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Drew B wrote:

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meatball77 wrote:

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From Wiki:

Young children interested in a career in ballet usually start dancing en pointe
after they are over the age of eleven or if they are accepted in one of
the ballet academies (acceptance age range varies), at the end of the
first year of study or during their second year; therefore in some
ballet academies girls may start to take pointe classes when they are as young as ten ^{[2] [3]}.
The reason that girls do not start when they are younger is because the
bones in their feet are still growing and can be permanently damaged;
also their foot and leg muscles are not yet strong enough to support
them. They should also be in an intermediate or advanced level of
ballet, be able to hold their turnout from the hips while performing
center combinations and hold a proper ballet position (straight back,
good turnout, etc.). No one should start pointe before authorized to by
a teacher under any circumstances. In the more serious dance academies,
where girls tend to start pointe work at an earlier age, a physician's
advice is required to make sure the dancers' feet have ossified
sufficiently; serious foot deformities can result from starting pointe
too early. Moreover, in ballet academies, children take several ballet
classes per week and are closely supervised by their teachers for any
weaknesses. Injuries, such as breaking the ankle, can occur because of
young, weak, and untrained bones and muscles. Pedicures are not a good
idea for pointe dancers and pointe dancers must always make sure that
they cut their toenails at least one day before dance class or concerts
to let the toes adjust to the new length of the nails. Layers and
layers of dead skin, calluses, etc. on the feet are helpful, like
insulation against the strain of the shoe. Things like blisters, boils,
athlete's foot, cuts of the feet, and even bleeding are to be expected.

Dancing en pointe requires one to use the entire body for support, including the legs, back, and abdominal muscles^[4].

Once a dancer is ready, preparation for pointe work is a gradual
process. At first, it is just strengthening exercises at the barre -
for example, simply rising en pointe and returning. According
to the teacher's preferences and syllabus, the dancers might first be
taught to "roll-through" from flat to demi pointe to pointe and down
again (unless the Russian or Italian method is being taught, in which
the dancer springs directly from flat onto pointe). Another example is
learning how to properly wing out the foot and point the foot as the
dancer would do in technique shoes. Then variations in speed and
position may be introduced -- for perhaps no more than five or ten
minutes. It is often only after six months to a year of such exercises
that the student can start dancing en pointe in the center.

The first exercises at the barre are usually relevés and échappés ^[5]
done on both feet. Only once the student is fully comfortable in
executing the steps on both feet (and the tendons are strong enough),
steps ending on one foot are introduced, such as pas de bourrée en pointes and retiré en pointes, first at the barre and later on in the centre. In centre practice, Mme Vaganova ^[6] suggests as first exercises on both feet relevés and échappés en pointe.

I'm not questioning that it's not a particularly safe idea (nor likely to yield good results) to have dancers untrained in this style attempt it after only 5 & 1/2 hours with a choreographer. I just say "so what"? They do that to dancers with the crazy-ass (e.g. dangerous as hell) lifts in the Doriana Sanchez disco routines and some of the Latin dances. The dancers just have to STEP UP or fake it. Sure, the results are sometimes a train wreck, but I'm guessing that the risk for serious injury is far greater with a lot of the lifts they do in other styles than with attempted pointe work...

Beyond that, the choreographer could give them a routine that is meant to be on pointe, and the dancer could just not do it on pointe. Half of the audience would only notice if the judges pointed it out. The dancers' feet are all wrong in about half the ballroom routines we see, and they survive...