•Dancewear tips for the adult dance student •••••'Fashion dos and don'ts ;-)'

Here is one thing that's always bothered me when in adult ballet class -- and even in class with young people and professional dancers. They're afraid to look at their own bodies. Even with tight-fitting warm-up clothes, there's still so much you can't see. Especially, it's hard to see the line from the front of the thigh, up through the psoas, and through the pulled-up stomach muscles into the ribcage. It's hard to see whether the lower spine is relaxed, and the tailbone is down. I found that it took me a long time to be able to feel when my alignment was right. In fact, I'm still working with this, because I lose touch with it when concentrating hard on doing beats, or working on a combination. It used to be that if I couldn't see it in the mirror, I didn't know if I had it right.

Black v. Pink Here's the thing about tights. First of all, if you're a little heavier than you'd like to be, I recommend Capezio hold and stretch tights. I buy several pairs at a time, since they tend to sell out quickly. When I'm feeling fat and afraid to face the mirror, I wear a black pair. They make me look several sizes smaller, and I can go without all the bulky warmups, and actually see what my body is doing. Something else. It's also not a bad idea to go ahead and wear the horrible pink tights even though you have to look at your cellulite through them. Pink tights aren't de rigueur for nothing. If you haven't tried wearing them, you don't know how much more you can see. You'll notice whether you're really turning out from the hip, you'll see whether your knee is really straight in arabesque, and overall it's much easier to see what your muscles are doing. Your teacher will also be able to see you much better, and you may receive more valuable corrections in class. Other self-conscious stuff I've been noticing that wearing even a ballet skirt impedes my view of what I'm doing in class. So I guess my message is this: Especially if you can take class only once or twice a week, try to wear as few extra garments as possible. You'll progress much faster, and within a few weeks have a much greater sense of accomplishment and pride. At the very least, try to take the last part of the barre without the warmups. Believe me, watch carefully and you'll get some real revelations in the mirror. I've found that during my few years in ballet, I'm much less self-conscious than I used to be. I was looking with semi-disgust at the pink-clad backs of my thighs last week, and thought, who cares. Because it's really true what everyone used to tell me: No one's looking at you anyway:-). And if they are? Let them look. It's not as if Balanchine is watching. Return to Blue Diamond homepage.

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