Things You Need To Know About Dance Recital Costumes
Most dancers await their dance recital with bated breath and girls dream of wearing those perfect dance recital costumes. Well, now you can learn more about each kind of costume as well as details about hiring, making, and designing them. The first thing to think about when you start preparing for your dance recital is to think about the style of dance that you do. This can be ballet, modern, tap, hip hop, ballroom among many others. The dance recital costumes will have to match the style of the dance as well as provide the ideal design for easy movement.
If you are looking at ballroom for example, the lines of the dancer are accentuated by the long flowing skirts. Latin dancing on the other hand makes use of short, tight costumes that have frills or tassels that shake as the dancer does to accentuate her curves and movement. The costumes used in a ballroom and Latin competition are often over the top and flamboyant
Ballet makes use of various dance recital costumes for boys and girls. If you are performing a character number your costume will entail character shoes, which have a heel, and a long black character skirt. This does not have to be black, but any traditional folk dance costume can be used. For classical pieces, ballerina tutus are predominantly preferred, and these can be the short ones or the long ones. The short ones, or pancake tutus, are to show the ballerina’s perfect line and beautifully stretched legs with pointed toes. The long ones offer a more classical and romantic feel to ballets, such as they are worn in La Sylphide. Other ballet outfits include long flowing chiffon skirts with a leotard, or full length bodysuit from time to time.
Depending on the dance company or studio you are with, you might opt to make your costumes or hire them. For large ballets where the entire studio is involved and there are lots of girls all wearing the exact same thing, a seamstress might be a better option. You can then also have more say over what colors and patterns, as well as fabrics you want to use. If you have a solo dancer or perhaps a duet, you can hire costumes that might work out better and cheaper than having them made.
Another thing that you should consider with dance recital costumes is the fact that the dancers might want to keep the outfits. It is always handy to have spare costumes that can be changed and reused if necessary. There are also not many hiring businesses around, so you will have to look at various costume hire shops as well as your local dance companies for any costumes that they can offer you. If you don’t have the money to do this or to get a seamstress to make the costumes for you, you can simply get each of the dancer’s moms or guardians to help with the sewing of their own costume. You should make sure that you have an accurate pattern that each person can use so that the costumes all look the same.
