223 Pointes: the pointe shoe swan sculpture inspired by BRB's Swan Lake

Artist's statement

223 Pointes is a hand-sewn textile sculpture by Birmingham-based textile artist Clare Elisabeth, made from 223 used pointe shoes previously worn in performances by Birmingham Royal Ballet dancers. It depicts Odette from Swan Lake emerging from a tower of more used pointe shoes.

Created over several months, the sculpture transformed the pointes into something entirely new. The shoes bear the marks, stains, wear and imperfections left by countless hours of demanding rehearsal and performance alongside the embroidery, ribbons, rosins, dyes and powders added by the dancers themselves. Rather than concealing these, Clare made them the focus of the work. The history of the dancers who wore them remaining visible within Odette’s plumage, exploring the beauty within the marks and imperfections created by their dedication and mastery.

The sculpture was conceived following a conversation with the late Caroline Miller OBE, then CEO of Birmingham Royal Ballet, whose enthusiasm and creative vision helped facilitate its creation. Caroline subsequently kept the sculpture on her desk until her passing later that year. It has since become something of a homage to Caroline’s indomitable spirit.

Each pointe shoe was painstakingly dismantled by hand. The thousands of individual feathers were then formed through a process of up to fourteen stages before being individually sewn into place. Even Odette’s face, feet and beak were constructed from tiny pieces of hessian taken from inside the shoes’ platforms. Her eyes are antique Victorian glass buttons.

223 Pointes is very much a collaboration between the interconnected craftsmanship of the superbly skilled shoemakers who create the shoes, the incredible dancers who transform them through movement, and the sculptor herself. The piece brings these separate journeys together. At the same time, the character Odette is both a celebration of ballet and a tribute to the dedication and enduring stories held within textiles and the objects we leave behind.