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For fifteen plus years, Dance Arts Centre (DAC) has come to us to help design their elegant dance costumes for the competition stage. They're innovative costumes and loyalty to The Line Up has created a wonderful relationship!

A New Look

Last Friday, the Minnesota Vikings family unveiled the magnificent new U.S. Bank Stadium to the public.  At the ribbon cutting ceremony, the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders (MVC) had something to show off too: a NEW Signature uniform!!  Luckily for us, they shared some amazing photos from the debut with the Ultimate Cheerleader Blog. Ladies and gents, take a look at their new look: "ICE"!

How many lives can your dance or skate costume live?  Plenty, if you play it right!  Wearing the same costume 2 years in a row is an excellent way to save money, but have you ever thought of selling your team's digs to another group?  

The University of St. Thomas Dance Team (USTDT) did just that with their 2013-2014 jazz costume, which then went on to be sold again!  After wearing their Jazz costume at UDA Nationals, USTDT sold thier costume to Chaska Dance Team who wore it for a year.  Then, Chaska passed it on to Duluth Denefeld Dance Team, who became the third team to wear this trend setting outfit, taking it all the way to the Minnesota State Dance Team Championships in 2016.  What a testiment to quality and conservation (though we don't really want to get a whiff of those babies!).  

Dance Space's Lyrical Senior Team

One Team’s Strength

The Dance Space studio recently shared with us photos and video of their stunning custom dance costume and lyrical performance at competition!  This group’s lyrical dance titled “My Strength” really imbibes the core values of their team: strength and determination.  The team endured many injuries and formation changes throughout the year, yet the dancers rose to the challenge, ultimately placing 3^rd overall as a Small Group during their season! 

Hockettes Junior (left)  and Team Delaware Junior (right) teams went all out on rhinestones for their custom skate dresses - something only Junior, Senior, and Collegiate teams can do!

Last November 2015, the USFSA updated the official Synchronized Skating costume guidelines.  If you’ve taken a look at the guidelines, you know that they tend to be vague.  For good reason too - it allows for artistic interpretations by teams based on their region and performance choices.   Here's guiding principle:

"The costumes of the competitors must be modest, dignified and appropriate for athletic competition, not garish or theatrical in design. Costumes may, however, reflect character of the music chosen."

Styles Cat Skate, Butterfly Skate, and Amberlin

The 2016-2017 Synchronized skating season is starting to heat up, and odds you are planning for your team's theme, choreography, and  (our favorite part)  skate dresses!   We took a look at this season's skate fashions to find style inspiration, and pulled together 6 of our favorite trends for skating dresses. 

Styles that could easily be modified to be competition rule compliant: Styles Sage, Solene, Gleason Unitard, and Cleopatra Biketard

This week on the blog we're digging into competition rules and how they can impact your choice of dance costume.  Now that we’ve gone over the “dos and don’ts” for dance team costumes for those competing in the Minnesota State High School League, let’s talk more about how you can make your 2017 costume concepts a reality, in Minnesota or elsewhere!

There are so many stunning costumes that you probably love but aren't able to use do to competition rules. But don't eliminate those favorites completely!  Instead of moving on to a new costume idea, try modifying an existing costume to make it rule compliant.  Read on to check out 3 easy ways you can modify your costume to make it competition ready.

The Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders 

Every year, we're so excited to take the short trip to Atlanta, GA to attend the All Pro 3 P-R-O convention! This get-together is one of the biggest conventions for pro, semi-pro and college cheerleaders and dancers from around the country. The P-R-O convention consisted of well-known NFL and NBA coaches and choreographers who taught new, fresh routines to the teams who attended. We loved seeing what the choreographers brought this year and enjoyed watching the amazing teams pick up the complicated choreography so quickly! Touching base with our customers and coaches always makes visiting memorable. We were so happy to see all of our talented friends again and can't wait to revisit HOTLANTA next year!

Take a look at some of our favorite customers who attened the event! 

It's that exciting time of year - planning for the 2016-2017 dance season!  It's a little crazy to see 2017 on the page, but the season is upon us!  While you are busy finding your theme and concept this summer, we rounded up some the best high kick dance costume trends we've seen.  Here's a peek at a few stunning ideas to spark your imagination as you design your next custom dance costume! 

Totino Grace Dance Team in a custom costume at the 2016 MSHSL Dance Tournament

Come on... admit it... you are already starting to plan for next year’s Winter Dance Team Season! Coaches and dancers alike are gearing up for summer camps and clinics, but thoughts of the Winter Season are always looming as teams brainstorm ideas for the upcoming year.

The check list of items for the competition season is a long one.  One major item on every team’s list?  Costumes, of course!  Wondering how to navigate the sea of rules and regulations as they apply to your dance costume design?  Here's a summary of the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) Dance costume official rules.