Rights are underwear, so underwear is redundant. The tradition is to wear them as underwear, which is what dress code can often dictates. However, if there is no rule, it is up to each dancer to do what they feel most comfortable with.

I honestly don't understand why any of us ladies feel the need to wear knickers under our tights. It's much more comfortable without underwear, and the dancer can move more easily. The dancer's appearance is neater, too, with no underwear lines showing.

How many layers do you need? Not just that but if you wear underwear under your leotard and tights all of those layers are over the top of your lateral rotators and who needs vpl as they dance, that's gonna look classy isn't it!

I have a complete mental roadblock for wearing tights with no underwear. I've done it (I'll be doing it this weekend for my husbands work office party, cause my dress is really tight, and I don't want the panty lines), I know it's OK, but somehow, when you say the words to me, my brain goes "Uh, NOPE. You don't tell me what to do!"

So I get why it's sometimes better to do it, but I also sympathize with the people who can't.

For most of the time I have danced as an adult, I was very much like how @Theresa felt about this matter. But about 3 yrs ago after reading on another dance forum more back and forth on this, I decided to give a upcoming class a try with not wearing underwear (FYI I always wore thong style panty-so no prob's with VPL for me) underneath my tights. And guess what? I liked it, and I too found I was more comfortable and could also move easier as has already been discussed. So now I have embraced the tradition and no longer do underwear underneath my tights.

Heh, heh. So I was bored and decided to do something extremely daring...to wear underwear under my tights. Since so many of you who used to wear underwear under tights were willing to give the no-underwear thing a try, then it seemed only fair to me that I should give the opposite a try.

I didn't like it .

But I tried it! They always told me that even if I don't think I would like a certain food, that I should at least taste the food before rejecting it. But when it comes to clothing, I have to say that I will always be a "no-underwear-under-tights " girl.

I always wear panties under my tights. I have some that match my skin tone almost perfectly, they're also the "invisible" ones that don't cause panty lines. I just can't get over the road block of going commando.

@CinderEmma, well you wer brave to at least give it a try. No harm, no foul in trying. It's certainly not for everbody. Be the most comfortabe that you know how to be...that's what is important.

I'm really glad I never had a teacher that banned underwear. I need cotton underwear. The thought of nylon touching my pubic area makes me itchy just thinking about it! I always got high cut bikini in my skin color and never had a problem in class, recitals or competitions.

But as strange as it sounds, I must admit that I kind of like that feeling. But then again, there are some tights that I absolutely cannot handle. I speak of the "itchy" tights. So I think the KIND of tights being worn is a big factor here. (I also shave everything "down there" so that might be another factor as well.)

FYI: Tights that I wear most often are Eurotard, Mondor, Body Wrappers, Dancing Fare, and Capezio. The ballet pink Capezio Studio Basics footed tights that I wore with my Cinderella costume and glass slippers in my avatar photo (you'll need to zoom in to see everything in detail), and the Ballerina Mondor tights are my favorite so far.

Okay, I've been doing some research and it appears that tights are actually DESIGNED to be worn without underwear. So wouldn't the manufacturers of tights most likely construct them so that they felt more comfortable WITHOUT underwear?

The same goes with pantyhose. A dead give-away is all the pantyhose packages. On about ninety-nine percent of them, the model on the package is not wearing any underwear under her pantyhose. So obviously she wouldn't be doing that if the pantyhose didn't feel good without underwear, right?

P.S. Balera are my new favorite tights now. I just got them the other day.