Britain’s first professional black ballerina was left “winded” and “breathless” after witnessing the meticulous restoration of her historic pointe shoes on the BBC’s The Repair Shop.
Julie Felix, a London-born dancer, of Caribbean heritage, brought the ballet shoes she wore for her first professional solo performance four decades ago to the popular reality programme.
Her appearance offered a poignant reflection on the struggles she endured throughout her career, with her mother remembered as her staunchest supporter.
Felix recounted a pivotal moment in the 1970s when a London ballet company rejected her due to her race, explicitly stating, “we can’t have a brown ballet dancer in the line-up of the swans”.
This discrimination ultimately led her to seek opportunities abroad.
She subsequently secured a contract with the all-black Dance Theatre Of Harlem, based in New York, a move that shaped her professional journey. Speaking to experts Lucia Scalisi and Dean Westmoreland on the show, Felix shared her remarkable story, underscoring the emotional weight of seeing her cherished shoes brought back to life.
Felix said that seven years later her ballet company performed at the Royal Opera House in London where she was offered her first solo role, and she took to the stage in her “tan-coloured” pointe shoes – which were dyed to match her skin-tone.
She said: “These were the shoes that I wore when mum and dad came to see me perform on the stage of the Royal Opera House.
“And I said, ‘mum, you were right. I’ve made it, and I’m here’. Right here on this table, these symbolise all the work, effort, love and devotion from my mother.”
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Reflecting on the moment she saw her restored ballet shoes, Felix said: “I was winded, almost. I felt like somebody had just kicked me in the stomach. I was breathless for a few seconds.
“It was genuine tears, it really was. Even now when I’m talking about it, I’m getting a lump in my throat, any time I talk about my mum. I knew that these would be absolutely what she had wanted.
“She asked me, ‘Julie, when you’re finished with these shoes, please can you get them fixed in such a way that I can put them on a display somewhere in the house as memory of my coming to see you perform at the Royal Opera House’.
“That really choked me up because I just put my heart on my chest the way I did when I stood on the stage when she was alive. I looked up at the seats in the Gods, and I just said, ‘mum, I’m here, I’ve done it’ and it took me back.”
She said that the shoes are now on display in her home, adding: “I see them every day, when I’m home all the time, and it doesn’t take much for my eye to catch them. And I just think, ‘mum, look at these’.
“That’s what she wanted, and she wanted them in her house so she could see them every day. So, thank you The Repair Shop.”
Felix was made an MBE in 2024 for services to dance education.
She has worked as a dancer, teacher, coach, author and has dedicated her decades-long career to helping black people to pursue careers in the arts.
The Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on April 8.
