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Olivia
just completed year three of dance back in May, and I feel like I finally have
a pretty good grip on dance and recital life.
If you’ve ever had a kiddo in dance, then you know exactly just how much
stuff they need to get through the dance year and the crazy long
recitals at the end of the season.
We
are heading to Olivia’s dance studio today to get her registered for the new
season, and classes start August 9, so I thought it’d be the perfect time to share
all of our favorite items for ballet, tap, and jazz + a few bonus items that we
love to have on hand for recitals and competition.
1 – Garment Bag
Olivia
only uses this garment bag one time per year – recital weekend – but it’s worth every
single penny to be able to keep all of her stuff organized. During recitals, the kids have lots of
different outfits and accessories, and they often have to get changed SUPER
fast in between acts. Each class only
has 1-2 room parents to help 7-8 kids get changed in between acts, so the
kiddos need to be self-sufficient and be able to locate their own stuff quickly. This garment bag is perfection because it
holds costumes on hangers up top, and then it has five pockets to hold shoes
(ballet, tap, jazz), extra tights, hair pieces, makeup, and other props and accessories. It’s small enough so that Olivia can carry it
herself, it has a nametag slot so she can locate her bag quickly, and the
entire bag is clear so she can see everything at-a-glance. At just $13.95 it might just be my favorite dance
item we’ve ever purchased.
2 – Ballet Shoes
Every
ballerina needs a good pair of ballet shoes!
We’ve bought the Freestyle by Danskin ballet shoes from Target for the
last three years and they’ve been great year after year. Dance runs from the beginning of August until
the end of May each year, and every pair we’ve purchased has lasted through the
whole entire year. We highly recommend
them! Once Olivia is a little older and even
more serious about dance, we’ll probably start buying nicer ones, but for now,
the ones from Target are perfect. And so
is the price.
3 – Dance Bag
Dance
classes at our dance studio are combined, so Olivia takes ballet, tap, and jazz
altogether in one long class. That means
she has to bring ballet shoes, tap shoes, and jazz shoes for each class. We bought this backpack three years ago
and it has been the perfect size to hold everything she needs. She can toss her ballet shoes, tap shoes, and
jazz shoes in and there is still room to spare for her leg warmers, her skirt,
and a little cosmetic bag that holds a brush and elastics. It also has two outside pockets (one on each side)
to hold her thermos. Olivia has been using this one for three years now and it still looks brand new!
4 – Leotard
Olivia’s
dance studio requires girls to wear a leotard, tights, appropriate dance shoes
for whichever particular class they’re taking, and then they have to have their
hair up and out of their faces. Girls 6+
have to wear royal blue leotards, and the littles wear ballet pink leotards,
and we love these. This one comes in lots
of different colors including ballet pink and the royal blue shade that Olivia
has to wear.
5 – Wide Hair Pins
Olivia
is required to wear her hair in a bun for all recitals and performances Buns have never been my forte, but I’ve
learned some tricks of the trade from the other moms along the way, and one of
the best tools to ever be recommended to us were these WIDE hair pins. They’re not standard bobby pins… those are
too thin to use in a bun, but these wide hair pins are perfect for sticking into
the side of the bun as you weave the hair around the outside. They work like a charm every single time and we
are never without them during dance recitals.
You can never have too many on hand, so we always buy extras.
6 – Jazz Shoes
We
purchased these jazz shoes for Olivia last year for her first year of
jazz, and they held up beautifully the entire year. Olivia said that they’re comfortable,
too! We’ll be buying another pair for
the upcoming year.
7 – Smoothing Brush
This smoothing brush is a miracle-worker for creating a sleek ballet bun… regular
brushes and combs just don’t work as well as these do!
8 – Thermos
Olivia
carries a water bottle to class each week and she keeps one on hand during
recital weekend. We just recently
started using these Yeti water bottles for kids and they are PERFECT. They keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold
for at least 12 hours, they’re leak-proof, and they’re dishwasher safe. The best part is that they don’t have a bunch
of little pieces like most kids’ water bottles have. This one comes in six different colors and it’s
under $25 which is great considering it’s a Yeti!
9 – Ballet Skirt
Olivia’s
dance studio doesn’t require the girls to wear a skirt, but she wanted one for the first couple of years. She doesn't wear one for class anymore, but she keeps this one in
her bag in case we need to run errands after class. It slips on quickly and acts as the perfect
coverup.
10 – “Invisible” Plastic
Earrings
Dancers
aren’t allowed to wear any jewelry whatsoever during recitals and performances,
so we bought some of these clear plastic earrings to slide in Olivia’s ears on
those days. She had her ears pierced
nearly two years ago, but her holes are still very quick to close, so it makes
me feel better to have something in them during those all-day recitals. These are just $5.80 for 50 pairs. This was another tip that one of the other
dance moms taught me.
