subject: Choosing The Perfect Ballet Skirt Both For Practice And For Professional Performances [print this page] When someone mentions ballet dancing, it is the sense of tradition and grace that naturally comes to most people's mind. Ballet has always evoked only the best response in many people, be it the stylish and artistic movements of the most famous dancers in the world or the traditional style of clothing worn by the ballerinas or male ballet dancers.
A ballet skirt is thought to be one of the factors involved in creating this sense of style and grace, at the same time representing a serious part of any ballet dancer's wardrobe.
Of all the forms of dancing, ballet must be the one that has remained loyal to its origins and tradition. Looking back at the past, one can see that the music and dance movements have not changed that much. As to the ballet clothing, it still can be traced back to the astonishing outfits worn by dancers through all these years.
Hence, the ballet skirt is an extremely important addition to the variety of ballet clothing for the reason that it maintains the sense of style, elegance and grace having made ballet an inspiring and popular activity among people of all ages.
Choosing a ballet skirt can be as simple as the first school performance, or as special as the first dance competition or ballet school try-out. Whatever the reason, it can bring a lot of fun and excitement or, conversely, it can be a challenging experience. As ballet skirts come in many different styles and colours one will need to consider which is most appropriate before making a purchase.
The ballet skirt comes in contemporary, romantic and classical styles. For instance, there are two main classical styles - the wide, flat Russian version (sometimes called "platter" or "pancake" style) and the smaller, softer American (Balanchine) style which resembles a powder puff.
Nevertheless, they can have many variations in between. There can also be observed a difference between the ballet skirt worn for practice and the one worn for performances. The practice skirt has no bodice and looks like ruffles stitched on to a panty. The panty is made up of two sections. The top section - the part visible above the frill of the skirt - is called the basque.
It is formfitting, which gives the frill support and provides a better shape to the skirt. Most practice tutus are black, for practical reasons, because they tend to get dirty while rehearsing in the ballet studio. On the other hand, if a dancer has made a competition final, or has a big audition he or she should be prepared to spend big money.
A good tailor-made ballet skirt might cost about 300 pounds and take several weeks to make. However, possessing a talent for sewing may save money. In this case one can buy a standard ready-made skirt and alter it to fit and/or buy a plain ballet skirt and sew on different beading or decorations.
Conventional as it may seem, a growing number of ballet dancers choose a plain white ballet skirt for their first professional performance, because it will work for any of the classics and can also be used for other roles by adding trims.
In fact, there is a wide choice of ballet skirts on the market and they come in many different styles and colours so there will always be one that could take one's fancy. Using the Internet to search for a large selection of ballet skirts can provide a long list of manufacturers and their websites offering an impressive variety of exciting products. Buying in high street stores is also fine but it won't offer the same range of products as shopping on the Internet will.
