How do you even start addressing the issue of personal hygiene in the dancing scene?

People with meticulous hygiene will probably over react to any advice given. The first thing to talk about is that bad body odor might not be your fault.

It is respectful to smell good on the dance floor.

Sometimes it helps to define things and break it down a little before giving any advice.

First of all, there could be meditational reasons for not smelling good. You can have an infection. If you, despite meticulous hygiene, have a bad smell you should probably see a doctor.

The environment you hang out in and the food you eat might affect your body scent. Avoiding garlic for example is a classic. Even if most people eat their food, consuming it in the form of a dance partner’s breath is probably not a preferred item on the menu.

Everybody has a unique body scent that is genetic that you can’t really affect. And on some levels you have to start hanging out with people who enjoy how you smell.

With that said, the bad news is, most of the bad odor is neglect and lack of hygiene and people not properly thinking about their fellow beings. Now, in order to know what to do to always smell your best, it helps to know what bad body odour actually is, technically and chemically.

Most unpleasant odor comes from bacteria and fungus that lives in your body and on the surface of your skin. They emit sulphur compounds when they live and the only thing you can do about it is to make sure that you don’t present a nice habitat for these unwanted passengers. This process starts immediately. And it’s nothing personal, they are equally fond of everyone.

These microscopic creatures don’t need oxygen to live. They want a damp environment full of nutrients. And as it turns out, our sweat is the perfect food. So in all the body folds is where they grow the fastest, when it’s warm, dark and a lack of ventilation. They also live in the parts of your clothing that are tight to the body like inside the waistline of a pair of pants and by the neck part of a t-shirt. And if they get a strong enough foothold in some piece of clothing you might have to throw that piece of clothing away.

So, here are some strategies to fight your smell emitting bacteria:

• Make sure to never go long between washing up.

• To remove the bacteria’s dinner by taking a shower or washing up in the sink at the dance studio, you remove the habitat.

• Deodorant creates an environment that makes it hard for them to live and flourish. These products contain alcohol and aluminum based chemicals and other nasty things. The downside to this strategy is that it might not be entirely healthy. Some people might argue that extensive use of these chemicals can affect our health negatively when applied directly on our skin and it goes into your body.

• Bring fresh clothes to put on before the dance. When you move around on a normal work day you will inevitably catch the smells from where you have been. If you can, bring a complete change of clothing. Most dancing studios have changing rooms and if not, make sure to at least bring a fresh shirt and change in the toilette. Movem has an amazing solution. The fabric in Movems clothes is polyamide, anti bacterial without being toxic and no smell sticks to the fabric.

• You can cover the smell. No this is not a preferred solution. Perfume should be used to complement your natural scent, not to cover up for lack of hygiene. Also, showering in cologne might not be great for your allergic dance partners. Nobody would be happy if they send their dance partner into a perfume induced coma.

• Bring a toothbrush and make it a practice to brush your teeth every time you change your shirt. If you haven’t tried, nothing beats the freshness of a confident smile.

• Before a dancing night, you pack a squeaky clean set of suitable clothes. How about choosing something that you will normally use outside in the summer.

• And lastly, make use of your good friends. Ask them to smell you if you are in any doubt. You know that they are your friends when they give you an honest answer.

If you wanna take your style and appearance as well as you smell to the next level you should definitely have a look at The Movem dance fashion. Timeless street ware in functional material:

Here is the link to products https://movem.dance/shop/dancing-soles/