When a Friend is Being Negative

We’ve all been there…innocently warming up for class and a friend unleashes hatred; onto herself.

She’s looking in the mirror and starts to pick apart her body and appearance. She says her butt has grown since last season or her thighs are clearly bigger.

Is this fishing for compliments? Looking for validation? Perhaps. It’s totally possible she’s just looking for you to tell her she’s fine. Or that she looks the same or better or at least “good”.

It’s also possible that she’s hoping you’ll chime in with some self-loathing of your own. Maybe she’d feel better if you start talking about what has gotten “bigger” or “less toned” on your own body.

This situation is hard to navigate and it’s hard to know what the best way to respond might be. You can watch this video for some ideas, or if you prefer, read on!

Try sharing with your friend how you deal with your own body image insecurities.

For example, try saying, “instead of focusing on a perceived flaw, I try to think about how my body is serving me”. Share how your negativity makes you feel and how you cope with it. That might help her see how to flip things to a positive.

It might also help to let her know how you feel when surrounded by negativity. Let her know that those negative comments make you feel helpless and you’re unsure how to help her turn it around.

You want your friends to be able to talk to you when they’re going through hard times. You might encourage her to come to you for support rather than venting or getting lost in negativity.

This might be a friend you’ll end up needing some space from.

It’s hard to stay positive when you have a friend who’s constantly focused on what’s going wrong. It’s totally acceptable to take space from people who are making it hard for you to live your best life.

Maybe you can help your friend to see the positive. Ask her, “what’s something about your body or your dancing that you love?” Remind her that she’s not alone and that there are also plenty of positives to focus on.

Don’t internalize your friends negativity or project it onto yourself. Don’t compare your body to hers. This is a big one! If a friend is complaining about her body and you view her body as “ideal” it’s normal to get lost in comparison.

When those thoughts come up, put the focus on your gifts and encourage her to do the same. Come back to gratitude. Your body allows you to dance! When you take care of your body and mind, you’ll be able to show up more fully and do your best dancing.

Find the light. Find your positivity. Focus on what’s going well.

Remind yourself what’s going well with a gratitude list. Simply write down 3 things you’re grateful for and remember that you have a lot of good stuff going on in your life. Even in trying, uncertain times it’s possible to find something positive to focus on.

The only person whose approval you need is your own.

When you approve of yourself, your confidence will soar!

In Conclusion…

Everyone is on their own journey. Each of us has to learn life lessons on our own. As much as you might be focused on the positive side of life, you can’t force your friend to do the same. If you’re committed to growing and improving as a dancer, maintaining body positivity will be a game changer.

One of the biggest things dancers struggle with is confidence. If you can work towards body positivity and remind yourself about what’s going well, you’ll have the potential to grow your confidence exponentially. Don’t discount the value of seeing your own worth.

If you’re struggling to stay body positive, check out this post: How to Create a Positive Relationship with Food and Your Body

The post How to Stay Body Positive in Dance appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

When you rewrite your body story and work to believe the new story you’ve created, you’ll feel empowered. You’ll start to see that even if someone else has a preference that your body doesn’t happen to fit into, it’s OK. You can find a place that celebrates and supports your unique shape, movement quality, and love for dance–come on, that’s what it should be about!! Those are the dancers who shine.

More often than not, I take my dancer clients through the process of rewriting their body stories. The power in reframing the context of your experience is immeasurable. 

Kathryn Morgan’s recent share about her experience with body shame and criticism while dancing at Miami City Ballet, highlights the importance of taking back the power. You get to write your body story, no one else.

Where our “stories” come from…

Your body story started forming when you were quite young. For some, it begins as young as five or six years old as you notice the world around you. People say things, perceptions form. It might be hard to remember a body memory from that young of an age, in which case, your earliest memory is a good place to start.

I’ve often shared where my body image issues began (for full details on that, read more here). I was thirteen and had just returned from my first Summer Intensive away. My main teacher at my home studio tapped me on the thigh before class and declared, “that wasn’t there before.” From that moment on, I was pretty obsessed with diets and always thought I should be smaller. I thought losing weight was imperative to becoming the best dancer I could be.

