Here, that's the serious free skaters; the ice dancers tend to wear practice-skirts and tights, but there are no hard-and-fast rules. I wear jogging bottoms when it's cold or when we aren't working on a free dance - if I am to be lifted, I'd rather wear a practice-skirt.

But it varies....

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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I am 48, closing rapidly on 49, and decidedly curvy (as in, not slender). I wear tights and sweater leggings for warmth, a leotard or sweater, and a dance wrap skirt. That looks nice enough on me, and I don't catch my blade on my pants the way I used to do when I wore sweat pants.

The ONLY way you will EVER catch me in a skating dress is if I am competing or testing. I hate them, LOL. I always wear black yoga or under armour pants and a long sleeve shirt and a performance fleece turtleneck from Old Navy.

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A girl after my own heart in how to dress for practice vs. at tests and competitions!!!

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Well I did at first too, until I found out not *all* skirt types made me look like an oversized chubby 3 year old.

I used to wear dresses exclusively until I lost a bunch of weight and they were all too big - what a shame! I always felt like the skirt slimmed my big butt down, or at least mostly hid it.

Now I practice in stretchy PJ pants from Target, but every once in a while I'll break out the leotard/wrap skirt combo. I wear two pairs of thin tights (can't stand the thick-knit ones) when I do that. I did it for a few days last week to get used to a dress again for my tests, and I forgot how 1. my legs get REALLY cold and 2. it's a much bigger production to go to the bathroom.

Yes exactly! Another reason for hiding my butt in a skirt rather than wearing pants!

Nicki

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I usually wear "jazz pants" under a pair of loose-fitting ski pants and a turtleneck over a t-shirt. The ski pants help keep my old knees warm and moving, and give me a bit of protection if I take a fall. I just wore tight-fitted stretch pants with a long sweater for my tests. (Think ski sweater.)

I haven't worn a skirt in years, even in the Show pro numbers -- we always had pants. (Although some of the pants were ...ahem... vertically challenged and wouldn't stay up!)

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When I was younger, I work skirts/dresses all the time. That was the norm at my rink. Now that I'm getting back into skating, I didn't want to spend the $$ on buying all new skating gear, so I have been wearing running tights, which a lot of folks at my rink wear (minus the little girls). I skate at a VERY cold rink, so many of us wear under armour for warmth, along with many layers...

I do have a skirt that I bought (it was on sale) but I haven't gotten up the nerve to wear it yet (I'm looking to lose a bit more weight before I take that plunge! I'm currently 20lbs down from where I started). I'm also testing soon, so I purchased a dress, so I guess I'm going to have to get used to wearing a skirt/dress at some point before the end of February!!

This summer I bought a s spandax skirt with shorts attached from Target. I wore that a lot in the summer. In the winter, it's just too cold. I also have a unitard that I usually wear a skirt with although there have been times when I've thrown caution to the wind and worn it without a skirt. (at the early am session when there are only teenage girls)

j

It looks like jumping right in to skirt wearing is probably the way to go for me! I will have to wear some thick tights though. The rink is FREEZING! Where do you ladies buy your skirts/over the boot tights? and also, where do you buy your knitted tights?

Tiara

But the skating dress I saw you in at AN was fabu! (And it was a great color choice if I do say so myself )

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I don't wear knit tights- but if I'm really cold I wear 2 pairs.

For practice I got Capezio black footless tights at www.dancefactoryoutlet.com they were on sale for $1 per pair- cannot be beat. They do have a bit of a sheen, which doesn't bother me. I wouldn't call them shiny.

My OTB tights came from Rainbosports.com-
I got Danskin and they fit comfortably, but you have to sew the hook and eye on yourself. They are thin, and would not provide a lot of warmth.

I have a pair of Mondor stirrup tights that are the thickest tights I own- very warm. Mondor seems to run much smaller Capezio or Danskin.

