I grew up in dance and now, my almost three-year-old girl is in dance. This means I’ve accomplished one of my life goals – to become a dance mom! I’ve had so much fun putting outfits together for her dance classes and I’d like to share everything I’ve found and my reviews.

Leotards

I have a serious love for small shops. Don’t get me wrong, I’m also a Target/Old navy fanatic through and through, but I tend to spend more on a few pieces from small shops and supplement the rest from big stores. I have three “go-to” shops for leotards.

Remie Girl – The absolute best quality leotards out there in such simple prints and colors. All of her leo’s are fully lined and just so classic. You can mix and match to no end with skirts and tights for dance. And the best part? They are 100% made for every day wear as well! We pair ours with the skirts Remie Girl also makes, or plain skirts from Target or Lulu and Roo.

Leotard Boutique – This is my favorite shop for solid color, plain leotards or options with just a little flair (like simple ruffles on the shoulders). I love getting leo’s with just a little flair when they are required to have a certain color for a recital, but there is some leeway. My girl has to stand out, right? 🤗 I think black, white, and a good ballet pink are the staple colors for dance leo’s. Two bonuses with the Leotard Boutique – the are cute enough to also be worn as normal clothes, and they are also sold on AMAZON!!

Sweet Honey Clothing – We’ve been wearing Sweet Honey dresses and jammies for a while now, and finally decided to try a few dance sets. The prints are darling and they come with a matching skirt, making them even more darling. Sweet Honey (and Remie Girl) has drops of their collections and you do need to have fast fingers if you have your eye on something in particular. However, if you are patient and lucky, you can snag a leftover in your size at an awesome sale price a few times a year.

Shoes

We tend to love Capezio for ballet and tap shoes, mostly due to the quality and durability. Although we are only in dance one day a week, Ella loves to put on her dance shoes at home to “practice” and I have no concerns they will wear out or break in anyway. I grew up in Capezio dance shoes and my mom bought Ella her first pair of Capezio tap shoes for her second birthday, so we’ve stuck with them ever since! They are of course sold in major dance stores, but we’ve been able to grab them from Amazon (with Prime!) for good prices.

For easy on and off street shoes, we love the rain boots from Sweet Honey Clothing and Mini Melissa Mary Jane Flats. Again, these can be expensive especially when their feet are growing out of sizes every other month! I like to look for deals on Amazon, and other sales on Nordstrom Rack, Wish, or Zappos.

I haven’t found an awesome brand of tights just yet, so send your recommendations my way! Just bought a Capezio pair to try out.

Bows

We have a minor bow problem over here. 😬 Buttttt, so this post doesn’t get completely out of hand, I’ll just highlight my four favorites.

• Wunderkin – Can’t beat the florals and oversized velvets for over a tiny ballet bun.
• The Splendid Bow – Such gorgeous solid color, silk bows, florals, you name it! And she restocks weekly so you can usually grab allllll the bows you have your eye on.
• Ryan and Wren – The absolute best snap clips! We weren’t blessed with super long and thick hair (yet, at least!), so snap clips are great for holding back the shorter bangs in front that won’t quite reach back to a bun. They are also great for a simple hair accessory when you have a louder outfit going on. She has them in glitters, solids, and patterns.
• Giddy Up and Grow – Beautiful floral and themed clips. Great for an added touch or holiday accessories.

Other

A few other dance items we use a lot and/or love:

Cardigans – for wearing over the leo to and from dance. I usually grab a nice, chunky cream colored cardigan from Old Navy or Target each year and we wear it on repeat.

Pottery Barn Kids backpack – we are currently using this as our dance bag. We have the smaller version in the princess print with Ella’s name embroidered on it. She only has two pairs of dance shoes (and a few snacks) to carry around, so this is the perfect size right now so she can carry it herself and feel like a big girl.

Last but not least, we can’t forget the dance mom! Loving this The Ever Co Dance Mom sweatshirt! She also just released these in a t-shirt version. 💗