Underdressed teens prancing about on school stage

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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 walked out of one of these once. Under 10's girls thrusting in their knickers, I thought it was very ill advised

Why are the Kardashians wearing Sari blouses several sizes too small? Was the material too expensive?

As pp have said, these girls are being encouraged to explore their sexuality often without the emotional resources to deal with the consequences.

Wow who would have thought women on this site would have been so bizarrely freaked out by girls with boobs dancing.

Plenty. They usually wear tights, or when practising it's not in front of an audience.

All girls grammar and my friends did Britney Spears complete with school uniform outfits 😄

OK then, arse and fanny!! 😉

We can all cope, thanks. What's wrong with clothing that supports the body when you dance? A dance vest or leotard?

Have you read my previous post? It's about peer pressure & often not understanding the sexualisation of their bodies.

Regarding men always being in the wrong.
I know of someone (gay as it happens) who was cheerfully getting changed in the men's changing room when they look over and see a young, teenage, transman hunched over, wrapped in a towel (clearly v uncomfortable). The adult man in this case was fairly horrified at being in a state of partial undress with an also partially undressed underage female who wasn't related to him.
I don't think the men that feel this way are wrong. Just as the male teachers who felt uncomfortable being danced at are not wrong. Actually, feeling deeply uncomfortable in that scenario is a good thing, and how we want adult men to feel in a healthy society. Unfortunately not all men would feel uncomfortable. Some would actually enjoy it. And they are the problem, and the reason I wouldn't want my teenage daughter in a state of partial undress in public.
I think suggesting that normal feelings of discomfort are wrong is really dangerous. And its completely different to if the poster had said "I feel so sorry for those male teachers being distracted/led on by the girls." She didn't she said they seemed uncomfortable and didn't know where to look.

Om my days yes!!!
Same
I feel as though professional attire should apply at schools and work.
It's funny in my last work place before we were given mandatory uniform a 22 year old literally came into work with a tight white shirt with her dd out and three buttons undone and a very short skirt and heels. Lots of older patients too. The elderly patients couldn't control themselves with staring at her. (actually turned out that her bf had cheated on her and she needed male validation)
After that we all got given mandatory uniform.

Dress how you want. But not in a work place

Based on the replies here, lots of people aren't coping.

I've been around mumsnet for years and I can say with some confidence the replies here are very different than they would have been 15 years ago.

Another sign that society is going backwards.

Nobody has said the male teachers were 'wrong' but they could have moved if it bothered them that much.
Your trans person example isn't relevant here, but of course the adult male did absolutely nothing wrong here.

I would find it uncomfortable watching students dancing in a sexualised manner - I’m not a bloke.

Would you like a shoehorn?

Replies being different doesn't mean they were better.

Was it actually sexualised or provocative though? We only have OP's account.

They would have been much more accepting of the girls and less worried about men not being able to control themselves.

I saw some stats on actual waist size of boys vs girls, and they were similar at this age. I am trying to find them but struggling currently - I will have to see if I can find the twitter post about it.

Nontheless, it's brilliant your DC are wearing sweatpants. As they get older, I challenge you to look around at their peers - the girls will move to leggings and short shorts.

I agree completely that parents can choose what to put their children in. But my point is that they don't. They just go with what they keep seeing and so the assumptions are set. From very young.

I spent a few months counting the percentage of girls wearing leggings vs trackies vs the boys when DS was a toddler. I don't think I ever saw a group, nrsery or similar where the vast bulk of the girls weren't wearing dressings and/or leggings.

I know exactly what you mean. I too have sat in the audience of these school productions wondering how this is considered appropriate!
the last one was a can can dance where, as a previous poster commented, they all ended up baring their lace clad backsides to the audience. The average age was about 14. I was so shocked

There's a bit of body shaming going on I'd say. It's quite sad.

Wtaf is wrong with leggings for little girls?

This isn't new. I remember being at talent shows where a girl group wore what looked kind of like a bikini.

It's hard to say if it went too far without seeing it though.

It means, it's hardly new.

I didn't want to derail so ignore that. My point is that saying "move if it makes you uncomfortable" "don't look" etc means only all the non-predatory/non-pervy men will move and not look. That leaves predatory men/men that don't feel uncomfortable. Teachers (male and female) actually should have the authority to do more than just "look away" if their students are making them uncomfortable. Sometimes we feel uncomfortable for a good reason. I wish we lived in a world where teenage girls could wear whatever they wanted, dance however they wanted, twerk whatever and no-one would judge them, no-one would perve on them etc. We don't live in that world. Sometimes adults who have the life experience to know this need to be the uncool ones so teenagers aren't the ones having to think "is this appropriate/safe."

t’was ever thus

No it wasn't! I was a teenager in the 1970s. We didn't dress in skimpy clothing and we didn't dance provocatively. Even if we had tried, I don't think it would have had much of an effect in our flared jeans and cheesecloth shirts! Yes, women wore mini skirts in the 1960s but they were quite innocent looking.

For me, it's the combination of the clothing and the sexualised movements that make the sort of dancing that the OP describes inappropriate for school aged children, especially when in a school setting

Female swimmers and other athletes wear clothing that is designed for the purpose. Similarly, many women wear swimming costumes or bikinis on the beach that reveal a lot of flesh. We generally don't dance provocatively in them though.

I think it's very worrying and very sad, especially as the age at which girls are wearing revealing clothes and/or dancing provocatively seems to be getting younger all the time.