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Dance Costume: Design Consideration

There two things to consider when designing a dance costume: 
  1. Allow the dancer to move safely without interference
  2. Enhance the dancer's movement and body aka draw attention. 
Let's discuss these considerations. 

Movement Safety

For a dance costume, you don't want the dancer's movement impeded or restricted by the costume. The style of dance (or the choreography) plays a role in the design. A dance costume for a dance that includes leaps and landings will have different design considerations for movement safety than a more deliberate, slow dance. 
There are a few areas of focus for this on a dance costume: Feet/Legs (Hem), arms (Sleeves), and Torso (bodice).

Hem

This refers the the bottom edge of any skirt or pant leg. 
A hem should allow for what I like to call "foot clearance". This is what I failed to realize with my earlier costumes for ballroom dance: the hem needed to be at my ankle or higher while in the high heels.  

The style of shoe and the common dance moves will dictate best practices for this. For example, ballet doesn't include sharp heels that could catch on the hem, but it does include moves where you leap and land. It's also a dance that emphasizes legs and footwork. You want to SEE the feet. (Don't make it weird!) Alternatively, belly dancing is done barefoot or with flat sandals. You don't really lift your feet to walk but glide. The movement is mostly in the arms and torso. In this dance, the hem can drag on the floor if you wanted. 

Look at common examples of dance costumes for the genre you are making a costume for. For dances that have leaps or high leg lifts or bladed shoes (like figure skating) you want the hem to be high and out of the way. OR have close fitted clothes like leggings or body suits. 

Sleeves

Sleeves can be full attached, partially attached, detached, or not exist. Fabric choice ties into these design choices too. Because you can have a long sleeved leotard and still complete arm motions due to stretch fabric. Once you introduce non-stretch fabric into the equation, then you may want to detach the sleeves to allow for full range of motion. However, I notice that even with stretch fabric, an attached off the shoulder, strap or short sleeve does prevent you from t-posing without shifting the sleeve which can pull at the bodice. 

Consider attaching the off-shoulder sleeve with a seam along the armpit. 

Bodice

The core of the costume is the torso covering (when talking about a gown/dress). It is from here that other parts of the costume tend to attach. This is also the part that MUST stay on. So attaching things to it as well as being flexible enough to perform is the challenge. 

Most dancesport costumes use lycra or performance stretch fabric for the bodice or body suit. It conforms to the person's frame so it should not restrict movement. BUT not all dance uses performance wear. In these cases, tailoring is going to be instrumental for making sure the body can move. This means, fabric ease. Either the torso doesn't bend too much or it needs to be loose fitting. 

Am I Pretty?

Accenting motion, drawing attention, and portraying character...the fun parts of dance costume design. Now these are very general observations but highlighting parts of the dancer's body is done by the following methods: 
  • Exposing skin (or a skin tone mesh)
  • Reflecting Light (SPARKLES!)
  • Movement 
  • Delayed movement (floating)
Showing skin or a skin tone mesh or sheer fabric calls attention. Not just male gaze. I'll point out that this tends to be common in male and female Latin dance competition outfits as well as belly dance costumes. 

Sparkles are done with rhinestones, sequins, Glitter fabric, or shiny fabric. There are plenty of lights on a stage so catching that light draws our eyes. 

By movement I mean parts of the costume that keep up with the dancers moves like fringes, coins, tassels, or short fluttery ruffles. 

Delayed movement or following motion is more about light weight fabric flowing through the air as you move. This fabric is following the movement not keeping up. Think of flared, flowing skirts, feather boas, long veils, long ruffles, or anything lightweight that trails behind.

Costumes will use combinations of these to compliment the dancer's movements or maybe distract. 😜 

So these are the very basic, overview, top level considerations for a dance costume design. 
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