So think back…what’s the earliest memory you can remember that started to shape your perception of yourself or what a body in dance should be? Write it down. From there, think about all the comments you heard over the years. Write down all the comments you remember whether they were directed towards you or a group.

It can be painful to recount all the experiences you’ve had that made you feel badly about your body, but facing them is going to help you move on and rewrite your story.

Gathering evidence to back them up.

From those first body feedback experiences, you start to gather evidence to back up that negative perception you’ve created. So when you don’t do well in an audition you’ll revert to the thought, “it’s because of my thighs, just like Nadia said.” 

You start to use each bad audition or casting experience as evidence that your body is not good, too big, or just not right for dance. When you stay in that mindset, you won’t be able to support yourself with positivity, optimism, and possibility.

What’s worse: when you get positive feedback you’ll find a way to discount it. 

Research shows that we have a built in “negativity bias.” It’s much easier to focus on and remember negative experiences than positive ones. This is why rewriting your story to focus on all the good is essential. Even more important: you need to give yourself reminders throughout the day that there’s lots of good potential and positive things to focus on.

Rewrite your story.

Think about all the positive feedback you’ve received over the years. Just like you did with the negative, try to remember your earliest memories. Were you good at staying in line as one of those party kids in the Nutcracker? Did a teacher compliment you on your tendus when you were 8?

In addition to the actual positive comments, write down memories of teachers who were particularly encouraging, positive, and supportive. Who saw your potential and made you feel like you could succeed and achieve your dance goals? Go into as much detail around these memories as you can.

Once you’ve compiled all your positive memories, bring in some imagination and creativity. Go back to your experiences as a young dancer and rewrite them in your memory with only the good. Erase the negative experiences from the paper and your memory. What would it have looked like if you only had positive, supportive experiences? How would you feel? Would your approach to auditions, company class, and casting be different?

Keep coming back to your new body story.

Since we’re hardwired for negativity, you’ll have to come back to your new, positive body story each and every day. Maybe you read it every morning or take it with you in a journal when you go to auditions. 

Confirm for yourself–the positive is your truth. You get to choose what you believe. Believe the good, and trust the people who encouraged you along the way. The naysayers are usually projecting their own pain and negativity onto you anyway. Forgive them and let them go–their pain is not your responsibility.

What if you don’t rewrite your story and take the negative feedback as fact?

This is when people quit, burn out, or lose their passion for dance. It’s why my career ended in my late 20’s instead of continuing until I was truly ready to say goodbye to ballet. 

The body negativity will tear you down if you let it—it might take months or years, depending on the situation.

Rewrite your story so you can see all the good you have to offer as a dancer, an artist, a human.

Interested in working with me to reach your body goals, find unshakeable body confidence, and rewrite your body story for good? Apply for Elite Best Body Coaching.

The post Rewrite Your Body Story appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

from a Man in Ballet

Asher Taylor-Dawson shared some incredibly insightful thoughts on the dancers’ body in The Whole Dancer Facebook Group. I asked him to expand upon his ideas for this post. I hope that his perspective will be supportive to those pursuing dance at a pre-professional and professional level. How will you define your best body?

A spark: defining “best body.”

Recently, Jess opened a Facebook group discussion with the question, “What does ‘dancers’ personal best body’ mean to you?”

I was ready for this: as a dancer and as a teacher, I think about that all the time. Right off the bat, I replied: 

“The body that works the best: the one that feels good, can move freely, can execute technique effectively. One that is tired enough at the end of the day to sleep well without being so tired that it’s already cooked upon waking.”

Even before I hit “reply” though, I knew that my answer wasn’t the whole truth. And I had to ask myself why? Why did writing the whole truth feel like stepping onto a minefield?

Form follows function.

I suppose I should begin with the rest of the truth.

I’m a muscular guy with close-set hip, and a dancer in a ballet company with a mostly-classical repertoire. Too much muscle or fat on my thighs makes it harder to achieve the really tight fifth and crossed fourth positions that underpin so much of classical technique.

