Co-founder of the TIRED Movement and Shades Dancewear, Stacey Green, recalls the moment that she first found a make-up foundation that could be matched to her skin tone. She remembers how emotional she felt and how empowered she was to be able to embrace her melanin.

As a former dancer, Stacey spent years unhappy about the dancewear that was available to her that didn’t match her skin. From pink ballet tights and shoes to pale shimmer tights and underwear.

“I started my dance training as a little girl back in 1979, and as a mixed-race student I was one of only two students of colour in a majority White dance school. I immediately knew I was different, but I wanted to be just like all the other little girls in the room and wear pink tights and pink ballet shoes. I became a qualified dance teacher with the ISTD in 1994 and have now been teaching for approximately 30 years, working with children and young people all over the country. I have always been passionate about teaching and embracing individuality, so it is important to me to enable dancers of colour to embrace their ethnicity from the moment they step into their first Baby Ballet class, and then retain their identity throughout their dance training and career.”

Shades Dancewear is the only UK brand to offer four different shades of skin tone in all products across all child and adult sizes. It is important to understand that we, as a brand, not only represent dancers of colour, but also educate others about the history of dance and the influence Black culture has had on defining styles, such as Jazz and Tap. 

We chose to name our shades of skin tone after inspirational pioneers of Black dance, and NOT as the usual food colouring stereotypes such as ‘mocha,’ ‘toffee’ or ‘cocoa.’ This has been so well received by our audience and is something we are enormously proud of.