Costume Searches Gone Wrong

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.” – Martha Graham

                Most dances are not just dances, they usually tell a story. Everyone knows that dancers must wear costumes, and a costume can either make or break a story line. Picking a costume can sometimes be a very time consuming process and other times you fall in love with a costume right away. Unfortunately my most recent costume search was a bust.

                This year my lyrical/ contemporary dance solo is to a song called “You Lost Me,” by Christina Aguilera. The story line for my solo starts as I’m going through a break up and I was also cheated on by the same guy, the feeling in the beginning is still supposed to feel really raw. I have all this anger bottled up and eventually I realize that “he lost me.” I realize I’m better off without him, I lost someone who was bad to me and didn’t care and he lost the world. So in the end I know I don’t need him and it’s a feeling of sadness but also empowerment.

                So for this particular dance I shouldn’t wear a regular dance costume, because who wears a dance costume while they are processing a break up? So I started looking for a deep colored flowy dress that I could wear again after my solo. I looked for a deep color because it portrays more of a sad look. However, I couldn’t look for black because so many soloist wear black and the girl in the burgundy or royal blue or emerald dress is more memorable than one of the fifty two other girls in the black dresses.

                I searched for hours and finally found a dress I thought I really liked, it was burgundy lace with a few rhinestones on the bodice. When it came I was so excited to try it on. When I finally tried it on I hated it, it wasn’t flowy enough, it was too long, it looked awkward on me, and I hated it. So I spent even more time looking for the perfect dress. After some extensive searching I found the perfect dress it was burgundy the perfect amount of tulle to make it look flowy and I was in love with the beading work. I wait a month for it to come in the mail to find out it looks nothing like it did on line. The sent me a rip off dress it was burgundy with red beading that clashed and looked horrible and it was cheaply made. I have never been so upset with a dress.

                By this time I had 12 days to find the perfect dress, I found a girls royal blue homecoming dress that I loved. I asked her if she was selling it and she told me she would sell it for 300 dollars but since she is bigger than I am I would also have to pay for alterations. So I kept looking and found the same dress online for only 126 dollars. So thankfully I didn’t buy it from that girl. Then I found a girl from another school who had the dress and was selling it for 45 dollars and it’s my size. Now I have the perfect beautiful royal blue dress for my solo that will tie my story line together perfectly.