Sergei Murza produces the shoes in the Moscow workshop of Grishko, a company born in the chaos of the collapse of the Soviet Union and now is one of the world’s top makers of ballet pointe shoes. Grishko is a rare success story for Russian artisanship, its shoes sold around the globe and grace the stages of the world’s top ballet venues. Nearly 80 percent of its production is for export, with the US and Japan being the top buyers. Today he employs more than 500 people at workshops in ...