What All Ballet Dancers Need! Plus Gifts They Will Love and Use!

All ballet dancers need a pair of ballet or pointe shoes. Ideally, these should be professionally fitted either by someone in store or by a dance teacher. If you do want to gift ballet slippers to a ballet dancer, take them into your local dance store so that they can have them professionally fitted! But this is not always possible so you can take a read of our article How to Measure, Fit & Buy Ballet Shoes for Toddlers & Kids: Complete Guide.

If you already know your ballet dancers size you could buy a pair like these budget friendly canvas ones by Stelle. My daughter had a pair and they fit great, were sturdy and well made. They also come in black and white which is perfect for male ballet dancers too.

Tights are next on our list and because dancers can go through a lot of them, having several pairs is a must. A pair for classes, a backup pair for classes, a backup backup pair for performances. Ballet dancers generally wear tights in ballet pink but they can choose to have full footed tights or convertible tights which have stitched holes under the sole of the foot so the ballet dancer can easily roll them up for dancing barefoot during modern or contemporary class.

As you see by the selection in these photos – ballet pink is different depending on the company making them, which for day to day class wear is not a big deal!

Most ballet students are required to wear a leotard in a style and color as set by their studio or school which you order through the school. But ballet dancers also attend master classes, intensives and camps and schools have free dress days where they are allowed to wear whatever they like and when given the chance they love to play with the latest styles available.

With so many new stretch materials on the market and new cutting and sewing techniques, the range of leotards available in dance stores is becoming comparable to swimwear! A great store to look for a leotard to make your ballet dancer stand out is Bloch. They also generally supply many ballet schools with their leotards!

Ballet shoes nowadays come with elastics attached which is fine for classes but when it comes to exams, competitions, recitals or concert time ribbons are generally needed for that professional look to secure ballet shoes. This kit from Bloch makes the perfect gift as it comes with a sewing kit and guide as well as both ribbons and elastics, which you might need if you are like me and have cut the elastics off to sew the ribbons on and then lose the elastics, but need elastics back on your kids ballet shoes! Alternatively, you can just buy a set of ribbons on their own as well.

Every ballet dancer needs to put their hair into a ballet bun for class as well as for performances and to be able to do the perfect ballet bun you need three items – a hair elastic, a hair net and hairpins. Bloch has this handy ballet bun kit and it comes in different colors to compliment your ballet dancer’s hair color.

Most of the above really applies to what female ballerinas need and I didn’t want to leave out our male dancers. So apart from ballet shoes mentioned in first spot, boys dancewear will depend either on the studio uniform or the preference of the dancer. Boys do wear leotards and you can read all about them in our article Do Boys Wear Leotards here. They also might instead wear a white t-shirt or singlet and black tights, leggings or bike shorts with white socks. Bloch again has a great selection of mens and boys dancewear which you you should check out here.

Our other article What do Toddlers Wear to a Dance or Ballet Class has some more ideas for dance wear for boys as well!

One of the most important parts of a ballet lesson is the warm-up at the barre and so having a barre to practice with at home is basically any ballet dancer’s dream.

These portable barre are great for a home studio or even bedroom and if you want more information about buying the perfect ballet barre check out our article How to Choose a Kids Ballet Barre here or my top selections for ballets barres here.

Alternatively, if you are a DIY kind of person you could make your own and I made 9 different portable home ballet barres from PVC pipe, Galvanised steel pipe as well as a mixture of pipe and wood. Check out all the video tutorials and step-by-step instructions with images on the DIY Ballet Barre Hompage here.

Practicing ballet on carpet or tiles is not really the most ideal way to practice. Not only can a dancer get hurt, but they might also ruin the flooring. This is where portable dance flooring comes in handy. Ballet dancers generally dance on a floor covered in Marley or Tarkett a floor covering that is perfect in its ability to allow a dancer to glide across the floor but simultaneously grip the surface. A Dot 2 Dance is a form of portable flooring dancers’ love for home practice covered in Marley, and you can read all about them on our resource page here.

Every ballet dancer needs a bag to carry not only their ballet shoes, but also their dance wear, drink bottle, warm up boots, leg warmers, foam or ball roller and many of the other items I am going to list here. Both my girls have these bags in pink and black (check the Dance Parent 101 Instagram, we are always using it!) and they have lasted us several years now and fit everything we need in them!

For more options take a look at our Dance bag resource page here!

Both my girls also have a pair of these booties. Celine has them in bright pink and I was able to get my daughter Sydney a pair with a design of the city of Sydney (Australia) on them which also displayed her name!

They love to wear these over their ballet and dance shoes to keep their feet and ankles all warmed up and supple before going to class. They also protect their shoes from walking from the car to the studio.

Keeping feet warm before class is important in preventing injuries and so wearing a pair of warm up boots before a lesson can help keep all those muscles and joints toatsy and warm especially if you live in a colder climate or have extremely cold winters.

The first time I saw one of these machines was when I walked into the ballet studios at the fulltime dance school I attended. They help to push the legs out into a middle split and allow you to hold a stretch just at the right place to help increase flexibility. Ballet dancers need to have flexible hips and if your ballet dancer is struggling with their middle splits, or even if they are aiming for an oversplit this is the machine for you!

Let’s face it, when ballet shoes are used regularly they can start to get a little funky smelling and so simply using an odor-eliminating charcoal bag which you can either slip into the actual shoes or just chuck into a dance bag can help to leave ballet shoes fresh and inviting for their next use!

This ‘Oh Plies’ drink bottle would only appeal to a ballet dancer, and only a ballet dancer would understand all the things that the phrase can bring up – it’s a good one!

But for super practical I would go for the Nike Hyperfuel water bottle – why? Because you pick it up squirt into your mouth and put it down – no lids to screw off or straws to mess with! Our family loves these water bottles for all our activities! If you search you can find a variety of other colors too!

Ballet dancing puts calf, shin, ankle and feet muscles through a thorough workout and their overuse through consistent practice can create tenderness or soreness in the muscles and tendons of the feet and legs.

Compression wear has been shown to help circulate the blood promoting faster healing and recovery when worn before or after activity and even when worn overnight depending on when an individual feels the best results. Therefore investing in some compression wear for your ballet dancer’s legs could leave them leaping for joy! For more options click here for our resource page!

Again to help ease those achy muscles a good supply of Epsom salts, to throw in the bath could help a ballet dancer relax and release all the tension after a hard rehearsal or performance. This gift set from Village Therapy has bath salts as well as some other goodies for muscle aches and pains making a great gift set for a ballet dancer!

Foam rollers are a must have tool for any ballet dancer these days, and even if your dancer already has one – having a selection of lengths and widths to choose from is great to see which works for which areas.

Foam rollers help to release tension at a deep level within the muscles and improve the blood circulation so they are not only great to use as part of a warm-up routine but also during cool down or for when a tap dancer just needs to roll or rub out some tension in their muscles.

Heated slippers are heaven for a ballet dancers feet. Not only are they useful before a class to help feet warm up especially if you live somewhere it snows, but they can also be used after class to relax the muscles and relieve tension.

After a hard long day of rehearsals or classes what ballet dancer wouldn’t love to come home and soak their feet in a warm bubbly, massaging foot spa!

In terms of buying a foot and calf massager this is very budget friendly and I really think it would be something your ballet dancer used everyday to help melt away the aches of a long ballet rehearsal!

A resistance band is great for helping to strengthen and develop the muscles needed in ballet dancing within the feet and ankles.

This set comes with both a resistance band and a stretch band so not only can your dancer work their ankle muscles but they can also use the stretch band to help increase their flexibility!