Russian Pointe® Retailer Profile: Beam & Barre

These days, downtown Greenwich, CT, is more akin to Rodeo Drive than to a small, sleepy New England town. The street is lined with Mercedes, BMWs and Range Rovers, as people carry shopping bags from the nearby Hermes, Ralph Lauren and Apple stores.

But tucked in the middle of the main thoroughfare is a charming, 2,000-foot space called Beam & Barre, an independently-owned dancewear store that has been a staple of the community since the late 1970s.

Georgia Tretradis, who has owned the store since 1982, says families have been coming to her store for decades for everything from tap, jazz, hip hop, ballroom, and most importantly, 36 different varieties of pointe shoes.

“They come to me for my diversity and selection,” Tretadis says. “I have people come out of the Bronx and the city for my pointe shoes.”

In the more than 30 years that Tretradis has been in the dance business, she says she’s seen many fads come and go, and right now, Tretradis says Russian Pointe® shoes are one of the hottest styles. “The right foot in there looks so good and so perfect,” she says.

Tretradis says many of her customers also say Russian Pointe® is one of the most comfortable brands of pointe shoes on the market. “I think it’s a really fantastic brand and I know a lot of girls are really happy with it,” she says.

Tretradis says she is lucky that both she and her entire staff are very knowledgeable and experienced in pointe shoe fitting, so they are able to provide pointe shoe fittings on a first-come, first-serve basis, unlike most stores, which require customers to make a pointe shoe fitting appointment because they do not have enough experienced fitters on staff to accommodate walk-ins.

A long-time dancer, Tretradis says she got into the dance retail business when the former owner of the store, who was a friend of hers, decided she wanted to become a chiropractor. At the time, Tretradis had graduated from college and was working as a buyer for Saks 5th Avenue, so she thought that combining her love of fashion with her love of dance would be the perfect career for her.

Today, Tretradis attributes her store’s longevity to the initial passion she had for the business.

“I like action of being here. I like the camaraderie with my girls,” Tretradis says. “I love what I do. I’m happy doing what I’m doing.”