The Importance of Wearing the Correct Dance Costumes
Wearing the correct dance costumes and shoes is important for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons for wearing the correct dance costumes for a particular dance style is to evoke the feeling, style and period of the dance. Dancing is physical so comfort is high on the agenda. With comfort also comes safety as a salsa dancer would not want to be wearing a full, bellowing skirt although they would when carrying out a ballroom dancing routine.
Dance costumes are specifically designed and constructed to aid the dancer in each particular dance, to be comfortable, unrestrictive and enhance the dancer’s for the dance. Dance is such a visual sport that costumes do play a huge role and they also help the dancer get into the role within the routine. A ballroom costume for example will be flowing and give a graceful feel whilst an argentine tango costumes will be fitted and more revealing to match the style of the dance. Dance costumes are now far more comfortable and allow for far more movement today. Lycra and other technical fabrics allow the costumes designer to design the most intricate and show stopping clothing. You only need to look at the Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing with the Stars programmes.
Colour plays a huge role in the look of the costumes which then, in turn, can portray a different image of the dance. A classic and beautiful waltz costume would suit a pastel shade whereas for a fiery tango, it would be red or black for example, most definitely not a pastel shade. It is rare to see a dance costume made fully in a patterned fabric. A patterned fabric can distort the body and in competitive dance, it can hinder dancers as the judge cannot correctly see the alignment of the body.