Ballet Dress Code

"Ballet class is like Life Lessons 101. You learn some of life's most important lessons here that you will carry with you forever."

 -Joanne H. Morscher

A ballet dress code is very common among dance studios and dance companies. A ballet dress code is enforced to bring discipline, unity and order to the ballet class. Companies keep the tradition of a ballet dress code because it has proven its efficiency in a simple fashioned way, which is beneficial to both the student and the instructor.

A standard ballet dress code would include wearing a leotard, tights and ballet slippers, or pointe shoes, and hair in a slicked back bun. The leotard would most likely be wanted in black to give a clean canvas for the instructor to look out onto. Black is the best color for ballet dancers to wear in class, because there is only one shade and it makes obvious of mistakes in body positioning and alignment. Ballet studios and companies, will most likely ask their students to wear pink tights to all ballet related classes, because that is what is typically worn by well-established ballet institutions in performance. It brings a professional essence into the ballet class for students and teacher alike. It makes logical sense. Staying on the idea of tights, there should be absolutely no rips, runs or holes, because that too would be highly unprofessional of a company. Of course, properly tied and laced ballet and pointe shoes will always be needed in class. Finally the hair should be tightly secured on your head, fastened with hairspray, and bobby pins, a hair net and possibly a bun maker. Fly aways are not orderly and should not be present in a formal ballet class.

Discipline is achieved with a dress code because it develops the dancers into a regular procedure, as to what they should wear and look like for their ballet class. A common dress code of students displays the students as one union, due to the act of all of them being clothed in the same manner and color scheme. Order is kept by the teacher in showing authoritative structure over their pupils and giving the ballet class the respect of a professional environment. A ballet dress code is simple and efficient. It’s used for the teacher to easily polish the dancer, benefitting both the dancer’s corrections and the teacher’s critique.

~Julia Brewer