In short, because of the way my pelvis is constructed, my legs can only be so big before they get in their own way. Anyone whose legs are set a bit farther apart than mine won’t have the same problem.

Therefore, for me, the whole truth includes the caveat, “…and my personal best body has to remain within certain size constraints, for functional purposes.”

When I put it that way, of course, it’s suddenly clear why saying it the first time felt a bit dangerous.

Too often, as dancers, we experience immense pressure, spoken or unspoken, conscious or not, to be smaller, thinner — to fit ourselves into an ultra-lean aesthetic that is, for most of us, unsustainable. And any time size comes up, even in a case like mine, it touches that nerve.

What happens when form gets the upper hand?

There are so many dancers — especially women — of different sizes and shapes whose artistry and technical prowess should be more than enough to earn them their place in the studio and on the stage. 

Yet, the predominant aesthetic in our art form routinely pushes so many of them to the margins or even right out of ballet. They’re seen as “too fat” or “too muscular.” As children, they find themselves tucked away in the back of the Nutcracker’s party scene; as adults, if they can find work, they may be told outright to lose weight.

Most humans can’t be as lean as ballet’s current aesthetic demands and still perform grueling feats of physical dexterity. We’ve been fed the message that if we can’t, we don’t belong in ballet. Worse, the message is bred into our bones, so we hear it from inside, where perhaps it hurts us the most.

Images of great dancers from the past, however, might surprise us. Nijinsky was famously stocky and short-legged. Marie Taglioni was built a bit like a gymnast. Even such legendary ballerinas as Pavlova and Fonteyn seem robust compared to many of today’s slight sylphs and wiry wilis. 

Though aesthetics always influence art, we remember these icons of dance not because of how their bodies looked, but because of what those bodies could do.

In any living art form, technique and aesthetics must, by definition, evolve. We evolved towards a lean, wiry aesthetic — but we can also evolve away from it.

Function and form can be partners.

There remains, of course, the argument that women in ballet should be light so the men can lift them. I feel rather vulnerable saying this so starkly here in a very public setting, but I feel it still needs to be said: if ballet requires women to starve so men can lift them, ballet needs to change.

As a male ballet dancer, I see it as my job to be strong enough to lift my partner. Not her job to be light enough for me to lift.

There are limits, of course. There will always be limits. Great artists, by definition, learn to transcend limitations.

This shouldn’t mean starving female-identified dancers, though. Instead, choreographers and dancers can work together to evoke an image or mood by harnessing biomechanics. We can swap an overhead press lift, where strength is key, for a dynamic lift to a shoulder, where momentum can help. Or we can use any number of other lifts.

To the audience, either one looks like magic — and isn’t that really the point? To create that magic, we have to be healthy and strong. That will look different for each of us, which might mean a very different aesthetic will develop But put us all together, each at our own best, and I suspect that we’ll have something beautiful, and that ballet will emerge renewed.

Asher Taylor-Dawson is a dancer at The Lexington Ballet Company in Lexington, KY, a teacher of ballet and modern dance, and a founding member of Antiphon, a small contemporary ballet company, where he focuses on creating works on diverse dancers across the spectrum of size, shape, and age, using traditional and non-traditional approaches to partnering. Born in raised in Connecticut, he lives in Louisville, KY with his husband, Denis, and their cat.

The post Body Thoughts From A Man In Ballet appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

Share about your story in dance:

My name is Julia Cinquemani. I am in my third season as a professional ballerina with Miami City Ballet. Being a part of this world class company has allowed me to live out my dream to perform an extensive repertoire on some of the largest stages in America. Formerly, I was a Principal Dancer with Los Angeles Ballet. Altogether, this will be my tenth year as a professional ballerina and my eighth year as a business owner of my dancewear line, Jule Dancewear.

I started ballet when I was four years old. I grew up in Dallas, Texas and trained at Dallas Ballet Center and concurrently at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. I spent my summers training at The School of American Ballet summer intensive for 5 consecutive summers in New York City. I left home at age 16 to train two years with the Professional Division at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Washington before landing my first contract with Los Angeles Ballet.

