At the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, a specialized and largely unseen craft plays a critical role in ballet performances: the custom coloring of dancers’ shoes. Tim Foster, the New York City Ballet’s first full-time shoe colorist, has spent the past 15 years perfecting this niche art, ensuring that footwear seamlessly complements the costumes and movements on stage.
Most ballet slippers and pointe shoes come in a standard pale pink, but productions often require a broader palette. For example, the ensemble of Marzipan Shepherdesses in "The Nutcracker" wear canary yellow shoes, while the Butterfly soloist in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" dons powder blue. Foster works in a small, workshop-like space tucked away within the theater, where he meticulously applies paint to hundreds of shoes each season. His technique demands precision: the color must match costumes exactly without altering the shoe’s flexibility or feel, which is vital for the dancers’ performance.
A former professional dancer himself, Foster understands the importance of his role. “When they give you their pointe shoes to mist or to dye, that is a responsibility I take very seriously,” he said. “It’s their sacred tool. It’s their violin. It’s their oboe.” His background includes performing with the New York City Opera and in various musicals, but his focus shifted after his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis in 2004. Seeking stability, he transitioned into wardrobe roles before eventually taking on shoe coloring at City Ballet.
Originally, dancers managed their shoe coloring, leading to inconsistent results. Foster stepped in at the company’s request, discovering a natural talent for color matching despite limited formal art training. His work now extends to creating custom skin-toned shoes for each dancer, a practice increasingly adopted to reflect diverse skin shades and move beyond traditional “ballet pink.” This process has expanded his workload considerably.
City Ballet soloist Naomi Corti described Foster as a calming presence whose expertise goes beyond shoe-painting. “He’s like the heartbeat of the theater,” she said, noting that his thoughtful support helps ease performers’ pre-show nerves. Foster also uses subtle painting techniques to enhance the appearance of dancers’ feet, such as “contouring” shoes to emphasize the arch.
Foster’s role has gained wider recognition following a 2023 documentary by filmmaker Joshua Charow, who sought to highlight the work of unsung contributors to ballet. Besides shoe coloring, Foster creates visual art by sketching over paint-splattered papers used in his workspace, producing imaginative pieces inspired by the remnants of his craft. Though initially private about these artworks, he has received encouraging feedback since the film’s release and is considering a public exhibition.
Despite facing his own health challenges—including cancer treatment in 2013 that affected his mobility—Foster has returned to dancing in recent years. He views the future with a focus on passing on his expertise. Planning to retire soon, he aims to train new shoe colorists to ensure continuity and minimal disruption for dancers.
“I know how live theater draws everything out of you, even as it feeds you,” Foster said. “Those of us behind the scenes, we just want to make it possible for the dancers to let go and dance.”