They may be stuffed and stiffened, filed and hammered, glued and darned, bent in half, slammed in doorways, steamed over boiling water, baked on radiators, and drenched with alcohol. With all the ...

Surprising to say, it was a woman who invented a shoe to dance on the tips of the toes. Marie Taglioni (1804 — 1884) was an Italian dancer in the romantic era, daughter of Filippo Taglioni, who ...