I danced with Los Angeles Ballet for seven years and rose through the ranks achieving Principal Dancer at age 23. Throughout my career I have danced many dream roles such as “Odette/Odile” in Swan Lake, and “Aurora” in The Sleeping Beauty, “Giselle”, “Kitri” in Don Quixote, and “Juliet” in Sir Frederick Ashton’s Romeo and Juliet at Los Angeles Ballet. Most recently, I performed “Hippolyta” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Miami City Ballet.

What inspired you to start Jule Dancewear?

Even though ballet is first and foremost in my life, I have always had entrepreneurial interests and a love for fashion. I started designing, sewing and selling wrap skirts at my hometown dancewear store in Dallas at age 14.

After I made enough money with that small business, I decided to invest in more ideas I had for creating better fitting dancewear. I started Jule Dancewear in 2011 with a goal as a young professional dancer and female entrepreneur to “reshape dancewear”.

My mission is to design and produce dancewear that offers support, conforms to all body types, is high quality, and incorporates the latest in fashion with a commitment to made in the USA.

Your line is all about promoting confidence and dancewear that flatters the dancers figure, love that! Why are those ideals your focus? Have you had any struggles with confidence or body image?

When I created Jule Dancewear I was in my teenage years and my body was going through a lot of changes. I found the need to create a leotard that offered coverage and support for dancers with curves. I hated that my ill-fitting leotards were making me self conscious in a profession where confidence is key.

I wondered, are there any leotards on the market that cater to this need, and that are understood and designed by a dancer? That is when I asked a pattern maker  to incorporate the support of a sports bra into a leotard.

As a result, we are known for reshaping the dancewear mold to support all body types. I now design all types of dancewear I see a need for. Every detail of each design is carefully tailored to function and flatter all body types.

I test and choose the highest quality fabrics and incorporate the latest in fashion. All products made in the USA where quality is high and our standards are met. I believe in the importance of doing my part to sustain my local community of garment manufacturers in my hometown of Dallas, TX. 

What do you hope dancer’s will feel when wearing a Jule leotard?

I hope dancers feel confident and beautiful when wearing Jule! It’s about being able to showcase and express who they are as a dancer without worrying about what they are wearing. Dancewear should work as hard as we do! It brings me so much joy to see my designs come to life on my peers at Miami City Ballet.

In this industry self love and confidence is very important. If I can help someone feel good about themselves with something as simple as what they are wearing, then I feel like I have done my job. Every dancer should have the confidence they deserve!

How do you balance Jule and your dance career?

It is not easy running a business and dancing full time with a major ballet company. It takes lots of structure and planning ahead. At Miami City Ballet we have a 2 month period off in the summer. During that time I return to home to Dallas, TX to work with my pattern maker and knock out all of my designs for the year. I am so grateful to have such an awesome team in Dallas that keep up with the daily work that is required.

Thank you Julia, for creating such an incredible line of dancewear with a truly beautiful mission! Would you like to WIN a Jule leotard for yourself? Here’s how:

1. Follow @juledancewear
2. Follow @thewholedancer
3. “Like” the giveaway post
4. Comment and tag 2 friends on the post
5. Comment as many times as you want 2 new friends each time (no celebs, brands, or giveaway accounts allowed)

WIN : the new Jule Dancewear Velvet Royalette leotard in your choice of Dust or Peach

The post Jule Dancewear Feature + Giveaway!! appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

Leanna Rinaldi

Where do you dance?

I started my career at Miami City Ballet and danced there for six years and I am excited to start dancing with Ballet Austin for the 19/20 season!

Share a bit about your journey in dance…

I began dance classes at the age of 2 and a half. I started getting serious about dance when I was about 13 while training at Chamberlain Performing Arts in Plano, TX. As a teenager, I attended summer courses at The School of American Ballet and Miami City Ballet School.

My path was pretty much chosen for me because I didn’t get into the college I wanted but I received a scholarship to train at the Miami City Ballet School year round. And I’m so glad I went. In the school I began dancing with the company and after two years of that I was hired as a company apprentice. The next year I was hired into the corps de ballet and got to perform many wonderful ballets in many amazing places!

