What Should Students Wear to Ballet Class?
By talfonso
@talfonso (246)
United States
September 9, 2011 8:09am CST
As a kid, I started my first ballet classes wearing colored, oft-skirted leotards, while the others wore black ones(I wore pink tights for all my classes in my life). That contributed to my poor behavior, but when I switched to black I improved my dancing. The late, great Mrs. Kathryn Collins, who owned the studio I took lessons in, noticed my mistakes and improvements a lot more clearly!
Nowadays, in dance studios with looser dress codes as far as ballet lessons go, one might see a lot of girls who wear shorts over their leotards. Some of them even wear tights over them (including pink over a leotard, which looks pretty disturbing). When I saw a class in Progress Village Middle Magnet School of the Arts, I saw a lot of shorts, ans some have dancer scrawled on few of the backsides of them.
Even if dress codes are not strict, how should a student dress for ballet class? To me, regarding my experience, it's black or dark-colored leotards and pink tights, shorts only when Aunt Flo observes my class.
3 responses
@skydancer (2101)
• United States
9 Sep 11
At the studio I spent most of my training at, all students were required to wear pink tights and each level class had assigned color leotard (and name brand). The higher levels had a matching skirt. They even sold them at the studio so they wouldn't be hard to find. If you were not in the regular ballet program and just took a weekly class for fun (teen/adult classes would be an example of this), then you could pretty much wear whatever as long as the teachers could see your body placement and it covered enough of your body (my director HATED to see stomachs and only made one exception for a certain jazz class when the costumes looked quite different in the catalog and it was too late to send them back).
I very briefly went to another studio whose ballet program only required pink tights and a solid colored leotard. The jazz and tap and other classes got to wear pretty much whatever they wanted and a lot of the girls wore some pretty skimpy stuff.
For ballet class, I think a dress code should be in order, even if not a strict one. I think a solid colored leotard and pink tights is appropriate without being too much to ask. If it is a highly structured pre-professional program such as I was in, then it might make more sense to be more uniformed with each class donning its own color. I believe it is beneficial to the dancers to develop such a habit, especially those who seek professional careers, and the structure helps in the disciplinary aspect which can carry over into other areas of their life in a positive way. But like I said, if the dress code happens to be more open, then just a solid colored leotard with pink tights I think is a good idea. Hair should also be in a bun.
@talfonso (246)
• United States
9 Sep 11
It pretty much echoes what is good dancewear for a lenient dress code as far as ballet class go. I thank you for sharing your experiences from your ballet training to support your points. I have to mention that my ballet classes I took were a bit loose in attire, but even more so, virtually everyone wore a black leotard. I was pretty much a latecomer on the leo bandwagon after my first few ballet classes (actually combo as I took tap).
Switching from cutesy pink leos with attached skirt and flowers to skirtless, black ones is not only slenderizing. But when worn with pink tights (under the leotard, not over as some students are doing nowadays), the teacher really can see deficits in technique, such as improper turnout and such, as I mentioned earlier. Thanks for sharing the about the same views with me!
@lologirl2021 (5542)
• United States
9 Sep 11
I took ballet for 17 years and it was very strict and we had to wear pink tights with black leotards and are hair up. It was strict but i loved every minute of it and it was alot of fun. I have cousins that dance and there dress code is they can wear pink leotards and black ones with pink tights only. That is just that one studio and now the other studio that i have another cousin at is more casual since they teach hip hop as well and you can wear shorts to this studio but must have tights on under neath of them.