11 – Ouchless Hair Elastics
Olivia
isn’t required to wear her hair in a bun for class, so instead, we typically pull
it up in a ponytail. Our very favorite
elastics are these ouchless elastics by Goody.
They don’t have the metal pieces in them so they’re comfortable, and
they have just the right amount of stretch.
These are always in her bag for class, and they are the only ones I use,
too.
12 – Tap Shoes
We’ve
been using these Freestyle by Danskin tap shoes from Target for the last three
years, and just like the ballet shoes, they hold up beautifully throughout the
entire year. They’re made very well, they’re
comfortable, and best of all, they have a hook and loop Velcro closure, so Olivia
doesn’t have to deal with laces coming untied during class.
13 – Wrap Top
During
fall and winter when it’s colder, this wrap top is perfect for Olivia to wear
over her leotard to keep her warm.
Because it’s a wrap, she can take it on and off easily without messing up
her hair… totally necessary during recital weekend when she has her fancy bun!
14 – Warmup Boots
These warmup boots slide on over ballet shoes to protect the shoes and keep feet warm. We haven’t bought a pair of these yet so I can’t
speak to the quality, but they have 4.8 out of 5 stars with 870 ratings. I’ve had these in my wish list for Olivia and
will likely buy a pair for this coming year… it’ll be so much easier for her to
just slide these on over her ballet shoes rather than to change in and out of
tennis shoes. Most of the time she just
walks through the parking lot in her ballet shoes, but I’m pretty sure that’s
frowned upon. Haha. When we start buying nicer ballet shoes, we
certainly won’t be doing that anymore as they could get damaged.
15 – Giant Bag for Mom for Recital
Weekends
This Barrington bag isn’t something that your tiny dancer needs, but it’s something you’ll
definitely need for recital weekends. I
don’t know about y’all, but recital weekends are hard-core here, and I’m usually
at the venue with Olivia for 20+ hours any given recital weekend for rehearsals,
dress-rehearsals, and performances. That
means I have to carry a LOT of stuff with me, so I need something big to put it
all in. Brian bought this Barrington bag
for me for Mother’s Day this year and, y’all, it is the best thing
ever. It’s HUGE, it opens super wide, it
has a few pockets inside, and the entire things zips closed. I’m able to fit all of my normal purse stuff
in there like my wallet, phone, keys, etc. plus I still have ample room for an
iPad, a book, my 32 oz. Yeti thermos, snacks, and a sweater since it’s always freezing
in the venue. It has become my main
purse and I could not love it more. The
best part is that you can customize your bag… they have tons and tons of colors
and patterns to choose from, you can choose your own leather color, you can
customize your monogram in lots of different ways, and by the time you’re done,
you’ll have a one-of-a-kind bag. They’re
pricey, but everyone I know who has one says they hold up forever, so they’re
worth the money. And actually, just for today until midnight, everything is15% off with the code HOHOHO as they're running their Christmas in July sale!
16 – Tights
I always
buy this two-pack of tights at the beginning of the year, and it usually gets
us through the entire year. They are thick
and sturdy so they hold up well. Olivia
is really rough on everything (she is known to break/destroy things constantly)
so the fact that she’s able to rotate the same two pairs for ten months really
says something about the durability of these tights. We highly recommend!
17 – Bun Making Set
And
finally, this bun making set is going to be your very best friend if you don’t
know how to do hair! I am terrible at
doing any kind of hairdo, so the first time I had to make a ballet bun for
Olivia’s recital I was so nervous. I
bought this bun-making kit on Amazon and watched a two-minute YouTube video,
and y’all, I’ll be darned if it didn’t end up being the easiest thing
ever!! This kit comes with everything
you need – bun donuts (four different sizes so you can decide how large you
want yours to be), thick elastics, wide hair pins (similar to the ones I
already mentioned earlier in this post), and hairnets to go over your bun. With this kit, the smoothing brush, and a can
of hairspray, you can easily create the perfect ballet bun in ten minutes or
less! The bun donuts are everything,
y’all. Everything. Makes things so much simpler!
In
addition to all of these things, your tiny dancer may also want to have a good pair of leg warmers during the colder months, and it’s also good to keep some of
these no-iron labels and a Sharpie permanent marker on hand. During recital weekends, all of the kids are
in dressing rooms and there’s an explosion of stuff everywhere, so we are
required to label every single thing in case items get mixed up among the
girls.
These Avery no-iron labels are AMAZING and I use them for everything. (You can read how we used them to label the
kids’ masks for school last year here.) As I already
mentioned, you don’t have to iron these on… you just stick them straight on to
shirts, pants, jackets, shoes, etc. and they’re washing machine and dryer
safe. You can wash them over and over
and they never fall off. They are
awesome.
And
that’s it, y’all… everything you need for your tiny dancer to have a successful
year of ballet, tap, and jazz!