What’s a challenge you’ve faced in pursuing dance professionally? How did you overcome it?

The dance world has never been easy for me. I don’t have a typical “ballerina body” which I hate saying because there shouldn’t be one body that defines a ballet dancer. But I don’t have super hyperextended legs or whacked out feet and I was always self conscious about my thighs.

To offset this, I use my strengths like jumping, turning and performance in my face and port de bras. I have been body shamed in my career and emotionally abused but I overcame it by staying true to my values and telling myself that I am worth more.

One person’s opinion does not define you as a dancer. And through this challenging time in my life I was questioning my love for dance. I had to remind myself that I became a professional dancer for a reason and I reached outside of my messed up mentality to find my love for dance again.

My love for dance never left, I just had to switch my perspective and have an attitude of gratitude for what I get to do everyday!

What does it mean to you to be a “whole” dancer?

Being a whole dancer for me is having a balanced life. You can’t be ALL ballet ALL the time or you will burn out. By that I mean you have to get out of the studio and find things in life that fulfill you and bring you joy, while also working hard in the studio. Go outside. Go on adventures. Visit family. Go on a walk. Anything that you enjoy that is not dance related, do it.

Do you have any special self-care rituals that help you feel balanced?

I always try to have a nourishing breakfast every morning. I also try to journal and write down things I’m grateful for. By starting my day on a good note I find more often than not that I have a better day. I also meditate to calm my mind, reflect, and re-center. After a really hard day I light some candles and take an epsom salt bath.

What role does cross-training play in your life?

I do a lot of different kinds of cross training. I love to do yoga when I want to have a good sweat and stretch out my body. I also love to do different physical therapy exercises in the morning before class to get my blood flowing and prepare for the day.

I usually incorporate some Gyrotonics into my exercises. Whenever I have a long break I spend some time on the elliptical to keep my stamina up. On Mondays, which is usually our day off, I take an intense pilates class with an instructor that used to dance with MCB!

How do you keep a positive relationship with food and your body in the face of aesthetic pressure in dance?

It’s really hard. I’m not going to sugar coat it. Having a positive relationship with food and your body is hard especially when you have to stare at your body in the mirror everyday and pick at what is wrong.

I try to keep it positive by telling myself that I am wonderfully made, a beautiful creation, and my worth is not dependent on how I look. Food is fuel and nourishment but also meant to be enjoyed. It is possible to have a balanced life as a dancer.

Do you have a favorite healthy recipe?

Lentil Coconut Curry with Sweet Potatoes and Kale

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. coconut oil
1 can Coconut milk
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup lentils (any kind but I use red lentils)
1 sweet potato diced
1 bunch kale chopped
1 yellow onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 can chick peas (optional)
2 tbl fresh cilantro chopped
2 tbl curry
1 tsp tumeric
Dash of cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Heat on medium-high 1 tbsp. of coconut oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add the sweet potato and garlic and coat with the curry, turmeric, and cinnamon. Sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in lentils for 1 minute. Pour the coconut milk and vegetable broth in the saucepan, bring to a boil and stir. Add chickpeas if desired and the kale, salt and pepper and let simmer on low until the sweet potatoes are soft and the lentils are cooked. This will be about 12-15 minutes. Add cilantro at the end and enjoy as a soup or over quinoa or rice. Enjoy!

The post Leanna Rinaldi – Healthy Dancer Feature appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

Guest post by Katrena Cohea

When we think about young dancers, we tend to think tutus, freeze dance, and all the inherent cuteness that accompanies early childhood dance classes. While this age is full of sweetness and it can be fun to see dancers experiment and explore, this also a great age to introduce body love and respect.

If you chat with any 4 year old for a length of time, they’ll likely tell you all the things they’re good at, all the things they can do, and a plethora of other facts ranging from dinosaurs to what they had for snack. Young dancers usually don’t have any problem identifying their strengths, so it’d be easy to assume they don’t need any further foundation for body acceptance, but developmentally, young dancers at this age are at the perfect stage for cultivating a loving relationship with their bodies and abilities that can see them well into their tween and teen years.

Here are three smart strategies you can use to encourage young dancers to continue loving their bodies and abilities.

