Ballet shoes, or ballet slippers, are specially designed lightweight shoes for ballet dancing. Ballet shoes are soft shoes worn by ballet dancers until their bones are ossified and their muscles strong enough for them to use pointe shoes, which allow them to stand on the tips of their toes (en pointe). Male dancers almost exclusively wear soft ballet shoes, as they very rarely go en pointe. Occasionally, dancers wear ballet slippers to begin a lesson at the barre (la barre) then wear their pointe shoes for the floor or center exercises, or "milieu". Most often, though, dancers take a regular class on flat (in soft ballet shoes) or a pointe class en pointe. (wikipedia)