Happy New Year!!! Welcome back to Life with LeNique. Your competitions are coming up, you have showcases and upcoming events. You need your garments to be dance ready. For today's tutorial, we are going to show you how to check your dresses and prep them for your next event. Professional dancers are taught to have a perfect posture. Lena and Nick were taught a theory called the 5 "P's." Perfect. Posture. Prevents. Poor. Performance.
Nick and Lena took that method into their garment preparation.
Perfect. Preparation. Prevents. Poor. Performance.
Today, look at your garments. Give them some love. Get them dance ready. With all the hectic planning for competitions, traveling, rehearsals, many people forget to look at their garments.
Let's go through a checklist of what is important to look at so that your garment are in the best shape as possible.
First! take your dress out of storage and check for stains on the garment.
Make-up and tanner are two big things in the dance industry. So stains on the body suit are very common. However, when interacting with other dancers or competitors because of all the hugging and love in the ballroom. There are stains on the garment where you wouldn't normally have stains from your own cosmetics. Food stains are also common stains to find on garments. Not necessarily from the food one eats but, the food and drinks are on the tables in the ballroom. It is easy to accidentally brush up against a saucy plate, drippy coffee cup, or wine glass without even noticing until your next competition.
Second! Be sure to check your zippers!
You do not want to be that dancer on the floor fixing a zipper between songs. Make sure that your zippers are properly sewn and in working condition.
Third! Be sure to check your straps!
Over time straps on dresses will begin to stretch and lose their elasticity. Sometimes threads will break or hooks and eyes will come off. Be sure they are still tight. Check the threads and make sure they are still sewn. Look to make sure the hooks and eyes are still attached and sewn on well.
Forth! Be sure to check the seams in your sleeves and the sides of your dress!
Over time in sleeves, the seams will wear out and sometimes break. The best way to check the seams is to insert your hand into the sleeve and make sure the seam is sewn in a nice zigzag form. Be sure to check the side seams on the dress itself for any rips. If you know how to sew or know anyone who knows how to sew, it is an easy fix.
Fifth! Be Sure to check your bra cups!
Make sure bra cups are still sewn in the dress. Sometimes cups can be lost in between competitions while traveling.
Last but not least! Be Sure to check the hem on your dresses. Especially your ballroom dresses.
Because the ballroom dresses are much longer than the latin or rhythm dresses, they are more likely have tears. Sometimes the dresses are stepped on or are caught under chairs which can cause rips in the hem. Go through the entire hem multiple times to be sure there are no rips. If you see a tear or rip. have the dresses sent out to be fixed unless you are skilled at sewing. Then it could be an easy fix for you.
Lena Kosovich is a United States and World American Ballroom Champion. She was born in Russia and has trained in ballet, folk and every style of ballroom dancing. She is featured on theBenise: The Spanish Guitar (2010) DVD and has appeared on television including Dancing With the Stars.
She worked as an Assistant Designer on Dancing With the Stars and as a Designer for So You Think Can Dance and Dance Your Ass Off (2009). She is LeNique Co-Founder with husband Nick Kosovich.