1. Be aware of language

Dance has its own unique language. Especially with young dancers we use a lot of imagery to convey technique and movement themes. While there’s nothing wrong with imagery, it’s worthwhile to tune into the words we use with young dancers and update if needed.

Flexed feet aren’t ‘bad’, or ‘naughty’ for example (this position is used often in modern and tap dancing), just as ‘suck in your tummy’, or ‘pull in your tummy’ isn’t as beneficial as encouraging dancers to lengthen their front body muscles, or asking them engage their core by pulling an imaginary string from the belly button to the spine.

While this may seem like a small and tedious change, modeling the use of positive and accurate language will only help dancers be more accurate and positive themselves as they get older, work on more detailed technique and spend more time in front of the mirror assessing themselves.

2. Focus on feeling

Speaking of mirrors, we can teach dancers from an early age that the mirror is nothing more than a tool. Just like spotting for turns, or costumes to play a role, mirrors are tools to help dancers feel and adjust for technique. How many of our tween and teen dancers go through a phase where they’re obsessed with the mirror?

How many of us, when we were dancing every day, obsessed over every lump, bump, and line we saw in our reflections? If we remove the emotion from the mirror, all that’s left is a tool. And when we focus on feeling, we help remove some of that charged emotion.

Encourage dancers at a young age to be curious about how movement feels in their body. When it’s recital time and dancers try on costumes, ask how they feel in the costume, as opposed to deferring to the mirror for how it looks.

3. Make it fun!

Body acceptance doesn’t have to be a serious subject all the time! Keep it light, especially with young students, and they’ll get the message that loving and respecting all their bodies can do is just a normal part of moving and dancing.

Try movement obstacle courses that show dancers how strong they are, use yoga as brain breaks to point out to dancers how flexible they can be, or let dancers create their own affirmations with markers and paper and hang them all around your studio. Young dancers especially love it when things are fresh and fun, and you’ll be more likely to keep them engaged with this work when it feels like play. You’ll enjoy it more that way too!

Which of these tips will you be trying? I’d love to know in the comments, or hear your favorite ways of bringing body positivity to your young dancers!

About Katrena:

Katrena Cohea is the Owner and Founder of Different Drummer Dance, a dance studio based in upstate New York that’s on a mission to teach dance from the inside out. Different Drummer Dance takes a bright, fresh, and big-hearted approach to dance education, focusing on growth mindset and body positivity to teach dance holistically.

She was trained in the RAD syllabus and completed both the RAD’s Advanced 2 and CBTS programs. She graduated with B.A. in Theater and Dance from CSUEB, where she trained with noted Bay Area directors/choreographers Nina Haft, Eric Kupers and Laura Elaine Ellis. She has performed and taught across the United States and Canada including Vancouver, New Mexico, and New York. Katrena is also a writer for the magazine The Wonderful World of Dance.

The post Instill Positive Body Image at a Young Age appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

Since the start of The Whole Dancer we’ve had a Holiday Giveaway and as The Whole Dancer has grown, so has the giveaway!! This year it’s the biggest yet with prizes from some of our favorite dance brands. You can enter the giveaway through Tuesday, December 18, 2018 and winners will be chosen and notified by the 20th!!

Each of these brands is inspired by The Whole Dancer focus on health, positive mindset and positive body image and they hope to support you in feeling your best as you pursue dance. The giveaway is open to dancers 18 and older (if you’re under 18 a parent can enter for you)!! Good luck! XO, Jess

Scroll to the bottom to enter – note : There are 2 separate entry forms 1 for the girls and one for the guys. Though everyone is welcome to enter both!

Eleve Dancewear

Former Kansas City Ballet Dancer Lisa Choules started making leotards for herself when she wasn’t satisfied with the leotard options available.  Cue the creation of Eleve Dancewear. Ms. Choules creates leotards that fit well, inspire creativity, and make you feel confident stepping into the studio.

Eleve has one of the largest collections of colors, prints (so many floral prints), and mesh fabrics available to create your dream leotard.

• One follower of The Whole Dancer will win a $100 gift certificate to create their own custom Eleve leotard!!

