They were exercising in soft shoes, and then one day, they changed into pointe shoes and never changed back. They worked that way everyday. It's a very good practice, very useful, especially at school. Because later, when you become an actor, a principal dancer, after your class you have rehearsal, and you have to do everything on pointe. In school not every student gets a lot of stage experience, and it's very important to have this work in the shoes you'll wear for performances.
School is the place to learn the technique of wearing and dancing in pointe shoes.
Ruzimatov told me that in school the boys have strong competition among themselves. Yes, it exists. Sometimes we would get to class early. Maybe we had changed quicker than usual. Obviously we were really young and talented, we could jump and stay at exactly the same place, and we could go on for a long time.