Dina,

Did you ever find a dress? I noticed you're from Windsor. Are with a member of one of the Connecticut college teams? The studio I'm affiliated with (Steps In Time in Canton) has a consignment shop. If fact, we held a sale the last few weeks to make room in the shop. Most of the sale dresses prices were cut in half, so they're about as affordable as you'll find. The studio's not far from Windsor, if you're interested in taking a look. I can even email you a list of the dresses and other items in the shop.

-- Dawn

Try Costume shops. Sounds funny, but I know of at least 2 shops in our area, where people have donated gowns. One of them is ran by a ladies' charity auxillary.

For latin, you can get almost away with buying off the rack, anything skimpy, sparkly, with a bit of flair will do. Add some rhinestoning (Preferably AB (Aurora Borelais for the best sparkle). Just get something that supports.

Standard/Smooth is tougher. My first dress was a satin floorlength formal cut to tea length ($150) and I wore gloves. I wore matching dance pants underneath. I've also seen people wear practice skirts ($150-$200) with a nice top and it looks good. The nice thing about practice skirts is if you have a local gown maker, they may have some used ones to sell or some ready made ones. Or you can pay full price and get a skirt in a color you want.

Also don't be afraid to ask some lady competitors/instructors who are about your size, if you can borrow/rent a dress.

Good luck

Many college teams have collections of costumes that you can borrow to compete in. So ask your team if this is the case.

Also, if you're new to this and are dancing in syllabus-level events, you aren't allowed to wear costumes. Usually only the highest-level competitors at collegiate comps wear costumes, the rest wear skirts and pretty tops or party dresses.

Barring that, your best bet for getting a fancy gown for as little as possible is to make your own, or buy a used dress from someone who makes their own.

For example, for what a new gown costs, I can make myself several new dresses a year. And after I've worn a dress between 1 and 3 times, I sell it for a very low price: just my cost of materials. Let me know what size you are and what your budget is, and I'll let you know if I have anything that will fit.

If you want to try to make your own, I can point you at a web page with lots of information on how to do it.

Laura

What is that website?

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