Fashion Don'ts at the Dance Comp

Miss me? This weekend is the annual Yankee Classic ballroom dance competition. I have to confess, when I used to teach swing and ballroom, we (the teachers) used to make fun of the competitive dancers, mostly because of the strictly proscribed step sequences they had to use and how unimaginative said steps were. Now? I'm the mother of a competitive ballroom dancer. Irony rules.

Anyway, one thing that has been a constant in dance competitions is the, um, interesting costumes you see out there. If you ever watch "Dancing with the Stars", you get a taste of it. It seems the Latin dances are the best for finding the ballroom equivalents of Glamour Fashion Don'ts. So sit back and prepare for some snark. If you don't like snark, go read something else.

First off, this being a dance competition, it's loaded with Lycra, sparkles, spangles, and shimmer. Competitive dance dresses start around $2000. And that $2000 can buy you some serious fug. You see a lot of fringe:

Now, that's not too bad. Fringe is great for spinning and shimmying. And I actually kinda like this outfit. Plus, these two were awesome dancers.

Man Cleavage:
Sorry, to me, this just looks ridiculous. This guy actually had contour tanning to emphasize his pecs. Check out this one:
Yeah, right.

Ponytails:
Ponytails belong on one's head, not one's butt. I don't care how good a dancer you are (and she was good), if all the audience can look at is the purple organza on your a**, you need a different costume.







Sequins:

Sequins have their place, but not this place. And what is with the Watteau train of cascading sequinned strips on her backside? It didn't even look good dancing.

Muffin Top:
Unless you're Edyta Sliwinska, this is a big don't. I don't even remember how this gal's dancing was, because all any of us at the table could talk about was how she was hanging over the edges of her costume. There's a reason God created illusion netting.

Double Sided Tape Deserves Hazard Pay
This gal looked like she was going to pop out several times during her dances. By the end of the jive, her double-stick tape rolled over and begged for mercy.

No Shirt, No Service:
Wearing a suit with no shirt isn't a good idea. I would hate to sweat that much into my jacket, wouldn't you?

And that was only the morning. I didn't stay around for the whole day. We had to have DS there at 6:30 AM for his dances, which started at 7:25. By the time he finished at 3, I was ready to pass out from exhaustion. But he did great. He danced 16 dances and took 14 first places and 2 second places. Here are a couple of shots of him with Tatiana. Needless to say, they both looked great!

Dancing the Samba:

And the Foxtrot:


The Cosmo Dress should be done tomorrow, and I'm behind on reviewing my New Look top, but I will. Meanwhile,

Happy dancing!