MaggiWrites
Active Member
Sent you a message, thanks!
I had to Google that, not knowing what the difference was. I'm in Canada, so it appears I do Standard style only. Maybe there are some Canadians who do Smooth at the biggest competitions, but not at my school and not at the small competitions I've been in (or been to as a spectator).
Good idea, since I've been figure skating since I was 5 and still do it at what you'd call an "advanced recreational" level. My partner and I were both senior international pairs competitors and still do exhibitions at local clubs' shows, but don't compete. So skating dresses and their stores or costume makers I know. I think it would work best to get someone to alter an ice dance dress, since they have floaty skirts to about knee length. The design and ornamentation is meant to flow down the body to a longer length when seen from a distance. The same decorative pattern of sequins or whatever on a singles skater's dress is a more compact design for a smaller area of fabric. It might even be possible to take an ice dance dress and add a second longer skirt layer under the first, or something along those lines, to take the dress down to ankle length.
The one hitch would be that, like ballroom dancers, ice dancers tend to be taller with long limbs, so there wouldn't be as big a choice of dresses as there is for singles and pairs skaters. (Female pairs skaters are referred to as "pairs girls" no matter how old they are. The famous coach Moskvina is in her 80s, a former world pairs champion still out on the ice demonstrating for her students and getting her male students to lift her, and she's still called a pairs girl.) At almost 5'2", I'm on the tall side for pairs girls, many of whom are under 5', some as tiny as 4'7" or 4'8". So the dresses they buy or have made would be too small for me, if I wanted to buy a used one and have it altered. I guess ice dance is the place to look.
Prices for skating competition dresses are in the thousands, like ballroom dresses. Where I live, anyway. Prices for everything are higher in Canada and particularly in some cities like Toronto or Vancouver (I live in a suburb of Vancouver).
Another good idea, thank you! My club has a used skate and dress sale coming up. I'll prowl in the kids' section and see if anything there might work, and talk to the mothers selling. And the same if my ballroom school has a similar sale.
The only clothing rental stores I know of rent theatrical costumes or vintage clothes that could be used on stage, so I'll phone around and see if any might have something that would fit. Maybe I could start a trend for vintage evening gowns for ballroom comps
You should see my shoes. I take a size 3 or 4, which is small even for someone my height, so I buy my footwear in kids' departments. My sneakers tend to have cartoon characters on them. My ballroom shoes have the lower heels required for the younger girls.
I really appreciate this wealth of suggestions! Maybe I can look like I belong in the adult classes at a competition, not like a little kid who sneaked onto the floor to dance with her daddy, which is what my partner's wife says we sometimes look like
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