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5 Tips for Designing Flattering Dance Costumes & Skating Dresses

Posted by Meagan on Nov 10, 2017

flattering dance, skate, cheer costumes for the whole team

One of the most important aspects of a performance is how you feel in your dance costume.  The more comfortable and confident you feel, the better you will perform!  A costume that is flattering on the entire team is one way to make sure your dancers look and feel 100%, and elevate your performance.  Here are some tips for designing dance costumes that will look good on the entire team!  

 

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Topics: Behind the Design, Costume Design Resources, How to Design a Custom Dance Costume

How to Design a Custom Dance Costume: Fabrics Explained

Posted by Meagan on Oct 26, 2017

dance costume fabrics explained

 

You have your dance costume concept selected and illustrated-  Now it's time to choose fabrics!

Regardless of the look you are trying to achieve, the best fabrics for dance costumes incorporate spandex.  This ensures that your form fitting garment can MOVE with you when you dance.  The fabric you choose depends a lot on your costume concept - do you want something edgy and futuristic (think hologram accents!), or lightweight and elegant (think sheer mesh!).  

Below, we break down our go-to fabric options that most costume companies have available.  There are plenty of novelty and specialty fabrics out there that make amazing costumes - but here are a few of the tried and true basic favorites that will work for any dance costume!

 

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Topics: Behind the Design, Costume Design Resources, How to Design a Custom Dance Costume

How Long Does it Take to Design a Custom Dance Costume?

Posted by Meagan on Oct 13, 2017

patterning designing a dance costume

One of the most common questions we hear is this: how long does it take to get a  custom dance costume?! There are a lot of different factors that can contribute to lead times for dance costumes, but generally speaking a design-from-scratch custom dance costume will take 12-18 weeks from gathering inspiration, to production, and to performance.   

A design-from-scratch custom costume is a great option for teams that want a truly one-of-a-kind look, and have greater flexibility with budget ($250+) and time frame (12-18 weeks). Instead of choosing between pre-stocked and catalog styles, this is your chance to become the designer yourself!

There are other custom options that can save you time, like customizing fabrics on a pre-designed style.  For more resources on costumes with quicker turn around times, check out the related post The Best Costume Options For Your Time Frame. 

If you decide a custom costume is right for you, we've broken down each step with time frames below, along with a few tips for saving time!  

 

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Topics: Behind the Design, Costume Design Resources, How to Design a Custom Dance Costume

How to Design a Custom Dance Costume: Finding Inspiration

Posted by Meagan on Oct 6, 2017

dance costume design inspiration shoes

 Green Bay South West High School found inspiration for their 2015 pom uniform in a Nike shoe!

Inspiration for your next dance costume can come from anywhere: the runway, your Instagram feed, a sneaker, or that gorgeous peach that's sitting on your desk. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming to narrow down your focus, and create a performance concept that is unique from your competitors.  To help, we've rounded up some of our favorite resources for finding dance costume inspiration, as well as some tips to get it all organized! 

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Topics: Behind the Design, Costume Design Resources, How to Design a Custom Dance Costume

How To Design a Transition Dance Costume

Posted by Meagan on Sep 28, 2017

The Line Up Transition Dance Costume

Style: Avatar 

As we head into competition season, we've gotten a lot of requests for the crowd pleasing Transition Costume.  Transition Costumes deliver that WOW factor to the crowd (and the judges!) that everyone likes to see. But they're also COMPLICATED! How do you even begin to design one? Find out what the most effective transition costumes are, and some tips for designing them below! 

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Topics: Behind the Design, Costume Design Resources, How to Design a Custom Dance Costume

How To Prepare For A Dance Costume Design Consultation

Posted by Meagan on Sep 8, 2017

Preparing for a dance costume design consultation

Planning the new upcoming dance season is SO exciting!  Many times this means designing a new costume, which means a design consultation with your dance costume design company. You will likely be getting a lot of information out of this design consultation- but how can you prepare beforehand? Find out here!

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Topics: Behind the Design, Costume Design Resources, How to Design a Custom Dance Costume

Transform Your Dance Team Photos With These 10 Photoshoot Tips

Posted by Trista on Aug 30, 2017

behind the scenes dance photoshoot tips

Behind the scenes at one of our recent photo shoots at Steve Lucas Photography

Once fall rolls around, we know the first thing on the to-do list as a newly formed dance team is pictures!  When it comes to photoshoots, TLU has definitely had lots of practice.  With over 8 photoshoots a year, we've got things down to a science!  

And we don't do it alone either!  With a little help from the experts below, we've compiled some of our best tips for getting your best photos as a dance team. Read on to hear what the experts have to say.

  • Pam Gleason - Our photoshoot choreographer, Pam, is a master at creative posing!  When not working at The Line Up, she's also an instructor at Dance Arts Centre and co-founder of Matrixx Pro.
  • Steve Lucas - We've been working with Steve Lucas Photography for over 10 years, and with his 20+ years of experience, he has perfected the art of capturing the perfect dance action shot!  
  • Dawn Ruschmeyer - Our resident photo editor and Photoshop Wizard, Dawn is also Steve Lucas's assistant and photo editor.

 

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Topics: Behind the Design, Planning Tips, Choreography

What's That Job: Costume Fit Models Pam and Taylor

Posted by Trista on Jun 12, 2017

 Dance Costume Model | New Product

 Costume fit model Taylor tries on a new outfit before it hits the hip hop catalog.

We have a small but important rule here at The Line Up: every sample garment that leaves the building MUST be tried on.

Every day at 1pm sharp, you can find our team at Fit Session, where a costume fit model tries on all of our new designs.  Whether its a custom design for a client or new product going up on our store, we like to make sure every pattern is right and fits a REAL body. Putting it on a mannequin is helpful, but a real body is best in order to move and dance in it as intended!

This leads to one very unique job at The Line Up: a Fit Model.  These ladies are our real life, size small mannequins, and often get poked and prodded as they test out all our sample garments.  

We sat down with Pam and Taylor, our past and present fit models, for our new employee spotlight series. Check out what they had to say about their highly unusual but very important job!

 

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Topics: Life at The Line Up, Behind the Design

Life of a Choreographer Part 2 - at Nationals with TRIBE 99

Posted by TRIBE99 on May 3, 2017

Tribe99-Pass View-0489 (1).jpg 

 

We're back again with Anna and Carsen of TRIBE 99, getting a feel for what it's like to have a career as a dance team choreographer!  Earlier, they shared how TRIBE 99 got started and what makes their brand unique.  Today, we're talking about what it's like to go to Nationals with a team, and their best advice for those competing!  Take a peek:

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Topics: Behind the Design, Tribe 99, Choreography

Life of a Choreographer Part 1 - Behind the Scenes with TRIBE 99

Posted by TRIBE99 on May 2, 2017

Choreography careers TRIBE 99

 

Have you ever wondered what it's like to choreograph for some of the top dance teams in the nation?   We asked our friends Anna and Carsen from TRIBE 99 to tell us more about how they got started with their careers in dance!  Check out our Q&A with these talented ladies for a behind the scenes peek!

 

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Topics: Behind the Design, Tribe 99, Choreography

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