For dresses and skirts- thus far I've done ebay. I got a great deal on a Body Wrappers dress- only $30, and some good deals on skirts. I also lucked into buying used at the rink- and got a bag of 5 assorted skirts and dresses for $60- from that bag 2 dresses fit me, 2 skirts fit me, and 1 dress doesn't. It was a good deal. Main street dancewear seems to have inexpensive dresses- and those are on my christmas list now. I'd really like to get some flat skirts- as mine are all circle skirts, but I'm just too cheap to buy new.

Checkout rainbosports and tidewaterice.com for some more dresses- they just get so pricey!

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Even though I'm a pants wearer, I'm always in tights. I skate in Mondor tights. For testing, I wear the regular Mondor tights and then a pair of OTB tights. If I need to buy multiple pair, I hit the internet. If I just need a pair or two, I will go to the local pro shop. Just a heads up, if you are not of caucasian descent you will not find tights to actually match your leg color.

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Thanks, Jessi, for the link to the outlet. I just scored a few pairs of footless tights for $2.00 each!

Brittany

Mondor makes a nice pair of footless sweater tights - they're a rib-knit 80% acrylic/20% nylon blend that are warm and also durable. I absolutely love them. Dance Distributors (www.dancedistributors.com) sells a fairly inexpensive plus-size georgette wrap-style dance skirt in black, 18" long, that I wear with a black leotard or sweater. They also have other dance skirts that are suitable for skating and don't require one to weigh 98 pounds or less with skates on.

I go for skirts too. Originally I only wore them for evening private lessons, as the thought of putting it on for my then group lesson wasn't very attractive! When I swapped the group lesson for an early morning private it took me a while to actually want to put the thing on at 4am, however now I hate skating in anything else.

I get OTB tights from ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OVER-THE-BOOT-...QQcmdZViewItem

They are a good price, comfy, warm and you don't have to sew on the hooks yourself! My coach commented that they feel nice too and would be perfect for competitions.

I have been known to wear 5 or 6 pairs of tights at once---when i used to where footed tights i would wear 2 pairs footed, 2 pairs OTB (but not necessarily pull them over the boot) and the knitted sweater tights. now that i skate barefoot i have done 3 pairs OTB and 1 pair knitted. Sometimes a pair of footless tights underneath.

as for where i buy my tights--just various proshops. http://www.skate-mart.com/catalog/tights1.shtml carries a variety of tights. i love my mondor knitted tights

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WOW! How do you move? I find that when I have to wear 2 pairs it constricts my movement!

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It must take you ages to have a pee I struggle with one pair of tights, skirt and control pants when wearing skates!

Yes, and add a skating dress on top of that and you have to get nikkid to your knees to go pee!

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It's the same at most rinks. The little kids wear the big fluffy dresses, and the serious skaters wear leggings and a work out top, unless it's close to testing/competition day in which case they might wear a dress as practice to get "used" to it. I rarely see serious skaters wear practice dresses past 14-15 years old, though.

As far as the adults I see, it seems like the more recreational skaters wear the dresses, and the ones who compete and take it more seriously wear the leggings/sports top. So it's sort of the same thing at that level...dresses in general seem to be more about dressing up aka for people who do it for fun, while leggings and a top is just more practical and thus usually for people who intend on working harder.

It's definitely not true for ALL, but it's the trend I've always noticed.

Interesting observation and probably true to some extent at our rink too, except that the female dancers seem to always wear a skirt, especially if they're with their partner. Even the more advanced freestyle kids, who would normally wear pants or leggings, seem to wear a skirt when dancing (often straight over the leggings and sometimes over the axel pads as well - such a glamorous look!! ), especially if they're dancing with a male coach.

It might have something to do with the (rather silly) ISU rule that while female singles and pair skaters are finally allowed to wear pants, dancers are still required to wear a skirt all the time (except in this season's OD). As a result, maybe there's a real incentive to make sure that the brain knows that the skirt is the default way of dressing.

See that's why 2 of the 3 of my dresses have loose panties. And the next skating dress I'll make will have press buttons and a panty that opens.

You know what I like about a dress than leggins doesn't let me have? WARM KIDNEYS. Somehow it doesn't matter how long a t-shirt or a top is, I'll always manage to get it to crawl up to my ribs.

Put on a larger size for the pair on top.