Designing custom shirts for your dance team allows for your unique style and personality to shine through at any dance event, not just in dance competitions. Whether crafting a shirt for fundraising events, group trips, or simply to bring team members closer together - thoughtful design choices play a pivotal role in capturing the essence of your dance team's personality and values.
At Good Ink, we create custom apparel for dance teams and squads all across the country. We can use our experience and insights with performative and competitive team apparel to help you create the perfect custom dance shirts.
The Art of Dance Team Shirt Designs
Why Dance Team Shirt Designs Matter
Dance team shirts are more than just garments; they're powerful statements of unity and pride. These shirts serve as a visual embodiment of the collective spirit that propels dance teams to greatness. When your team steps off of the stage, their shirts convey a sense of belonging and shared purpose that is often present even when not competing (in practice, community events, everyday activities, etc.).
The journey to a perfect dance team shirt design often involves multiple iterations. Feedback, both from team members and external sources, plays a vital role in refining your design. By embracing the iterative process, your team can transform initial design drafts into compelling final creations that resonate with both your team and your audience. At Good Ink, we work with you to incorporate existing designs you may have into custom apparel. Our team can also create designs for you at no cost! If you are curious about the custom design process, we lay it all out here.
Incorporating Team Identity
One of the most exciting aspects of dance team shirt designs is their ability to encapsulate a team's identity. From the dynamic fusion of colors that symbolize your team's energy to integrating your logo, motto, or even a signature move into the design, every element holds a piece of your team's story.
One way you can communicate your identity through your dance shirt design is to incorporate your dance style and type into your design. Each style of dance often has its own culture and iconography surrounding it that can be used in a design. Some of the most popular styles of dance include:
- Acrobatic/Gymnastic
- Hip-Hop
- Jazz
- Kick
- Lyrical
- Pom
- Ballet
- Ballroom
- Swing
- Salsa
- Tap
- Contemporary
You may decide to incorporate a saxophone icon for jazz or a graffiti-style font for hip-hop. There are a lot of creative ways you could capture the essence of your dance style in your shirt designs.
Shirt Styles We Recommend For Dance Teams
You obviously want your Dance Team’s shirts to look good, but they also have to be functional. You need shirts that are breathable and non-restrictive to support free movement while dancing without generating too much heat. While Good Ink can customize any type of apparel for your dance team, there are a few different shirt styles we particularly recommend for dance teams.
Port & Company Performance Tee
Port & Company performance tees are truly designed for activity. The shirts are manufactured with moisture-wicking technology to keep you dry while you move. The tees can also keep you cool by combating UV rays with UPF50-rated polyester.
Adidas Lightweight Quarter-Zip
Dance meets or dance practice can start early or run late when the sun is down and temps are cooler. Having custom pullovers created for your team can help members show off their team spirit while also staying warm. We can customize both men’s and women’s quarter-zip pullovers from Adidas.
Bella + Canvas Unisex Tee
We love Bella + Canvas unisex tees because they’re so versatile and can be used for all kinds of different events and occasions. These shirts are produced with combed and ring-spun cotton as opposed to carded open-end cotton. This type of fabric is lightweight and isn’t scratchy, which makes it perfect for movement.
Bella + Canvas Unisex Tank Top
You may opt for a tank top over a t-shirt to stay even cooler while dancing. The lack of sleeves also provides a better range of motion so that your arms never feel restricted while wearing the tank top. Bella + Canvas unisex tank tops are lightweight and provide the perfect canvas for your custom design.
Trends in Dance Team Shirt Designs
In a world often characterized by excess, minimalism stands out as a refreshing trend. Minimalist dance team shirt designs focus on simplicity and elegance, using a less-is-more approach to convey a powerful message. Embrace clean lines, understated color palettes, and strategic negative space to create dance team shirts that exude sophistication and timeless appeal. By embodying minimalism, your team can make a bold statement with understated elegance, you may want to consider this style if you are creating designs for ballet, acrobatic, or contemporary.
Nostalgia has a captivating allure, and the vintage and retro revival trend taps into this sentiment, especially for dance teams that focus on jazz, hip-hop, or even lyrical. Embrace the vibrant colors of the 80s, the classic elegance of the 50s, or the funky vibes of the 70s to infuse a touch of nostalgia into your dance team shirts through script and bold fonts like Mallicot, Lobster, or any “Retro” fonts.
Neon, bright, and bold colors are another popular way to characterize your squad’s shirts. Depending on the personality of your group as a whole, this could be a great way to draw attention and incorporate modern or even early 2000s trends into your style. Of special interest here for a youth team would be our neon colors in hot pink, key lime, or vintage turquoise - available in our jersey tees.
Ultimately, color choice and style are decisions best voted on by your squad at the start of the season, but at Good Ink, we have a large variety of palettes to select from! Our team of designers can also help you decide on a color scheme for your shirts to match across different types of events.
Team Building Dance Event Shirts
Dance team building events are interactive and engaging activities designed to foster unity, collaboration, trust, and communication within a dance team. These events go beyond the usual dance rehearsals and performances, focusing on building strong relationships among team members and enhancing their overall cohesion.
These events can take place during off-season periods, as a break from regular practices, or as occasional additions to the team's schedule. Here are some examples of dance team building events we’ve printed custom shirts for:
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Team-Building Workshops: Dance teams can participate in workshops led by professionals that focus on team-building activities and exercises. These workshops might include icebreakers, trust-building exercises, and group problem-solving activities. Having a general-themed shirt to bring the team together is a great idea to wear multiple times throughout the year for smaller events like these.
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Dance Retreats: Dance retreats are typically held off-site and provide team members with a chance to bond in a relaxed setting. Activities may include dance classes, team-building games, discussions about goals, and personal development sessions. Creating dated and themed tees for these events allows for easy-to-identify group photos and provides members with something tangible to hold onto in future years to come.
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Themed Dance Challenges: Teams can be divided into smaller groups to participate in themed dance challenges. These challenges encourage collaboration, creativity, and healthy competition while giving team members a chance to work closely with different colleagues. If these are held throughout the year, having a stock of ready-to-go and easy-to-wear apparel will be great for more casual settings like these.
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Volunteer Work: Participating in community service projects together can strengthen team bonds and foster a sense of purpose. Dance teams might volunteer at local events, charities, or community initiatives, bringing a great opportunity for a custom design to mark the volunteer project itself, or to have a generic “volunteer day” shirt for members to wear.
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Pre-Competition Events: For multi-day competitions, there is often a lot of downtime where dancers will not be competing or be in uniform - having something comfortable, but team identifying to explore new areas is always a great idea for long events, bringing recognition to the squad off stage as well.
The key to successful dance team building events lies in tailoring activities to suit the team's dynamics, preferences, and goals. Of course, our opinion is that unity in a team can always be solidified by something as simple as coordinating their apparel in everyday situations!
Let Good Ink Print Your Design On Custom Apparel
Help your dance squad stand out with custom dance shirts from Good Ink. When you choose to work with Good Ink, you’ll be assigned a dedicated account manager who will walk you through the creation process from design to finished product. Our team offers free design help and can work with you to create a design that perfectly suits your needs. We can print for you on a variety of clothing items with a minimum order quantity of 25 – so whether you’re providing shirts for just a few members attending an event or the entire team, we’ve got you covered.
Ready to turn your dance team shirt idea into a reality? You can get started by designing your apparel online. Need custom shirts but not sure where to start? Relax, and we can handle the design for you. Our designers will come up with a winning design based on any inspiration or preferences you provide. You can speak with our team about custom apparel by requesting a quote, pressing the live chat button, or calling us at (616) 294-8884. We look forward to working with you!
