Need some help... Highland dancing

[Barb T]

A heavy weight tartan is too much for all that leaping around. Although a few dancers choose medium weight tartan, I've personally only ever made dancers kilts from lightweight tartan. The very best is Dalgliesh's lightweight, which is 11-12 oz - Rocky has provided the link above - and there are LOTS of wonderful choices. If you want advice on the tartans that carry well and look great on stage, I can offer some opinions. But, generally, the ones with strong contrast between the white (which makes the dancer stand out from the background scenery at a Highland games) and the colors in the tartan make for a great dancer's kilt. Be sure to stand about 20' away from the screen to see what a thumbnail looks like - what is distinct at 5" can be kind of muddy or pale or even invisible at audience/judges distances.

My personal opinion is that the lightweight tartan woven by mills other than Dalgliesh is just enough lighter to be undesirable - I think there's a difference in feel and look between 10-11 oz tartan and 11-12 oz Dalgliesh tartan. The pleats hold up better, the kilt swings better, etc. in the slightly heavier weight.

Ultimately for a dancer, what really matters, though, is that the dancer likes the tartan and feel swell on stage! So don't hesitate to have your young dancers each pick a different tartan - it won't cost any more than buying enough for all four the same.

Oh - and some of the tartans are, in fact, official dress versions of a particular tartan. But many of them (like the pink and purple ones!) have the sett of the official tartan but have substitute colors that are more attractive to dancers (most commonly young girls) for the main colors of the sett.