When Little Bear said he wanted to dance, I was shocked and amazed that this little man (at the age of 4) decided to do something I had never thought to encourage him on.

Yes, I always encouraged dancing to music, but never as an activity that could lead him down the dancers path. He saw pictures of my brother and I in various dance poses in various costumes on my mom’s wall and we would talk about them when he asked, but only when prompted. It wasn’t until he said he wanted to take a dance class that I decided to encourage his desire.

I don’t sugar coat anything when it comes to dance, so he understands that this is going to be a rough road for him if he chooses to dance as the years go by. He started dancing riiiiight before the #boysdancetoo movement a few years back and he hasn’t stopped since. The pandemic slowed him down in interest because “how can you dance in class by zoom in your bedroom” but as soon as classes came back to the studio, he was there! But that will be another blog for another day!

Anyway, our biggest challenge was CLOTHING! What does a young boy wear to dance class when starting out.

My first thought was “go full out” and get all the dance brands I used to know and outfit this kid to the 9s! After all, I was a dancer!

My second thought was “Hold up! We don’t know if he will like class or the clothing so we should just let him go in comfortable clothes to move in and socks.”

My mom, being the Mimi she is, just went for it and looked online for our old dance wear haunts so we could visit them and try on shoes right away. Surprised to say – most of our places changed names/hands, closed, or just the storefront did. Most everything is online nowadays.

We chose Discount Dance Supply in Santa Ana, CA (no longer there) that used to be a Hills Capezio (RIP) and traveled the small distance to try on dance shoes for him. THAT did it! He was hooked the second he put on that small black ballet shoe! Luckily, they had a pair his size! After that first time though we had a hard time finding black shoes for him.

We also found a small pair of unisex bicycle shorts and a small white boy’s dance shirt from the minuscule selection the shop had for boys. Mimi promised she would look and order more shirts online if she could find some and we left the shop with his treasures!

Ever since that first initial day getting his dance clothes, it has been harder and harder to find stuff for him. I guess some boys quit dancing shortly after they start pre-ballet or decide to tap. Many stores barely have 1/2 a rack to display the stock they have for boys/men. It’s sad! Shoes are also an issue on some occasions. Either not the right size or color needed (sometimes white for performances).

We have been to Paradise Dancewear, a small shop in Fountain Valley, CA, and have gotten what little we could there in boy supplies. We have been to Dance Threadz in Huntington Beach, CA and also find very little for boys clothing and shoes. The ladies at On Point Dancewear in Anaheim, CA were SUPER encouraging and helpful and “plan to have more in stock” but we can’t always rely on that.

We found that boys dance too website sold some clothing and got him a few things from there, including a “boys dance too!” shirt, which he loved!

My mom LOVES Amazon and frequents it for her shopping needs but most of what she finds for his dancing is cheap and ill fitting. We have had a few laughs over some things!

She ordered some AMAZING ballroom dancing clothes from Amazon, so the Little Bear looked snazzy for a performance or two! Those were wonderful clothes for performances because they snap between the legs, so the shirt doesn’t untuck! Not the thing for everyday dance wear though.

I started thinking about brands and what I used to like to wear. Bloch was always a favorite of mine back in the day, so we checked their website to see what they had for boys. We totally ordered all of what we could (even what he could grow into) and waited for stuff to arrive!

Online shopping seems to be the win for a good chunk of his supplies. We just can’t trust that something will be in stock if we go to a physical dance supply store, so we will stick to online shopping until something changes.