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We reached out to Victor Smalley and Angel Armas of Stars Dance Studio when Dance Moms: Miami appeared on our TV sets.  We liked that there were 2 young men running a studio, teaching great technique and choreography, and were open to having a zillion people watch it happen.  We especially liked that they had boys at their studio.  The young male dancer that was on the show was Lucas Triana.  We ended up connecting with Lucas and his mom, Brigette, out of mutual enthusiasm on building widespread awareness that boys dance too.

A size chart for men's dance belts sometimes doesn't cut it.  The dance belt is a dance undergarment for men that... is a mystery to all.  HAHAHA!  But it shouldn't be!  The only reason the dance belt has been a sizing puzzle is because most of the dance belt manufacturers cut corners.  They make the men's dance belts incredibly small so that they don't have to make children's sizes.  Silly.  That's only one of the reasons we chose the WearMoi dance belt.

Sarah and I hosted an event this past summer at Dance New Amsterdam in NYC.  The event was intended to open up a discussion about entrepreneurship in the dance industry.  I had to capture the audiences attention in order for them to notice how many “holes” there are in the dance industry and how people like us could fill in the gaps by opening businesses that solve basic problems.  I did this by using boysdancetoo as an example.  Wearing my best outfit and shaking a bit with nerves I said, “Raise your hands if you know a really great men’s dancewear store.”  ::crickets::  “No one?... Ok.. well that’s why we opened boysdancetoo.  The Dance Store for Men…”  Amazing.  A room full of dancers and dance industry entrepreneurs could not think of one place off the top of their heads to find men’s dancewear.  Amazing, but not shocking. 

As “The Dance Store for Men” approaches it’s first anniversary of being open, we look back and remember why we started in the first place.  There is no good place to buy men’s and boys’ dance clothes.  Well, we are proud to be still here as THE solution.  Boys' dancewear in particular was the most challenging.  To find a pair of ballet tights for boys might have been “simple” for some, “annoying” for others, and “impossible” for most.  Even if someone found a place for boys' dancewear, the selection was miniscule, the service was probably way under par and the environment surely screamed “no boys allowed.”  Boys' dancewear is not a luxury, it is a need; for boy dancers at least.  We found that boys' dance belts and boys' ballet tights were the most popular items in our boys' dancewear selection. 

When I started dancing,... well actually I never really trained as a dancer, I just sort of became a choreographer...  So lets start with, when I started teaching and choreographing dance, I wore jeans.  I was a Jazz-Funk-Punk teacher so it didn't really matter.  Until I started to develop my skills did I realize, I needed men's dance pants.  I was starting to create more numbers that were technical and in order to move correctly I needed pants that were stretchy and allowed me to move.  The studio owner told me to find "men's jazz pants" or "men's modern dance pants" Suuuuuuure Lady. 

We at BOYSDANCETOO are experts in men's and boys' dancewear.  So when it comes to the uncomfortable (to some) subject of "how to wear a dance belt" we choose to be fearless.   Below is a very simple guide to wearing a dance belt.  In a nutshell (no pun intended) it is to be worn like regular briefs with all things pointing upward.  If that doesn't do the trick, read the below details...

Having fun getting your son in a boys' dance belt for the first time?  Probably not.  Well at least they have a decent name.   Dance Belt.  Better than Jock Strap in my opinion.  When you look at the dance belt you don't really see anything alarming except for the thong.  Is it really necessary to have a thong? Yeah.. I wish I could say no but, it is.  It would look like a diaper under tights, leotards or bike shorts.  I would choose the thong over the diaper if I was a 7 year old.  As I mentioned in a previous blog about boys' leotards, the thong is really not a big deal. Unless you are getting a cheap dance belt.   They are torturous.  Cheap, yes.  But torturous.  Don't do it.  It's worth the extra bucks to get a nice one like our Wear Moi dance belt for boys.  Wouldn't you pay $5 to not hear the complaints? 

After our event at internet week (see description here) we have decided to create a couple spots where we can continue the conversation of dance entrepreneurs, technology, and money.  We have started a facebook group called "Dance Entrepreneurship: Let's Make Moves" and are now going to be blogging regularly on the subject here on boysdancetoo.com.  We hope to create a much more organized platform for the discussion but for now we are going to use these two to get started.  We will be posting questions or general statements that we hope will provoke you readers to do the same.

BOYSDANCETOO hosted an event for NYC's Internet Week. We had a fierce conversation from a stellar group of panelists that was all about entrepreneurship in dance, today's technology in dance, and what the dance world is missing. The subject is super important because according to the bureau of labor statistics, dance jobs are expected to only grow 6% between 2006 and 2016. Oh no! What are we going to do about this? Well having a big event about it was our first step in doing something, but now we need the conversation to continue! We are going to be posting a review of what was discussed, questions for us to discuss, along with comments and videos and info on the subject. We want to hear what you have to say. Click "comments" to participate.

The founders of boysdancetoo were interviewed on the "Kiner Hour" by the fabulous Ashani Mfuko. Michael and Sarah spoke about who they were, how they met, why they opened boysdancetoo, what their plans are with the dance store for men, how they plan on making an impact on the dance world, and how they will use their men's and boy's dance wear store as a platform to change the way the world see's men in dance.  Watch some clips of the show here and check out the Kiner Hour Facebook page.

Just when we thought our inspiring panel of dance luminaries lined up for our Internet Week NY event couldn't be any more incredible, we learned this week that the legendary dancer, choreographer and founder of Complexions Ballet Desmond Richardson will be on panel and Marc Kirschner will not only be on panel, but his company (TenduTV - a worldwide distributor of dance videos online) have joined this special event as sponsors (and we're eternally grateful to them for securing event space for us at DNA Dance - a beautiful space).

Internet Week New York (@internetweek, #inwny) for internet entrepreneurs is the equivalent of Fashion Week for fashion mavens.  Unofficially referred to as "Geek Week", Internet Week is a week-long celebration (June 6-13) of all things tech, social and entrepreneurial online in the New York community -- a time for the brave souls building businesses online to meet, greet and get to know each other, their supporters, members of the New York business community and the media (see video below). 

Men's dancewear.  Boys' dancewear.  Men's and boys' dancewear.  You have found the best place for men's and boys' tights, leotards, unitards, biketards, warm ups, dance belts, jazz pants, ballet pants, jumpers, suspender shorts and more.  And you can find most of them in COLORS!  We are the experts in men's and boys' dancewear.  We are changing the way guy dancers shop for their clothes.  No more shopping on pink, tutu, websites.  We are here!  We will be growing our selection every season.  So if you don't find something you need (we know.. shoes, we're on it) just email us, tell your friends to email us, yell at us on facebook and twitter, or comment on our blog!  We will find it for you.  And if we can't.... we'll just make it ourselves.