Who We Are
Danselle is the international name of Empresa de Manufactura Tejada Pérez, a family workshop founded in the Dominican Republic in 1992. We began by making children's clothing, and we learned something in those first years that never left us: a garment is judged by the parts nobody photographs. The inside of a seam. The way an elastic sits after the fiftieth wash. The shoulder that still lies flat in the third recital season.
In 2006 we turned toward the stage. Leotards, skirts, and performance costumes, made under one roof by a team of seven. Every piece we sell is a piece we cut, sew, and finish ourselves. We do not resell other people's work. We manufacture our own.
Danselle carries that workshop to dancers beyond our island. Same hands, same standard, a name that travels.
The Workshop
A workshop is only as good as the people at the machines.
Co-Founder & Head of Production
Mayelin co-founded the workshop in 1992 and has run its production floor ever since. She sets the standard the team sews to, and nothing ships without passing her table.
I can tell which of my seamstresses sewed a leotard by looking at the shoulder seam. That isn't a boast. That's thirty years of paying attention.
Digital Strategy & International Development
She grew up between the cutting table and the finished racks. Today she leads Danselle's move beyond the Dominican Republic — building the catalog, the shop, and the relationships with studios abroad.
Our Journey
Empresa de Manufactura Tejada Pérez begins in the Dominican Republic as a children's clothing manufacturer. Two founders, a handful of machines, and orders taken one at a time.
"La Casa de la Danza" is registered as a trademark in the Dominican Republic. The name arrives a year before the pivot does — we knew where we were headed before we got there.
Production shifts to ballet apparel and performance costumes. The children's patterns come off the wall and the leotard blocks go up. Local academies become our first dance customers.
[VERIFY] The first recital or gala season the workshop dressed end to end. Which academy, how many dancers, what year. Fill with the real event or delete this entry.
[VERIFY] A workshop expansion, new machinery, the year the team reached seven, or a signature costume commission. Fill with the real event or delete this entry.
[VERIFY] How the workshop came through the pandemic, the longest-running academy relationship, or a notable production dressed. Fill with the real event or delete this entry.
The workshop takes an international name and opens direct to dancers at danselle.com. Our first standardized catalog replaces made-to-order: consistent sizing, repeatable styles, ready to ship.
A wider catalog, sizes that carry a dancer from her first class to her last, and a wholesale program built for the studios that raise them.
Inside the Workshop
Four steps, seven people, one roof. Here's what happens between the fabric and the box.
[VERIFY] Every style begins as a paper pattern. The first sample of each new design is cut by hand and worn before it's approved.
[VERIFY] Our seamstresses work the styles they know best. Seams are set for movement first — a leotard that binds at the shoulder has already failed.
[VERIFY] Elastics, linings, and edges are applied by hand at the finishing table, where the details that survive a season are decided.
[VERIFY] Nothing leaves the workshop without a final check. If it wouldn't go on our own stage, it doesn't go in the box.
The foundation of every class, cut for a full range of motion.
Shop LeotardsWrap, pull on, and go — made to move with her, not against her.
Shop SkirtsThe small things that finish the look.
Shop AccessoriesFor Studios & Academies
Uniform leotards in your studio's colors. Sizing that stays consistent from one season to the next. And a workshop that answers you directly, because there's no factory between us and your order.
Every piece in our collection left the same workshop this story is about.
Share how she wears hers — #MyDanselle
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