Discount Dance

I first became aware of Discount Dance in the 90s when I was a very regular adult dance student and performer at a long-defunct arts school in Syracuse, NY. My teacher had the catalog and I loved looking at it, but honestly my mom making me my dance outfits then was what was feasible at the time as I was a very broke art school graduate, so I know no orders were actually ever even made.

My teacher - not exactly financially well-off herself - agreed that their prices were steep. So fast-forward to the present, with me planning on taking my multitude of dance disciplines to YouTube, and their catalog is still around, and just as full of the snob factor as ever. In my opinion, Ballanchine's influence on the dance world was a lot like a pestilence with the resulting EDs and the genral air of superiority that came with it. This particular catalog is firmly entrenched in this gradually fading attitude so prevalent and destructive since the 70s that thank goodness I've seen plenty of signs that it's had its day and is being ousted in favor of a *much* more inclusive attitude in dance, especially ballet.

Well, these people are NOT a part of that movement and you have to be their definition of a VIP to be privileged enough to purchase their performance-wear. If you are not either a teacher with an accredited school or a studio owner, you may not pay them money for their oh-so-exclusive performance costumes. It's what I've come to expect from them, and honestly, there are SOOOOO many other sources for stunning costumes for performance that this dinosaur of another era is no longer relevant. My own solution is to take a screenshot of whatever it is that they won't let you have and commission someone willing on Etsy to reproduce it for you.

Yes, dancers, get their exclusive designs done somewhere else. These people are not worth anyone's money who just happen to be working outside of the tightly-controlled stage/school ballet world, and surely I'm not the only one who finds this attitude to be counterproductive and just not worth any dancer's time or money.