Ballroom Competition Dresses

The day you’re told you’re ready to enter a dance comp, is a day you’ll remember. You’re proud to be judged good enough to compete. Excitement and nerves are inevitable, as you consider the prospect of dancing in front of the judges. The last thing on your mind is the cost of your dress. Dance competition dresses are expensive, no matter what your style of dancing.

You’ll hear arguments from many dance genres as to which has the most costly outfits, but it also depends to some extent on what level of competition you’re in.

A full length, heavily beaded ballroom gown is probably the most expensive competition dress out there, because it has a lot of luxury fabric and a huge quantity of Swarovski crystals and sequins. Top quality professional bellydance dresses come second, because belly dancers use just as many beads and crystals, but a lot less material. Next are Latin and Street Latin dresses. Even though they use a lot of ‘bling’, they use very little fabric! Of course, the cost of a competition dress is determined by far more than just its component parts. The design and manufacture of a dance costume requires specialised skill. Just have a dance dress made by a regular dressmaker, and see how it turns out! Dance costumes need to be slim fitting while still allowing the dancer to move freely. High street dressmakers don’t have the skills to achieve that. It’s only fair to expect to pay a premium for a competition dress which has been made by a really good dance dressmaker.

There’s also the design to consider. If you don’t want a mass-produced costume, you must expect to reward the designer who creates an original work. For instance, you will pay top dollar for bellydance dresses from the best Egyptian designers, even though they don’t have much beading these days. You’re paying for uniqueness.

In a dance competition, your dance ability is all that should matter – but we all know appearance counts. Rightly or wrongly, dance judges are only human and first impressions do count. So it may well be worth investing in a ‘wow factor’ competition dress.

Of course, the obvious way to ensure originality is to make your own competition dress – but be cautious, if you’re not an experienced dressmaker. Do you have the expertise to achieve a perfect finish? Can you face the hours it will take to sew or glue on all those crystals and rhinestones. With all the good quality, well-priced competition dresses on offer from suppliers in China, you have to ask whether it’s worth devoting all that time to doing it yourself.

If you do decide to order online, do check the actual measurements of the dress (don’t rely on the size) and do some reference checking. Not everyone likes eBay, but I find it a great place to buy because you can check the seller’s feedback rating. To be on the safe side, look for power sellers with a feedback rating of over 98%.