Breaking the code: no matter how strict the dress code, you can always find a way to express your individuality.

DRESSS CODES are an inevitable part of dance training. Not surprisingly, dance teachers love the simple, unadorned look a dress code brings. Not only can they see what's going on with your alignment better, most of them believe your personality should shine through your work, not through your wardrobe. Students, on the other hand, feel ambivalent at best. While they can't wait to get promoted and shed, for example, the royal-blue leotard of level seven for the deep burgundy one of level eight, girls long to express themselves through the hottest new styles and colors of leotards, leg warmers, sweats, and hair accoutrements. Boys often convey their own brand of creativity by doing whatever they can get away with--rolling up their tights legs, wearing bandanas, and cutting off the sleeves of their white T-shirts. [] Is there any way for you to customize your uniform, even in classical ballet schools where dress codes are much stricter than modern dance, tap, or jazz? According to the school directors and students we spoke to, there's always a way to bring a little individuality into the studio. Even if you can't pick out the leotard style you want, you can choose your shoes, tights, and hair clips; sometimes skirts; and occasionally leg warmers or warm-ups for barre. Some schools, such as Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) in Carlisle, reward older students who have perfect attendance with special "any-color-leotard days." Others, like the National Ballet School (of National Ballet of Canada in Toronto) relax the requirements on Saturdays, although they stress that leotard choices must be "appropriate." Here are some suggestions for creating the look you want, while staying true to the dress code of your school.

LEOTARDS

If your school requires a particular brand, style, and cut of leotard for you to purchase, there's not much you can do to customize the look. At Houston Ballet Academy (where the leotards are custom made to ensure a consistent look), the girls pinch the front with a safety pin to make the thick cotton leotards more flattering.

Your school may require only a specific brand and style of leotard, such as a Mirella camisole. In that case, you can vary the look by choosing a low or high back, pinch front or plain, or contrasting piping or velvet touches on the straps. Adding a hip-adjustment belt, according to Lisa Claybaugh, administrative assistant at San Francisco Ballet School, is quite the rage among girls of all ages there.

If your school specifies only a color and style of leotard, you have lots of leeway. The girls at David Taylor Dance Theatre Academy in Littleton, Colorado, wear the low-back leotards with interesting straps. Some of the more popular styles include the double-strap or cross-strap camisoles by Capezio, Leo's Dancewear, and Motionwear; Sophie Priolo, an apprentice at Ballet West in Salt Lake City and a former student with San Francisco Ballet School, loves the "All-in-One" back-strap leotard from Bloch's Montreal collection. The girls at CPYB much prefer leotards made of interesting fabrics and textures, such as ribbed cotton, velvet, jacquard, or crepe.

Girls who take lyrical dance, such as flamenco, or character dance will often pull a long black skirt over their regulation leotard. Dancers at The Alley School in New York City must change into a long-sleeved black leotard before donning their ankle-length, full, black ruffled skirt and character shoes. The boys remain in their regulation white or black leotard over which they wear black pants, and they trade in their ballet shoes for black character shoes with heels.

TIGHTS

Almost all ballet schools require pink, footed tights for girls and black tights and white socks for boys. If you take pointe classes you may prefer wearing convertible tights, which makes it easier to prepare your feet before putting on your shoes. Lots of girls we talked to said they liked the look of seamed mesh convertible tights, like those offered by Prima Soft and Danskin, as well as Capezio and Mondor.

For jazz and tap classes, girls and boys generally are required to wear footless black tights over their regulation leotards. In schools that allow jazz pants, you can choose the boot cut or the V-shaped-front variety. Bodywrappers offers lightweight crushed (panne) velvet jazz pants and, if your school doesn't specify "black only," you may want to check out the hand-dyed jazz pants in lilac, royal, and white swirls from Watercolours. According to Megan Keough, a corps member of Tulsa Ballet and a former student at Houston Ballet Academy, the girls at the academy most often opted to wear footless, full-body tights by Capezio for jazz class, which they would roll down to waist level.

