With the holiday season quickly approaching, now is a great time to consider what gifts are available for competitive dancers. Competitive dance requires keeping track of a lot of moving pieces, including makeup, hair products, and costumes. When looking for gifts to give competitive dancers, think about the things that often get missed, overlooked, or forgotten before a dance competition.
Best Gifts for Competitive Dancers
Whether they are new to the competitive dance scene or have been dancing for years, competitive dancers will appreciate getting these gifts for the holidays or any time of year.
#1. Makeup and Makeup Case
Competitive dancers can never have enough makeup. When they are competing every weekend, they can quickly run out of makeup during competition season. Look for a high-quality makeup case that includes a mirror and a light. This will ensure that your competitive dancer can easily find the makeup they need before a competition and apply it, even if the dressing room lacks mirror space or the proper lighting. Here are some essentials that should be included in a makeup case. If you can’t find a makeup case that includes all of them, you can buy them separately.
- Blush
- Primer
- Foundation
- Makeup brushes
- Setting powder
- Eyeliner
- Eye shadow
- Eyebrow pencil
- Fake eyelashes and glue
- Lipstick
- Lip liner
- Lip gloss
- Makeup remover
#2. Hair Supplies
In dance competitions, hair is essential to the overall costume and makeup. So, having the right supplies will ensure your competitive dancer is always prepared to look their best at an event. Look for kits that put these items together, or create your own! Gather these individual supplies, then present them with another gift, such as the garment dance bag featured below.
- Rubber bands
- Bobby pins (in various sizes and colors)
- High-quality hair brush
- High-quality comb
- Hair spray
- Water spray
- Detangler
- Hair net
- High-quality shampoo and conditioner set
- Magnetic bobby pin holder
#3. Dance Duffel Bag
One of the most challenging aspects of preparing for a dance competition is keeping costumes organized, clean, and wrinkle-free. Things can get chaotic backstage, so competitive dancers need to have an easy way to keep track of their items. Elite Dance Gear 28-inch garment duffel bag (Shop on Amazon)is the perfect gift for competitive dancers. It features a collapsible garment rack that expands to nearly five feet tall. This allows dancers to hang their costumes backstage. The bag is portable, featuring wheels that make it easy to maneuver. It’s also water resistant, making it ideal for traveling in any weather.
#4. Accessories & Emergency Kit
Each dance routine will require its own costume and accessories. However, there are several competitive dance accessories that show up again and again. Having extras will ensure your competitive dancer never forgets a key accessory on the day of competition. Here are some accessories that can be useful for competitive dancers to keep on hand during every competition:
- Gloves
- Choker
- Tights (in multiple colors)
- Earrings
- Wigs
Then there are all those other extras that get forgotten about until a dancer gets a cut and needs a Band-Aid two minutes before going on stage.Here’s a great list of items to put together as an “emergency kit” for your dancer to carry in their garment bag.
- Sewing kit
- Nail kit
- First Aid kit (Band-Aids, gauze, wrap, ice pack)
- Body glue/adhesive (to keep costumes in place)
- Tape (for scratchy costumes)
- Lint roller
- Q-tips
- Rosin
- Scissors
- Sharpie
#5. Odor Eliminators
Finally, there are odor eliminators. This is a gift for competitive dancers as well as their parents, friends, and anyone who needs to be in a car with them on the long drive home after a competition. Odor eliminators will help your dancer’s shoes smell like shoes instead of whatever they end up smelling like after a long day of competition. You can also get odor eliminators for your dancer’s garment bags to ensure that their costumes smell clean throughout the competition. You can find odor eliminators at any drug store or online. They are indeed a gift that keeps on giving.
Bottom Line.
Competitive dance requires dancers to keep track of many things. Help your competitive dancer stay organized during their next competitive season by gifting accessories and other items that will ensure they always have exactly what they need on competition day.