Britain's first black ballerina has shoes restored

""It took my breath away, because it was something that I really never expected to happen," Felix said when asked about the shoe restoration."

""It just turned out that life is busy as we all know it, and I never got the opportunity to get them fixed," Felix explained regarding the delay in restoring her shoes."

""My idea was to have them mounted somehow, just slightly salvaged in some way, but Dean exceeded my expectations," Felix added about the restoration process."

Julie Felix, the first black professional ballerina in Britain, had her pointed shoes restored on The Repair Shop. Excluded from a London ballet company in the 1970s due to racism, she later became a star in the US. After returning to the UK, she taught at the Birmingham Royal Ballet. The restoration of her shoes, inspired by her late mother, took her by surprise. Felix worked as Head of Dance at St Martin's Girls School until retirement and has been awarded an MBE.

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