Come to the Dark Side

July 3, 2022 – My daughters have been dancing for 11 years now, having started when they were just two years old. Along the way, they’ve had their fair share of lightly-colored costumes (sky blue, seafoam green, and blush pink). Before they joined the competition team, keeping those pieces clean was not too much of a problem. After all, the girls only wore them a handful of times in a season (pictures, dress rehearsal, and recital day).  But all of that changed when they joined the studio’s comp team. 

Those First Years

Luckily, most of our costumes were bold colors during their first years. Smudges, light stains, and streaks of dirt did not show up easily, so we could get away with their less-than-perfect appearance from the first regional competition through to Worlds. Once in a while, the girls were given a pastel-colored costume; the imperfections on those were always a little more visible, but not so obvious that I would have to do much about them. 

Whenever I saw a team take the stage in an all-white costume, though, I thought to myself that it was just a matter of time until we would share that fate. A few years back, one of our older teams wore all white, and I remember one of the girl’s mothers exasperatedly complaining, “I swear, this WAS white last week!” I inwardly sighed, wondering how I would remove dark imperfections from delicate snow-white fabric when our time came.

The Time Has Come

Back in August, my girls came home from their lyrical choreography session. I excitedly asked, “What song are you doing this year?” Thing 2 said, “I’m not sure, but it’s something about angels.” I tried to get more information, hoping that maybe it was a dark angel theme. But the intel my daughters supplied was not encouraging. They said it sounded “pretty.”

My heart sank; I knew our number was up. I mean, how do you do a sweet, uplifting dance to a song about angels in anything BUT white?! So it was no surprise when the costumes arrived and the fabric was whitening-toothpaste-commercial-white. I’m pretty sure that light reflected off of the fabric, it was so bright. And I knew there was NO WAY it would stay that way past the first wearing. 

The Dark Side

I was right. After the very first dress rehearsal, I pulled the girls’ costumes out of their bags and I felt a little piece of my soul die. “But Mom, there’s floor work!” Thing 1 attempted to explain as I stared in dismay at the brown-black stray marks that dotted the bottoms. 

“I know,” I dejectedly replied. If this is what they looked like after just one wearing, how gray would they look after our regional season?!

With countless dress rehearsals, three regional competitions, and picture day behind us, I’ve officially given up the naive notion that this costume will be in the same range as white by the time we hit the nationals stage. And hoping that it might be passable by Worlds is a desperate pipe dream. The fabric has lost its luster, slowly fading into a dingy grayish-white. 

Just a Little Bit Longer

Yes, I’m going to try to wash them a bit (another mother told me how she worked some miracles with blue Dawn and a clean toothbrush). I forever fear water marks, though, and wonder whether my girls’ costumes will wind up being a different shade of white than their teammates’. But, honestly, I don’t think I have much choice. 

So as I try to pump myself to reach my goal of restoring their brilliance, I can’t help but wish these costumes looked like they did when I first saw them. In the meantime, I’ll console myself with the thought that the judges aren’t going to be swayed by a dingy costume.

And I’ll hope for black, charcoal gray, navy blue, hunter green, and maroon costumes next year.

Wanna see how I wound up cleaning it? Head to my TikTok video!

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