Underdressed teens prancing about on school stage

[tumdedum]

I'm feel so old but when did this become a thing?
I've been to a couple of high school showcase evenings this year. Where the kids show off their singing, play musical instruments, do some acting or dancing.
The evenings are really good and it's brilliant for the kids to be able to show off their talents but sometimes the clothes the girls wear for the dancing acts seem a bit inappropriate to me.
The one I went to last week had two teenage girls in what looked like knickers and t-shirts dancing very well but rather erotically to a Beyonce song.
The girls were really good at dancing and would not have been out of place on a stage or a lap dancing club but AIBU to feel it's not very appropriate at a school event?
Do all high schools have these sort of dance classes? Is dancing around in skimpy clothes just a normal thing to do nowadays?
I'll put down the pearls I have been clutching and am fully prepared to be told to get with the times!

I think that sometimes when I watch the Dance Moms series.

Some really odd costumes and choregraphies for such young girls and tons of make-up.

In my teens they were struggling with this so we did the can-can in full costume complete with bloomers. I have never EVER had so many inappropriate attitudes than I did in that costume. I've worn a swimming costume on stage, and a black catsuit and no one's given me a second glance. As an adult I've worn actual underwear on stage several times without comment.

It's not the clothes that sexualise, it's the perception by others.

A leotard is no more revealing than a swimsuit and you don't wear knickers under that. In any case, ballet dancers do wear knickers, they just like to avoid having a VPL on exam day.

Given the history of the can can and the associated dress, I'd of thought the adults around you shoud of said it was inappropriate. As you rightly say it is about perception. If it is considered that there may be people in that audience that rightly or wrongly may sexualise the girls. Then it is probably not a good idea.

What else you have worn on stage was surely representative of the play you were in. Playing a 40 something dowdy dressed put upon housewife in a faded granny bra will of course get a different response than a scene from eg Last tango in Paris.

I judge those mums so hard!

I think most people know tge difference. When Little Mix dress as women in dancing clubs or sex workers and then gyrate or dance sexually, everyone knows what it's for. Sex sells but children don't have to perform that way. Adults can do what they want, children shouldn't be sexualised.