This past weekend our Dance Connection teachers piled into each other’s cars and drove out to Edison, New Jersey for the United Dance Merchants of America Costume and Dance Teacher Expo. Their goal: to find the perfect costume for each and every recital song that will hit the stage this year!

Every year our teachers spend countless hours pouring over costume catalogs from various different vendors, comparing everyone’s selections, choosing a few, and then bringing them to their fellow teachers and Miss Mary for final approval on 2-3 costumes. When our teaching staff arrives at the UDMA expo, they make their way around the convention floor, stopping at each supplier with their iPad that has an app where they will catalog all of their final selections. 

Each costume is evaluated for not only how it looks, but the quality of the fabric and any accessories, as well as the value of the costume related to its price. They consider the students in their class to make sure it is a costume that will try to make sure it will make everyone shine and will be something that will be comfortable for their choreography. Sometimes there are models who will help the teachers to get a sense of how it will look on our students, and sometimes our teachers will even try on the costumes themselves! They move through each costume possibility  before making a final decision about which would be best for each number. 

They also have a lot of fun networking with the costume company representatives, other teachers and studio owners, and the other vendors in attendance. Once they have narrowed down their costume choices after a full day of what could only be described as the world’s most detailed shopping trip, they have dinner together at a local restaurant to cap off a long and successful day together. Afterward, it’s back home from New Jersey to begin prepping all of the Costume Measurement forms that will be distributed the week of November 5th. 

It takes a ton of work to put the recital together each year, and the costumes are definitely an essential piece of that puzzle. I hope that you are as excited as I am to see the fantastic costumes that our teachers have chosen for our 30th Anniversary Recital!