Jewelry Judge
What to wear to a Ballroom competition?
I have my first ballroom competition coming up in about a month, and I have no idea what to wear. The guidelines for level 1 (which is where I’ll be competing, i suppose) are pretty strict – ‘dress is to be classified as general daywear, eg skirt and blouse or dress. Not allowed: Slacks and after five wear. No metallic or diamonte sequin materials allowed. No decoration allowed (eg rhinestones, sequins, fringing, lace, feathers, pearls etc). No decorations allowed in hair, which must be tied back, using a simple elastic or scrunchy. Buns are also allowed. No jewellery allowed. Plain gold or silver studs the exception.’
How can I still catch the judges’ eyes and look really nice without breaking regulations?
I suppose that I should add that most ‘proper’ ballroom gowns don’t pass as general daywear. And nor do they usually come without substantial decoration, which isn’t allowed.
I’d say, go for cleaner and better lines. That catches the judges attention in a good way. Colors are awesome, but if I have to choose between colors or beatiful body lines I say body lines. Any details of the dress that can move are good too (wide slieves, bows, ruffles on your skirt, wide skirt itself). We humans react to moving objects.
Try to find a skirt and a top in the same color. Better yet, find a dress that is still within the regulations. Some people buy undecorated ballgown, but that might be against the rules too. Advantage of wearing one color is you preserve your lines rather than visually breaking your body into two separate pieces. Keep in mind that your partner is forced to wear 2 different colors for Standard – black pants and white shirt (if you are in the US). So if you add 2 more colors to the scheme then you don’t have much visual unity in your couple.
When I competed lower levels I wore black practice skirt (short for latin and long for standard) and a black top for standrad. The top had a beatuful cut of the neckline that really enhanced the overall look of the couple. It had white decoration aroung the neckline that made it stand out and also gave an optical illusion of even deeper cut. That was one very successful outfit – we made finals and placed well consistently from quarterfinals and first rounds. My latin top was rich blue color. Ruffle skirts can make a lot of difference, especially in Latin. When you move all that fabric is moving too.
If I had the time, I’d make myself pink and purple top and skirt for standard. I even bought the fabric, but I placed out of syllabus division before I got around to it.
Pay particular attention to the slieves: in general, slieves are your friends because they extend the line of your arms. But the fabric needs to be very stretchy and the cup of the slieve is not allowed to stick up when you put your arms in the dance position. If you can’t find anything with “dance-friendly” slieves – go for a halter neck instead.
If you need fashion ideas for dance wear that is not ballgowns visit http://www.dancesport.uk.com they have stuff that’s rather expensive by world famous designers like Chrisanne but that’s the stuff that will look good on the floor. Maybe you can look and find something similar in a store nearby. Also visit http://www.ericaridgeway.com Whatever they have is a little too much but it can give you good ideas. I like her style. http://www.aidadancewear.com is less pricey but less glamorous (aslo beware that fringe is not allowed). http://www.allaboutdance.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.577/.f has pretty good inexpensive skirts (I like top two) but in general that website has ballet stuff that’s too flowy for ballroom.
Practice in your competition dress beforehand to be sure it is as danceable as it seems.
If you have long hair definitely do a bun, don’t leave it in a ponytail. Buns look much more professional at the beginner level. Make sure that not a single strand comes out. Use a lot of gel to secure it. You can make it look really smooth, that looks good and is allowed. The look of the hair is very important. Also, makeup. Hair and makeup is where you can go like a pro all the way, and this makes a lot of difference on how you look. (Hint: decorated pins fly out when you dance, even professionals tend to avoid them). You have a month to practice it, so try it in advance.
Most importantly – have fun. There is nothing else in the world that compares to your first ballroom competition. I’m really happy for you that you got this far. Congratulations.
Judge Jewelry
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