Shades Dancewear

About Us

Shades Dancewear

Skin Tone Dancewear for All

Shades Dancewear is an inclusive UK brand that encourages all dancers and performers to embrace their ethnicity and retain their identity from the second they step into their first dance class.

Shades offers four diverse shades of skin tone dancewear from the tiniest of toes in baby ballet classes (size 5!). Our shades are respectfully named after global majority pioneers of dance – Bojangles, Raven, Uday and Pearl – to honour and educate others about the diverse history of dance. We truly believe that for the dance community to continue to evolve, we must foster a culture of growth, inclusivity and diversity.

Our mission is for every dancer to feel seen, valued and heard throughout their entire journey with dance – whether it is community dance, at a private dance school, competitive dance, dance college or on the West End stage. Everybody should have access to dancewear that truly matches their skin tone and creates a seamless line from head to toe.

The dance world has been dominated by a traditional definition of uniformity for a long time, often represented by ‘Ballet pink’ attire. We want dancers to know and understand that skin tone dancewear that truly matches their skin colour is available and easily accessible to them, too.

To find your shade, we offer a unique Colour Match Swatch that can be put over your hand or foot to find your matching shade. It’s that easy! We recommend using our Colour Match Swatch ahead of ordering our products, and encourage every dance school to keep a Colour Match Swatch readily available for their dancers to use.

We believe Shades Dancewear will revolutionise the way dancers of all skin tones view themselves, in a space that has yet to fully acknowledge inclusivity.

Shades products currently include: Ballet Socks, Convertible Tights, Ballet Shoes, Jazz Shoes and Dance Support Belts.

Connect with Shades online @shadesdancewear!

Shades Dancewear completely supports the TIRED Movement (Trying to Improve Racial Equality in Dance) with 10% of all profits being donated directly to the cause. Find out more about TIRED at @movementtired.

TIRED’s mission is to unite the dance community with a seamless line of communication that both educates and motivates teachers of our future generation. Creating a movement that is inclusive, informative and provides a safe space for honest conversations along with inciting regular observations of the appropriate delivery of inclusive dance education.

It is an opportunity to share best practice and work as a collective to improve racial equality and representation in the dance industry!

“The more voices we hear, the louder we become”

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