The Characteristics Of A Ballroom Latin Costume
Many people would say that the style of a Latin dance costume is sexy. However, the word “sexy” may be too mundane to describe a Latin dress. It is purely functional to use exposed designs such as open back and tight fitting bodice to reduce resistance and to free the dancer up for the speediest move.
The Latin costume for the lady dancer in general is short and above knee with reasonable exposure of the back and leg line. It is a much lighter weight version compared to its ballroom counterpart since the Latin dance style does not cover as much volume in the floor space as the Ballroom dances. The Latin dance styles require dancers to put more weight on the floor with much pelvic rotation. In order to accentuate such kind of movements, Latin dress designs adopt more asymmetrical cut or bias cut. Whenever the lady dancer changes direction with a hip twist, the asymmetrical or bias cut hem will fly out according to the speed of the dancer’s action. This makes the dancing more exciting to watch.
The Use Of Fringes, Bold Color And Crystal Embellishments
Rows of fringes in bold color are widely seen on Latin dresses in a dance show or even competition. This fringe design is effective to show off the shimmy as well as the batucada actions of the dancers. The fringes also give the audiences prominent visual effect to the extent of the dancers’ action from a distance. That is why the fringe dresses will never go out of fashion in the design of Ballroom Latin dresses.
Basically, any bright cheerful colors may be used on Latin dresses. The mood of the Rumba may call for some soft pastel color. But black can still be used for elegance. Black, red are widely seen on Paso Doble costumes to show the passion and the spirit of this dance. And that the length of such dresses may be longer than the other dance styles like that for Cha-Cha, Rumba to facilitate “caping” action.
Similar to the Ballroom dress, the Latin dress is never short of crystal embellishments as crystals are good reflectors of light. Visually, the fly out skirt panels and the glittering stones always keep the audiences’ eyes busy.
The Latest Trends Of Ballroom Latin Costume
Like ordinary fashion, Ballroom Latin costumes also come in trends. In recent years, looser cuts in soft fabric are adopted for the Rumba dance costume on top of a tight fitting bodysuit to give a more romantic appeal and demonstrate the sensuality of the dance.
A more off-track trend lately is the back-to-basic approach of not using any stone embellishments at all on a Latin dress. This may still cause heads to turn especially when other dancers are still wearing glittery embellished costumes. Other newer trend is the use of floral fabric on dresses as opposed to the traditional solids.
The Basic Rules Of Design
There may be endless costume ideas. But the basic rule still applies in the fundamental costume designs of a Latin costume. It must not inhibit dancer’s movement and that it must provide sufficient visual effect to make Latin dances ever exciting and enjoyable to watch. Example of some Latin dance costumes can be found on this website.
