Make-Up Tips for Your Child's Dance Recital

I'll be the first to admit, as a father, I hated the idea of my little girl wearing make-up on stage. In fact, at her first dance recital, I flat out refused. Unfortunately, my daughter stepped onto stage and looked like the walking dead. My beautiful four year old looked like a zombie under stage lights. It didn't take my wife's "I told you so" look for me to understand. Children, regardless of age, need to wear stage make-up when performing on stage in a dance recital. I have learned that stage make-up for a dance recital is different than regular make-up. In fact, if your child looks "good" close up, the stage make-up is not done right, and it won't be enough to bring his or her features alive up on stage under the hot stage lights.

Why is Make-up Worn During Dance Recitals?

When your child is in a dance recital, they will be the focus of hundreds of people on stage. The dance instructor or choreographer wants the person in the last row of the auditorium to get the same quality of show as the person in the front row. Because of stage lights and distance, a child's features will be washed out and faded without some sort of accent. The stage make-up ensures that your child's beautiful eyes and smiles can be seen regardless of where you are watching from. A simple application of make-up will add the necessary emphasis to their features.

Tips for Applying Make-up for Your Child's Dance Recital

The first, and most important tip is to remember that all dancers on stage need make-up. Regardless if the dancer is male or female, very young or older - make-up is necessary. This can be difficult for a parent. I promise you will regret not applying make-up on a dancer. Take the time to learn to do it right so that your child can be as beautiful on stage as they are in your heart.

Make sure that your dancer understand why make-up is being worn. For my daughter, we had to stress that stage make-up was special and only for dance recitals. She thought, because she wore make-up for dance, she could wear it all the time. Integrating the hair and make-up routine into a pre-recital ritual also helps my daughter look forward to the recital and removes some of her nervousness. Also, your son will need reassurance that it is normal for boys to wear make-up on stage.

Talk to your dance instructor or choreographer. There is a good chance that they will have a specific vision and plan for make-up. There might be a need to color coordinate with a costume or conform to a specific theme. This is especially the case if your child is in a ballet such as The Nutcracker or Swan Lake rather than just a repertoire style recital.

Start with a good base. You will want to start with a liquid or powder foundation that is similar to your child's skin tone, but a shade darker . The idea is to emphasize your natural coloring while ensuring even and constant coloring. Under stage lights, especially if they are colored, variations in skin tones can become obvious and distracting. Also, under stage lights natural skin tones will wash out. The foundation ensures your child does not look like a vampire.

Apply a strong blush. This is the one of the pieces of stage make-up that I struggled with the most. For some reason, blush makes my little girl look like a young woman, and that is hard for me. The blush is necessary to sculpt the apples of her cheeks and give definition to her cheek bones. The blush might need to be coordinated to a costume, and it should be bold. Trust me, from a distance, it will look right.

Open up her eyes. Eye liner needs to be applied in order to open up her eyes. From a distance, they eyes narrow and are hard to see. Any proud parent of a dancer will tell you that it is the eyes that light up and sparkle when a dancer is on stage. The eye liner needs to be on both the top and bottom of the eye and extend past the corner of each eye. This helps the eyes appear larger, and will help them be seen from a distance.

Sparkle eyes are great! In addition to the eye liner, your child will need eye shadow to add definition and depth to the eyes. Many stage make-up kits will include eye shadow that has glitter or sparkles added to it. The glitter catches the light and brightens up his or her eyes on stage. Up close it will look a bit silly, but from a distance it will be perfect.

Darken the lips. Lips may look red up close, but when they are hit by light, they almost become transparent. Dancers, yes even male ones, need to apply coloring to their lips to ensure that their mouths don't wash out. While your little dancer has been practicing, she has been told a million times to smile. Without a rich lipstick that smile will be lost. For girls, it is best to outline the lips with a bit of lip liner that matches the lipstick so that you can "paint" her mouth shape. The definition will ensure that your child's smile shines on stage.

Set the make-up with powder. Your child will be moving, smiling, and sweating on stage. The make-up needs to be set with a translucent powder. With a application sponge, press powder onto the face and then brush off any excess powder with an application brush.

Step back and check it out. The stage make-up should look exaggerated close up. If it looks good or normal, you have not done it right. Exaggerated does not mean ghoulish or melodramatic. Your child's natural features should be magnified. You have to remember that under lights and at a distance, your child will look just fine.