You can visit their website elevedancewear.com or on Instagram @elevedancewear and @eleveboutique to see all of their Ready-to-Wear and Custom leotard options (as well as skirts).

Taylored Dancewear

The Whole Dancer Inter, Jessie found Taylored Dancewear on Instagram through a friend and she was leotard smitten (it proved that like most dancers she has a leotard addiction). Created in 2016 by Alyssa Taylor, Taylored Dancewear creates leotards with fun unique prints such as rainbows, comic book exclamations (like KAPOW!), elephants, floral, and more. She currently has limited holiday prints of snowmen, peppermint, black lace, and glitter mesh.

• One follower of The Whole Dancer will win a custom leotard from Taylored Dancewear.

You can find Taylored Dancewear on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TayloredDancewear

or on Instagram @tayloreddancewear.

Deca Design Co.

Dancer Erin Quigley designs gorgeous earrings available on Etsy. Her creations are creative without being over the top and the pair of earrings we’re giving away are the perfect size for auditions.

• One follower of The Whole Dancer will win a pair of Katie Small Hoops designed to her specifications.

You can find Deca Design Co. on Etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DecaDesignCo

Or on Instagram @decadesignco

Solu

In 2017, Pacific Northwest Ballet power couple Lindsi Dec and Karel Cruz created Solu. The goal of Solu is to create dancewear that dancers can feel balanced, work hard, and be positive in. They currently offer five leotard styles, unisex tights, vitality shirt (a scoop neck shirt you can wear three different ways), and a warm-up jacket. You know it’s a smash hit when PNB dancers are showing off their Solu in rehearsal photos and videos on Instagram.

• One follower of The Whole Dancer will win a Color Block Leotard (pictured above) in the size of their choice.  

You can visit their website at wearsolu.com or on Instagram @wearsolu to see their dancewear options.

Apolla Performance Wear

We are very excited to have Apolla Performance Wear be a part of our giveaway again. Apolla Performance Wear has become the go to sock in the dance world.  The Whole Dancer did a review of their shocks earlier this year: Check it out here!

“Apolla Shocks are the only footwear for dancers that provides Arch support, Ankle stability, energy Absorption (our 3 A’s) and our customizable traction. Our targeted compression for key insertion points of the feet help to lift, support, and remove inflammation.”

They now offer five different types of shocks and recently released their legwarmer with compression: the K-Warmer.

• One follower of The Whole Dancer will win a pair of shocks and a mesh bag from Apolla Performance Wear.

You can visit their website at apollaperformance.com or on Instagram @apollaperformance to see all of their shock options.

Yumiko

Created in 2002 by Yumiko Takashima, Yumiko Dancewear is the dancewear company that started the customizable leotard sensation. They have boutiques in New York City, Berlin, and Tokyo, as well as a worldwide network of YumiGirls and YumiGuys.

In September, they released two new leotard designs: the Daria and the Zoe, as well as legwarmers. The New York and Berlin boutiques now offer a color bar, samples of every fabric available to create a better leotard customization experience.

• One follower of The Whole Dancer will win a Yumiko Holiday Collection Leotard in the size of their choice and a Yumiko limited edition Happy Holidays Tote.

You can visit their website at yumiko.com or on Instagram @yumiko

Cloud & Victory

I had the pleasure of connecting with Min of Cloud & Victory for a little interview, check that out here. This opportunity to connect took me from a fan of Cloud & Victory to a die hard. There’s a positive message and some needed levity for the ballet world.

• Min has graciously provided an “I like big battus” T for one of the winners of our holiday giveaway!!

Find C&V online here : https://www.cloudandvictory.com/ or on instagram @cloudandvictory

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

For the giveaway I didn’t want the guys to feel left out. So I got very excited when I found Boys Dance Too. It’s an online dancewear retailer that focuses on menswear. It has several brands such as Body Wrappers, Capezio, M Stevens and more.

• One giveaway winner will receive their Boys Dance Too Black dance bag. You can follow them on Instagram @boysdancetoo or check out their website www.boysdancetoo.com.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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