Dancewear: Tights color for African American dancer

[ohiopeach211]

DD is required to wear convertable, back seamed tights for all ballet classes. The requested color is pink, the goal for class a natural flesh tone leg color. Our iss is that we are AA and pink appears white and almost opaque. Weve asked for solutions but the teachers have little experience, school is prodominantly Caucasion. The few other student use what they can and some have even resorted to dying theirs in Rit Dye and even tea bags. Any advice or suggestions ??

[thedriver]

OhioPeach211, I dye DD’s pink tights a deeper shade of pink. With her skin tone the deeper pink shade helps her have an uninterrupted line down to her pointe shoes. The problem with all brands and styles of convertible-dance tights is, on AA skin tones they make the legs look ashy-white. Unfortunately, it will probably take you a few tries with the dye in order to come up with the right shade for your DD. A tighter weave tight and one that is more on the loose side, tends to look better and make the leg color look closer to the pointe shoe color.

 

If you are going for the flesh-tone look in a convertible tight, I think you will still have to purchase a pink colored convertible tight and dye it. You will also have to dye the pointe shoes.

 

Good luck and feel free to PM me.

[Momof3darlings]

The local ethnic Ballet company sprays their shoes and uses Danskin Mesh (no seams) for their dancers. I believe the number is 14C. I'll have the check the color at work. They are mesh but slightly sheer so some of the natural skin tone seems to show through the tights.

 

I'm with thedriver, DD wears a tight which has more pink in the color and in the package looks yuck, but on her legs they at least do look pink and not white.

 

I believe Danskin also makes two newer colors Tone and Pointe pink. The tone is a peachy tan and the Pointe pink is a cross between peach and pink.

vj

[ohiopeach211]

Thanks for the suggestions!

[sylphide]

Sorry to interrupt, not a parent, but is the "Tone" pink from Danskin a lot darker than most pointe shoes? If I would like to go with a darker/more brown colored tight would I need to also dye my shoes? If so, how does one proceed to dye her pink satin pointe shoes? How do they do it at Alvin Ailey or DTH?

Thanks

[Momof3darlings]

Not really sure how to describe the tone. If you've seen the Capezio Juliet Leather Split Sole Ballet shoe in Rose Quartz, they would perfectly match those shoes. So I'm thinking they would not match pointe shoes well. However, my best estimate (which is scary) is the tone is a mix between the Pointe here and the Light Suntan.

 

Danskin Tights color chart

 

I'll edit my post tonight if I see I'm wrong when I get to work.

 

vj

[koshka]

knock knock

 

...which reminds me--at one point, Capezio was making the Gold slippers in canvas in that same rose quartz color. The slippers were great, and the color was nice on a variety of skin tones, from rather pasty (me) to considerably deeper.

 

I don't know why those shoes disappeared. Should've bought a few extra pairs.

 

As on another thread, I thought I read/heard that Capezio makes tights in 15 "skin" shades, but have not looked for (or found) any more concrete information.

 

Editing to add:

Check www.capeziodance.com under tights. They have a variety of styles that come in "european pink", "classical pink", "nude", and various shades of tan/brown. Not every style comes in every color, but at least there are some options. The "Classical pink" (in the mock seam convertible style) seems to be closest to the deeper pink discussed here.

[Momof3darlings]

Here is the dress code information for Ballethnic, a company here:

 

Flesh tone footed tights capezio, stretch and hold #14 (dark brown or suntan)

Ballet Shoes (sprayed flesh tone, fashion brown or tan) only

 

The pointe shoes I have seen from the dancers from this company are sprayed as well. They just use a basic shoe spray. The shoes feel horrible to touch but it surprisingly seems to work. We sell 4 shades of shoe spray at our store to match different skin tones. Next time one of the young ladies comes in, I'll ask her how they do it. Ribbons are sprayed also and are very hard to the touch.

 

vj

[sylphide]

Thanks so much for the specific info!