I feel like my daughters dance school is inappropriate

Gymnastics in higher and higher leg costumes.
I dont know where you have got that from as BG changed policy many years ago to allow female competitors in domestic competitions to wear shorts or leggings. Another poster said that female gymnasts are taught to smile and 'flirt' . I can tell you as a qualified gymnastics judge that deductions are made for age innapropriate gestures/dance for heavy make up and for leotards not affording sufficient coverage.
I would also like to challenge the poster who lumped pole dancing in with stripping!
Pole dancing is fairly mainstream now and a competitive sport , with children and men participating.

Coincidently, I've been having the same concerns this week.
Teenage dd has brought home costume for one of her dance pieces in up and coming show.
It's a red lacy nightie and fishnet tights. The song is about a prostitute....
Surely there are more suitable songs they could have danced to? Dd said its a show and it's acting. Dance teacher have asked if they're happy to dance to it.

Send then an email to highlight your concerns. Arrange a meeting with the manager. See if other parents agree with you and will back you. Then vote with your feet and leave.

i very much doubt this happened sorry

Really..🤨

Why so rude? Ridiculous notion to think you have to be a certain age to know about things!

I remember a few years back a local dance group at the village fete. 7 years upwards dancing to ‘let’s talk about sex!!

It's everywhere OP, everything is designed for the male gaze.
The boys won't be gyrating, just the girls.

Gymnastics in higher and higher leg costumes.

Volleyball in knickers when boys can play perfectly well in shorts.

Swimming in high leg bikinis when again, boys swimming fine in shorts.

It's packaged as female empowerment but most of the people at the top making the decisions are men.

try and find the It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia episode about the kids dance competition, both hilarious and spot on!

I used to dance as a child and it was tasteful and modest. Kids had fun. I cringe now when I see 4 year olds and up in red lipstick and makeup with awful outfits and dancing to match. Young girls looking like something from a window in Amsterdam. Gives me the ick. I coach martial arts and had many girls turn up in full makeup after dance class wearing tight shorts disappearing up their wotsits, gyrating and slut dropping in the dojo. Sent to the toilets to wash their faces and change and told not to move about like that. As a female, it made me very uneasy yet their parents don’t see an issue? These are young children!!

Go with your gut instinct as a parent and leave the dance school.

Find another activity your children will enjoy - because let's face it, it's a learning skills activity - unless you wanted your child "discovered" or were planning an entertainment career for them.

And let's also face it. Those kids who are "discovered" are the ones who follow direction and do whatever the person in charge tells them to do.

I have to admit decades ago I took my eldest to ballet classes. I was totally appalled by the instructor egoes strutting around. Just the absolute tosh and petty pretentious dictator power they displayed.

Took daughter no.1 to Karate instead. She was awesome - and also learned more valuable self-defense skills (co-ordination, balance, katas, preparedness) than dancing could ever teach her.

I had exactly the same experience with my daughter. She was 5 at the time and the costumes and performance were fine for her age group. It seemed as though as the girls got older the costumes stayed the same size and flashed a lot of flesh! I enrolled her in a few different club free tasters of different styles of dance and sports and over a short period of time fazed out that original dance group. She moved onto gymnastics and absolutely loved it. I also said to the original dance club she couldn’t be on any future shows (without saying she was off) for the time we fazed it out.

I felt like this when I saw cheerleaders in a parade in a local carnival. many of them were young and wearing very cut-away costumes, loads of make up and doing gyrating/dancing which was really nasty.

I would find another dance schol. My daughter tried a dance school with a similar vibe when she was 12. I saw the tail end of a session and didn't go back. Inappropriate music with swearing and inappropriate moves for the age group. Like you, I was quite horrified.

Absolutely this 100%

What WOULD be enough for you to remove your child?

You signed her up in good faith and instead they used your money to train and exhibit a child directed to move like an adult in a strip club. It doesn't get much worse, surely?

It wasn't an accident, at the very least it sounds like a sustained lack of judgement on their part. Make a rational decision not the emotional one, and move dance schools.

We've used and taught at a few dance schools over the years and never had what you describe. I would additionally report the staff responsible to the professional body they belong to, ISTD, RAD, NATD etc as "disrepute" is clearly an issue here.

Yeah, apparently dance clubs are exempt from the safeguarding practices that other sports have to follow because it's 'art' 🙄

Is there a dance school code of conduct or do they have to be registered with a particular dance /professional organization that safeguards children in the dancing world?

What? Crawl out from under your rock. They can consent from the age of 16.

People who watch dances like this and sexualise it - They are the problem! Not the girls with confidence, who look after their bodies, and feel confident in pretty clothing.

I'm so sick of this bitter and jaded attitude.

I'm speaking as an over-weight 38yr old woman. What I would have done is said "Good for you! For getting up there with all of the confidence in the world and showing women that it's OK to look beautiful and wear what you want without fear of consequences."

Teach your boys to keep their hands to themselves, and teach yourselves to keep your perverted little minds clear of the obvious sexual objectification of women's bodies; clearly going on in this thread.

0r ar you just jealous you have never gotten up there and tried it? Teenagers or no - We live in an age where showing the world that lingerie, dance clothing, nightwear clothing is just that- Clothing!!! If I were a size 14, I would be up there in sparkly pieces, showing off my slim-downed body because I woile finally feel confident.

Jesus. Behave yourself.

Remember theatre relies on illusion. It's likely they're all wearing opaque skin toned pants / tights / bra / under leotard / maybe a body stocking underneath the clothes that look skimpy. (Think Stacey Dooley on Strictly - we caught a glimpse of dance pants but nothing more)

They wouldn't be able to dance well if wearing clothes they were afraid would reveal stuff that shouldn't be seen.

So you've got teenagers feeling good / confident (they wouldn't do it otherwise) about themselves and their bodies, just in a more adult way than seems comfortable.

Why shouldn’t OP visit strippers in Vegas? If they and she are adults then that’s their choice.

@grossedouteurgh I grew up in the SE (where this seems to be more of a ‘thing’ judging from these posts) and was strongly discouraged from continuing dance past primary school age because my mum found all the Lolita style make up and skimpy outfits a bit grim. That was in the 80s/90s so it’s a long standing thing.

What an absurd post.

Dance is not like gymnastics though. Dance tells a story just the same as acting does. The costume is part of that and has to reflect the character. Costume matters. So you can’t really compare dance to gymnastics for this point.

Gymnasts are scored in points for ability and could all wear black if the competition allowed. Dancers are telling a story and playing a character, no points awarded, just the art of performance and depicting the story/theme, so it’s very different.

Op I agree my dd has just done one and I was also agog at the make up and some costumes. Many where fab but one girl did a dance and I felt extremely uncomfortable with the men on the front row...

LIKE gymnastic changing their costumes, dance needs to get with the program as well.

👍🏻