Today’s Topic: Dance Belts.
What is a dance belt?
It is an undergarment for male dancers.
What is the dance belt’s function?
Its two primary functions are to conceal and protect (I think you know what).
Why do male dancers have to wear a dance belt?
In a nutshell (pun intended), male dancers need their hanging glands to be placed out of the way from their own legs squeezing together and from other peoples limbs flying towards that area. If they don’t wear one…they will be dancing the “Nutcracker” in a literal sense. It’s incredibly unsafe to dance without one (any kind of dance). Male dancers who are required to wear tight pants or leggings need to wear dance belts because it looks really obscene not to. They might as well not wear anything. It looks crazy when guys don’t wear one.
How old do you have to be before wearing a dance belt?
Here’s our stance on this: if you are wearing tights, you should be wearing a dance belt, no matter what age you are. There are dance belts available in size, even a children’s size 4.
“Can my son just wear tight underwear?”
-No.
“But my son is really young and doesn’t have much down there.”
-If your son is wearing tights or bike shorts or something like that, underwear is not ok (at least not to my working eyes). Not only can we still see what’s under them, we can also see the awful looking lines from the underwear.
“My son hates the thought of wearing a dance belt, what do I do?”
-You know your son better than we do, so whatever successful techniques you have to get him to do things he doesn’t want to do, use those. However, I am going to give you my two cents as a men’s athletic coach and as a former gymnast who had to start wearing a leotard at age 6; Address it in a matter-of-fact way. This is what you have to wear. The end. Dance belts are what dancers wear. Period. The end. I sure as heck did not want to wear a leotard for gymnastics but it wasn’t something we were allowed to complain about. And that helped, a lot. The other thing I can recommend is to show him a jock strap and a sports cup. Um... those things stink! I don’t want to wear those, ever. A dance belt (at least the WearMoi dance belt we carry) is WAY more comfortable and better looking than those two items. And on top of that, it’s an undergarment. No one can see this thing (that’s the point of it).
Example Jock Strap:
“What are the feelings on a full seat dance belt vs. the thong dance belt?”
-There are mixed feelings about the full seat dance belt. Some believe it’s a crutch or a wimpy way out of wearing a thong. Others think it’s a great way to transition into the thong and a great thing for the dancers that are not so serious about the craft but want the concealing and protecting benefits. As a dance store, there is no way we can’t offer both. And honestly, we like both. We don’t think there is anything wrong with having a transitional style or a substitute undergarment for those who are recreational. But we do understand those who believe it might make the boys still not open to wearing the thong when they need to.
Full Seat Thong Back
“How do you wear the dance belt?”
-In order for the dance belt to achieve both the concealing and protective properties, the dancer needs to lift all things that hang in between his legs up to his stomach and slide the dance belt up so the pouch keeps what was once hanging, up. Basically, make sure you tell them that “everything down there needs to be up in the air, and then the cushion of the belt holds it there.” And the thong of the belt will, yes, be up the crease in between the glutes.
“What is the best dance belt?”
-There is a reason why we only offer one dance belt. It’s the best one. We know this because one of the owners (me) has worn EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. I know there are die-hard fans of other brands but I’d be REALLY surprised to hear that they tried the WearMoi belt we sell and said “Errr... No… I like the one I wear better.”
“Who else can benefit from wearing a dance belt?”
-If you are supposed to wear one when you dance, you should probably be wearing one if you are taking yoga, pilates, or other movement modalities that require a lot of opening and closing of the legs or activities where there is contact to the groin (we’ve actually had quite a few horseback riders and jockeys come to our store searching for a dance belt). I’m not positive but I think wrestlers wear biketards and… wear no underwear. Weird. They would benefit a lot from a dance belt.
When my son first started wearing a dance belt, I thought he would have issues with it, but he was totally fine. I bought him a full seat version first, to “transition”, but he quickly found that the traditional dance belt works best with tights. Now, he does wear a full seat belt for hip hop class, but when he’s in tights, he only wears the traditional thong dancebelt. The full seat belt with tights gives a single-butt-cheek appearance and so generally looks odd and (as my teenager would say) gives the male dancer away as being “not legit.”
Thanks for the information – I was wondering when to start transitioning to a dance belt for my 11 year old and now I can see that the time is upon us. I also find that the no-nonsense, no complaining approach works best for us when trying new dance wear lol
Just read this article to my 11 year old dancer. He’s not convinced but told me to buy one because he did get kicked last year lifting his partner. Thanks for providing advice and education to our male dancers, especially for us parents who just don’t know these things.
This is a really great article on dance belts. From personal experience as a dancer, I cannot stress enough how true this information is, and how important, too. I have sustained several injuries to my groin from dancing (casual dancing mainly, and without a dance belt) and also from surfing. I’m in my thirties now and can tell you, some of the injuries to the male groin such as sports hernias (which differ from a true hernia) are both very hard to diagnose and even harder to repair. Surgery in this region, as one very-respected surgeon told me when I saw him regarding my injuries, is difficult due to scarring and damage to nerves and is to be avoid when possible. So I cannot stress enough that guys wear a dance belt. No, it won’t protect against all possible injuries in this area, but it will certainly help.
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