naughty dancer to the teacher’s will she can operate a small remote transmitter that sends a charge of electricity through electrodes in the trainee’s plug. One electrode is in contact with the ring of nerves just inside her vagina while the other electrode is along the anterior wall of her vagina against her G-spot and bladder.
The teachers administering PPT have all worn ‘spark-plugs’ as they are known and had the plug activated while we are trying to hold a pose or perform a step. You are thinking about getting the step done correctly when the shock hits in total surprise. You feel this tremendous jolt and every muscle seems to contract at the same time. Some gasp and fall off pointe, some double over with severe cramps, most start to cry. We all empty our bladders spontaneously and it’s a scary and humiliating experience.
In the three years I’ve been administering PPT at St Lucy’s I’ve never had to activate a girl’s spark plug. I consider it a failure on my part if I can’t get a student to perform to the best of her ability w/o shocking her. Driving her into exhaustion takes a bit longer, but when I’m administering punitive training I’m doing what I ask her to do along with her step for step and they know after the first hour or two that they aren’t going to be able to get away with anything less than their best effort. I usually bond with those students during their PPT session and we end up being best friends.
