Sharmaine Perea

Born in Denver, Colorado, I began dancing at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, where I would help my mom construct many of the dance costumes for my shows. I then continued my passion for the performing arts by attending the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance where I earned a B.F.A. in Ballet and Modern Dance. While at school, I took a dance production course, where one of our projects was to construct a leotard. Already having a background in sewing, from assisting my mother with costume construction, this project inspired me to expand my creative horizon and I soon developed my passion for designing and constructing my own dancewear. In 2012 I began my professional dance career with San Diego Ballet. Excited for this new adventure from student to professional I wanted something new to wear, so I decided to try making my own leotards. Through a lot of trial and error, cutting up, sewing, trying on, taking apart, and re-sewing, I finally came up with my own leotard designs. Once I had made a collection of them to wear to class, my fellow dancers couldn’t help but notice my new custom creations and soon wanted some of their own. I began making leotards for my friends at dance and soon Charms Dancewear was created. My transformation to costume designer soon followed, as I was offered to design costumes for the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts dance concert.