SHOES

None of the schools we contacted required specific brands of shoes, though most insisted that girls wear pink and boys wear black or white for ballet. In general, older girls thought that the split-soled shoes helped them articulate their arches better; younger girls choose the full-soled ballet shoes, which their teachers feel help them learn to use their feet better. Margaret Hee, a 15-year-old student at Marin Dance Theatre in San Rafael, California, prefers Sansha; Bloch, Grisko, Capezio, and Prima Soft also have popular full-soled and split-soled shoes. Capezio offers leather Romeos, split-sole ballet shoes designed especially for men.

Schools that teach jazz, modern, and tap differ on what shoes they recommend for their students. Most modern dance schools, like the Paul Taylor School in New York City, require their students to dance barefoot; a few allow soft ballet shoes. Some jazz-dance studios, like Tapestry Dance Academy in Austin, Texas, require their students to wear the split-sole non-boot type of jazz shoe, like Bloch's Ultraflex jazz shoe, Capezio's Technojazz Oxford, or So Danca's jazz shoes. Their hip-hop students opt for the jazz sneaker. The Ailey School allows both young men and women to choose from jazz shoes, sneakers, or the flexible jazz boots.

Tap shoe styles vary quite a bit, but like most schools, David Taylor Dance Theatre Academy recommends the oxford lace-ups with low heels for their beginning students and a higher heeled oxford for the more advanced. Advanced students have a wider variety of styles to choose from, including split-sole tap sneakers, slip-ons, T-strap, and single-strap shoes with higher heels.

ACCESSORIES

Not many studios allow their students to accessorize much. Leg warmers, in particular, are not allowed unless a student has a leg injury. And even then, you would only be able to wear the short pink ones, if you're a girl; black if you're a boy--and only during barre or warm-ups.

For ballet dancers, skirts are usually considered an accessory. Like many studios, Dance Theatre of Harlem School allows short skirts to be worn during variation classes, but only at the instructor's discretion. Some teachers only allow skirts that match your leotard, such as the Mirella collection, which has skirts color coordinated to their leotard line. Others allow some creativity, and students can opt for the hand-dyed look of Watercolour skirts.

Skirts are a necessity for girls who take character or lyrical dance classes. Most schools require black single-ruffle skirts for flamenco dancing, worn over a black, long-sleeve leotard. For those students going from ballet to character class, a character skirt is pulled over their standard-issue leotard. If your school does not specify a brand of skirt or pants, try the Bal Togs collection. They sell a very popular double-ruffled skirt for women and high-waisted flamenco pant for men. Eurotard and Back Bay Dancewear also offer a wide variety of dance skirts.

Even in the most restrictive academies, students can have fun picking out unique dance bags and warm-ups. Both girls and boys love the rip-stop nylon shoulder or messenger bags with cell-phone cases attached and bowling bags, along with the more traditional athletic bags. Jewelry, however, is not an option in most studios, and only girls can wear stud earrings.

No matter how you individualize your look, always remember that a dress code is part of the discipline inherent in your dance training. Laveen Naidu, director of Dance Theatre of Harlem School, says dress codes allow you to be "part of something special, because there is something special about you." And while "we all want to be hip and in fashion," he says, "think about expressing those ideas through your body." After all, that's what dancing is all about.

Linda Sparrowe is a freelance writer who has spent a large portion of her budget on dance clothes for her ballet daughter. Her most recent book, A Woman's Book of Yoga and Health: A Lifelong Guide to Wellness (Shambhala Publications) is due out in December.

whether you have to abide by a strict dress code or you have a little creative license in what you wear, our back-to-school budget, based on research fur this article, will give you an idea of what you'll have to spend to look your best this September. All costs are approximate and reflect adult sizes: shopping at one of the many online dancewear sites will save you some money on product, but don't forget to factor in shipping costs.

ballet shoes                       $24
pointe shoes                   $55-$72
jazz shoes                         $38
jazz sneaker                       $58
tap shoes                     $56-$120
women's character shoes            $50
men's character shoes             $125
women's leotards               $24-$46
tights                         $15-$18
short ballet skirt             $14-$22
flamenco or character skirt    $24-$42
jazz pants                     $24-$40
short leg warmers              $13-$28
thigh-high leg warmers         $15-$36
knit full-body warm-ups        $45-$55
men's tank leotard                 $27
men's unitard                      $42
men's tights                       $20
men's white T-shirt            $22-$32
dance belt                         $16