Can’t Find Plus Size Dancewear?
When looking for comfortable dance wear, it gets increasingly more difficult to find as your size increases. The dance industry has made some progress in inclusivity, but we have a long way to go.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge my privilege. I have been told all my life that I am “too big” for ballet, but I fall somewhere between a medium and large for most leotards. I’m only 4’11” and I have a very short torso, so I have never had to venture into plus size dance wear. Thank you SO much for opening my eyes.
If you’re looking for plus size dance wear, here is what I have found as a starting place:
This site is unique in that there is a “made to order” option in select styles for leotards. You select the style, color, material, and size. The downside, anything over a 2x has an additional charge. This option is the largest size range that I have seen to date, ranging from 1x to 9x.
In most of the plus size leotards, size goes up to a 2x or 3x. Some go up to a 3x in long torso, for taller dancers, this would be great!
As for tights, many brands in the plus size category go up to a 3x. Some body tights, a personal favorite style of mine, go up to an arbitrary size called “plus” that claims to fit sizes 1x-4x. These tights are great if you want to have a smoothing effect on the tummy rather than having an elastic band cut across.
When ordering dancevwear online, discount dance supply is generally my go to. In recent years, they have increased size ranges on certain styles, going up to a 1x or 2x in both leotards and tights, as well as some fun extras like shorts. I find the prices to be reasonable, but the size and style range for plus size is very limited.
When doing a google search for “plus size dancevwear” I was excited about this site, as the link for a leotard going up to a 4x came up. When on the site, however, there was no plus size filter option, and my “plus size” search included results that were not plus size, only ranging to an adult XL. If you are willing to do a bit of digging, I did end up finding the 4x leotards as well as tights that ranged up to a 3x.
This site had a “plus size bodywear” option from the drop down menu, making this site easy to navigate. The disclaimer stated that their plus size options go up to a 2x and some styles go larger. To filter out larger sizes, I typed in 3x in the search bar, and found a couple of styles that went to 4x, and one that went to 6x. I also found tights that go up to 4x. It is important to note that the larger sizes included an extra charge between $3-$7.
