Ballet Fashion

Technically I should be writing a paper on Medieval and Renaissance Literature right now, but this just came up on my facebook feed:

Yes, just, yes.

Which obviously necessitated listening and dancing to "It's Gonna be Me" fourteen times.

And now the literary juices just aren't flowing (Thanks Obama.) so I might as well go on my favorite time-wasting, online store ever, Discount Dance Supply, and pine over beautiful dance wear that I put on my wishlist but never buy.

My favorite items to look at are the leotards and the warm up clothes, because if I stare at them long enough I can imagine myself wearing them. Dance clothes are freaking expensive, but discount dance usually has decent prices. Right now I'm obsessed with 3/4 sleeved leos and warm up sweaters.

Like this:

Find it here.

My friend has that one, I really like it. I also think I saw someone wearing it on TV but I can't remember who or what show...
Or this, which I actually bought (yaaaaaaaaay) and LOVE:

It is beautiful.

Even though it sort of forces my shoulders back, which my teacher doesn't like. On the plus side, it makes me remember that she doesn't like shoulders back and I actively think about keeping them forward.
And this:

Overall warmup!

which I would like but is going on the wishlist because I don't really need it right now because I just bought this:

Except in black.

Actually... a lot of the stuff I've been buying recently is black. I think that's the direction my studio is trending right now. Like when I was still in middle school/early high school and my friends and I were obsessed with wearing spandex shorts like this:

Get'em here.

That was an unfortunate phase. Those are cute, don't get me wrong, but they just did not look good on everyone. I have one very petite, small-framed friend who looked bomb in them, but the rest of us not so much. Eventually I realized this and ashamedly switched back to skirts.

A lot of studios require their students to wear black leotards, light pink tights, and no skirts, (some studios have a preferred leotard) but my teacher said whatever is fine as long as the skirts aren't too distracting and all the warmups are off by ronde de jambes so she can see up properly. So "normal" clothing at the studio ranges from a sweatshirt and sweatpants to skirts and leg warmers. My personal preferences for a regular day are:

A pair of full body tights.

That's kind of risque for this blog. Get it here.

They're very comfortable and I like not having to worry about the weird line that regular tights give you when they end and gives you a muffin top even if you don't have one.

A leotard like the one I bought (above). A sweater like the one I bought (above) or like this:

Which I also own in black. 

Black leggings, over the leotard and under a pretty skirt:

I really like the longer in back ones, but lately I've been wearing this dark blue floral one that I couldn't find a picture of.

And a pair of leg warmers:

These are nice and warm, and I like that they have the stirrup.

All those pictures were from the discount dance website, and you can find those specific products in the links in the captions. Sometimes I'll go skirt-less, if I need to focus on my hip alignment.

It can be jarring to go from rehearsing in your own clothes to rehearsing in costumes though. When I was new to dancing the Marzipan Mirlitons, I got a very pretty purple tutu that the previous owner had for some damned reason cut in the crotch so that instead of a regular leotard, it was more like a thong leotard. (I don't know if that's an actual thing but I'd guess assume not.) It was literally the most uncomfortable performance of my life. Actually, there was the time I had to wear a child's size small, mustard yellow unitard. Usually I can work with my costumes, though.

Anyway, now that you have all fallen neatly into the trap of procrastination I have set, and wasted hours of your time making you wish, as I have, that you could buy everything on DiscountDance,  probably listening to 90's pop as well, I should probably let you all go do productive things in life. Have a lovely week!

I wish I could wear a leo and tights all the time.