Dance Recital Costumes

[Mimi Q]

What do you do with them after the recital? Older DD has been taking dance for many years, and I have kept all her recital costumes. They are taking up lots of space now. She has three costumes in her recital tonight. Just made me wonder, what do other folks do with them?

 

[WDWAurora]

Mom let me use them as playclothes for dressup when I was young enough, and got rid of all but a few favorites when I outgrew the ones I played with and outgrew dressing up. I wish we had kept more of them, but really there's no need to keep a lot.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Playclothes or sell on consignment. Sometimes the base leotard can be used for other classes. Sometimes not.

 

[mytwotinks]

They go straight to the dress up closet! Don't tell my dh that we have about $500 worth of dress up clothes in there! Wow! I just realized that doesn't even count the cost of the Disney costumes!

They also wore them for Halloween last year

 

[phisigprincess]

Ok. I'm 24 now and I teach dance, so I'm STILL wracking up costumes! My parents have 21 years of dance costumes in the attic that we haven't really done anything with yet!!! Like a PP mentioned, some of the leotards can be reused for class which is nice.

 

[Disney Ella]

We have the same problem here. I can't bring myself to get rid of them, not after we spent all that money on them, but it's not like the kids can wear them to school either.

 

[swanmom]

My DD still calls her Halloween costume (at age 4) - the 'sparkly dancer' year. Wonder where that costume came from............?

 

[Pixiedust34]

Most of the costumes become play clothes for dress up. We do re-use the leotards. Dd had 1 dress for ballet that she can wear to class now and then, but the rest of the costumes are too "costume-like" to wear anywhere. This year she's wearing a red and white polka dot costume and she's not too thrilled with it.

You could also use them for Halloween if you are looking for a Halloween costume.

 

[cats mom]

We have quite the dress-up trunk as well.

I've sold a few on e-bay.
That can be pretty hit and miss though.

I made A LOT more than I paid for one of DD's lyrical costumes.
It was a really nice one and a couple of folks got in a bidding war for it.

The girl who bought it had a solo in an upcoming show, said she was just looking for ideas on e-bay until it was her turn with the catalogs from her dance school, and she and fell in love with it.

 

[Momof2]

In a couple weeks, DD will be in her 14th recital. 2 more years of dance to go before she graduates. We started with 1 costume in her first couple years - she has 7 this year. Most all of them are packed in a big cedar chest. Occasionally i've pulled them out and its amazing that she can still remember what she danced to for each costume. A huge part of her life has been in those costumes and I just can't even think about doing anything with them just yet.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

In a couple weeks, DD will be in her 14th recital. 2 more years of dance to go before she graduates. We started with 1 costume in her first couple years - she has 7 this year. Most all of them are packed in a big cedar chest. Occasionally i've pulled them out and its amazing that she can still remember what she danced to for each costume. A huge part of her life has been in those costumes and I just can't even think about doing anything with them just yet.

7 costumes in one year?

DD's first ever dance recital is this weekend. She has one costume that is so cute. It's a lion outfit.

 

[Allie322]

I gave all of ours to a local school for handicapped children. They were thrilled to get them.

 

[cepmom]

that's why I love our dance studio....we don't have to purchase any recital costumes. Instead, we pay a yearly "recital fee" (about $45) and the kids get a leotard that they can keep ~ the other pieces (skirts, pants, accessories etc) belong to the studio and are returned at the end of the recital.

With three girls that take dance, it's so nice to not have costumes taking up space at home and we also save a lot by only having to pay the yearly fee.

 

[CinderellaIam]

In a couple weeks, DD will be in her 14th recital. 2 more years of dance to go before she graduates. We started with 1 costume in her first couple years - she has 7 this year. Most all of them are packed in a big cedar chest. Occasionally i've pulled them out and its amazing that she can still remember what she danced to for each costume. A huge part of her life has been in those costumes and I just can't even think about doing anything with them just yet.

I'm in the same boat as you...

DD is 20 and will be performing in her 17th recital in a couple of weeks, she is also on the competitive dance team so she has 11 costumes this year. We have bins and bins of costumes that I cannot part with. Dance is her life. She takes her classes, she teaches pre-school through kindergarten classes, she competes and is a Dance major is college. The girl literaly lives to dance.

 

[MorganLeFey]

I feel your pain.

When my girls first started dancing (at ages 4 and 2), the studio didn't do recitals. Instead, the parents were invited to observe their child's class.

When the ownership changed, the studio started to do recitals. By then my girls were each taking at least 2-3 classes a year. By then my girls were beyond the age for playing dress up.

a few costumes made a reappearance on Halloween.

and one costume that I bought for my older dd wound up being worn by younger dd in a school play.

but most were never worn after the recital. and they're all still in my house.

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

When I was in Tap, Jazz and Ballet, My mom let me keep one of the three costumes (Generally I liked the Jazz one the best) And the others we gave away to Good Will.

 

[hipporina]

I let my dd use hers as dress up clothes. She had 3 last year - ballet, tap, jazz- and this year she has 4 because she is in competitive dance too. Fortunately, ours aren't too expensive, so I don't worry about it too much. I think we pay $30-$40 per costume. Dance recital is tomorrow, so her dress up bag will get a big addition.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I have a bunch of my recital costumes saved up in the attic. They were used for dress up for years. Some became Halloween costumes. Dance was a big part of my life, I can't part with them yet.

If you have the room and they are in good shape, I would keep them. I have seen a few instances where the same costume shows up recital after recital. Usually the teachers know who had it the year before and try to get hand me downs.

Another thing I've kept is my shoes. I have my first pairs of ballet shoes and tap shoes. They are so small and cute. I also have my last pair of tap shoes. All the pairs in between I have given away to younger girls. My school used to keep a bucket filled with outgrown shoes. It was very helpful when you needed certain color shoes and you didn't want to buy a new pair.

Everyone have fun at your recitals! I truly miss dancing. And those young girls...so cute!

 

[jen0610]

So far we have kept all of Delaney's. My mom kept several of mine and Delaney plays dress up in them. Her fav is the hot pick hot pants with the sequined tube top and feather chocker necklace.

As she gets older and is in more production groups or speciality classes, the studio is really good about picking out costumes that get multipule years of useage. Our babysitter's dance at the same studio and 5 years ago the production group had a outfit that was 130.00. In that 5 years, they have used parts of the costume in 15 different routines.

 

[pkasbohm]

My dd's recital is in a few weeks. This will be her very first...I am trying to think of what else we can do with a clown outfit?! hmmmm.....maybe she will rather be a clown than a princess for halloween!!