Ballroom Competition Dresses

You’ll never forget the moment you were told you were ready to enter a dance competition. You’re proud to be judged good enough to compete. You feel excited and nervous at the same time, at the thought of strutting your stuff in public. The last thing you’re thinking of is ‘How much will my dress cost?’! Dance competition dresses are expensive, no matter what style of dancing you do.

Ballroom dancers often claim theirs are the most costly, but many bellydancers wouldn’t agree! It really depends what level you’re competing at.

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 come Latin and Street Latin dresses – still using a lot of crystals and beads, but very little material! Of course, the price of a competition dress is based on far more than the materials used to make it. 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.

The other thing to think about is design. 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 a high price for the latest bellydance dress from the best designers, even though the current trend is for minimal beading. You’re paying for something original.

We’d all like to think that only your dance ability counts in a dance comp – but we all know different!. Perhaps it shouldn’t, but it’s human nature for judges to be influenced by how good you look. So investing in something with the ‘wow factor’ is worth considering.

Of course, one way to get a unique dress is to make it yourself – but think twice, if you’re not good at sewing. Your dress needs to be perfectly finished – not an easy task if you’re just a beginner at sewing! Also take into account that applying rhinestones, crystals, beads and sequins will take many, many hours. There are so many good quality, reasonably-priced competition dresses coming out of China these days, you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth devoting all those hours to DIY.

When buying online, always check references and always check the actual measurements of the dress. Ebay can be a great place to buy, because you can check the supplier’s feedback rating. To be on the safe side, buy only from sellers with a feedback rating of 98%.