Ballet Recital Fees Question

[3prettyprincesses]

For those of you with daughters in ballet, what does your recital fee cover? I'm curious because at my DD's school, she doesn't get a costume to keep (it's a used costume that belongs to the studio). So what does the recital fee cover then if not costumes? Thanks!

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Our recital fee is $50.00 dollars and you get 3 tickets to the recital in the charge. I must admit we were also charged many other various charges with all kinds of lovely names. It is always more than we budgeted for.

 

[3prettyprincesses]

Our recital fee is $50.00 dollars and you get 3 tickets to the recital in the charge. I must admit we were also charged many other various charges with all kinds of lovely names. It is always more than we budgeted for.

I had to pay $120 and we have to buy our own tickets, full price too.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

If it makes you feel any better our costumes cost us about $100.00 per, and DD's whole closet if full of them. Her actual clothes are in my closet...

And my DD17 is in college now, and when I look back, it was worth every single penny! Enjoy the show.

 

[superme80]

When I danced in college we had to pay for the course plus a fee. We did not get to keep costumes. A big bulk was for the theater rental. Even on campus you had to pay to rent the theater. It was not cheap.

 

[3prettyprincesses]

If it makes you feel any better our costumes cost us about $100.00 per, and DD's whole closet if full of them. Her actual clothes are in my closet...

And my DD17 is in college now, and when I look back, it was worth every single penny! Enjoy the show.

I can understand paying for the costume, but I'm confused as to what I'm paying for since she isn't even getting a costume? Of course I'll pay it every time since the joy of seeing her dance is priceless!

When I danced in college we had to pay for the course plus a fee. We did not get to keep costumes. A big bulk was for the theater rental. Even on campus you had to pay to rent the theater. It was not cheap.

So it goes towards the theater rental? DD's recital is being held at a high school. I didn't think it would cost a whole lot to rent a high school but maybe I'm wrong. Thanks.

 

[simba20]

Well, our daughter is only 3, and in Beginning Ballet (Pre-School Ballet) and all we have to pay is for the costumes.

I am sure that as she gets older and was in one of the "Troupes" or "Companies" we would have to pay more and do more (saw a list last Saturday of various positions for parents to do at the Christmas show that the older girls perform in).

 

[NHdisneylover]

I am answering even though you did specify daughters and it is my son who dances lol! We have always bought our own costumes (not cheap!).

Recital fees have varied depending on where we lived at the time from $50 to $120. This DOES mainly cover renting the theatre (a high school theatre costs quite a bit to rent in most areas actually). It also covers (at a minimum):

pritning programs

paying the teachers for the time they spend outside of the normal class time working with the kids at technical and dress rehearsals, as well as the show

Cost of any set pieces used

music costs (mixing, equipment, etc)

OUrs have also always included a T-shirt for each child as well

 

[Maridw]

Our dance school recital fee helps to cover the cost of the auditorium. Some of the required costs that we have are: recital fee, pre-purchase a set of 5 tickets to sell (@ $10 each), selling at least a quarter page ad for the program and costumes.

I have all the costumes that my daughter & I have used over the years. DD is no longer dancing, but I still dance. The owner tries to use costumes again for the older dancers to help keep costume costs down.

 

[disneydance]

Well at my studio the fee is $20 a Class for the recital so at 5 classes a week it come to around $100. Then there's the costume fee which each costumes costs approximately $100 each and were not even talking competition costume fee's those go for $150+ and with 5 of those we don't want to know!

 

[superme80]

So it goes towards the theater rental? DD's recital is being held at a high school. I didn't think it would cost a whole lot to rent a high school but maybe I'm wrong. Thanks.

Renting can cost anywhere from a couple hundred a performance to a couple thousand. You would think they would be cheap, but nope they aren't! Sometimes you have to rent the lights and stuff separate. We also had to pay for programs and a tech crew.

 

[Bunless]

I can understand paying for the costume, but I'm confused as to what I'm paying for since she isn't even getting a costume? Of course I'll pay it every time since the joy of seeing her dance is priceless!

So it goes towards the theater rental? DD's recital is being held at a high school. I didn't think it would cost a whole lot to rent a high school but maybe I'm wrong. Thanks.

For the ballet concert that my school puts on each year, the total cost for rental is around $5000, with most of that being the staff that we are required by the school system to use. That is for about 25 hours worth of rental.
I actually get a cut-deal because the high school theater department uses our program to help train the incoming freshmen theater techs for the next year, and my husband does the sound. So far, every year, we've been able to break even. Some day it would be nice to pay myself for the time that I spend in the theater.

As far as a used costume, there is still cleaning and repairs to be done to them, even if the parent is taking care of alterations.

Recital fees go to a lot more than just costume and theater. Some of the costs include, but are not limited to, programs and posters, choreographers, teachers time during the theater week, and don't forget the amount of time that the directors spend on planning the whole thing.

Also, for many schools, they use the proceeds from recital programming to pay rent during summer months when attendance is often next to nothing.

I have never heard of any school that actually made money off of a recital program.

 

[bas71873]

My DD7's recital fee is $65 per class (and she takes 2). That includes her costume (which we keep) and whatever fees the school pays to the place we have the recital (last year it was at a local high school that has a huge auditorium). Her previous dance school has costume fees on top of a hefty recital fee, I'm talking a several hundred dollar recital fee. Ridiculous IMO.

On top of the $120 I've already paid, I will have to buy tickets later, but they were $10 last year and then I bought a DVD of each of the shows she was in. She was in 2 of the 3 performances and I think the DVD was $25. I didn't buy pictures because they weren't good so we did Portrait Innovations a few weeks later and I got fabulous pics in her costumes!

ETA - I guess that fee also covers program printing, the nice reception that was held after all three performances, props, etc. I'm not complaining at all because compared to other schools in our area, DD's school is cheap and last year's performance was phenomenal. I was really blown away!

 

[Sugardimples]

I understand that there are costs associated eithva recital but isn't that why tickets are sold? Why do you have to pay fees AND buy tickets? Sounds like a giant money machine to me.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I understand that there are costs associated eithva recital but isn't that why tickets are sold? Why do you have to pay fees AND buy tickets? Sounds like a giant money machine to me.

I was never in on all the financial details of a recital, but I can tell you from the standpoint of community theatre--even with lots more ticket sales than what a dance recital gets and a theatre we used for free (but with having to pay rights to use run a show) we had all we could do to break even (and there was not a single paid position and many actors were willing to provide their own costumes or props)--productions (including, I would think, dance productions) are very expensive to put on.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Ours is $40 per girl, no matter how many dances they are in, and we get 6 tickets each (more are $5 each.) It doesn't cover their costumes, we pay extra for those but do keep them. Ours is hels at a HS but there is the cost for that, the lights, the programs. $120 with no tickets is that for 1 child? That is really high IMO. How much are tickets?

 

[effervescent]

Our school charges $60 for the girls and $40 for the boys. The costumes are usually ours to keep, and like others have stated the fees also go to cover the auditorium rental, program printing, etc. We have to buy all our tickets and I have not heard how much they will be this year. I believe they were $7-8 last year.

 

[scrapquitler]

We don't have a 'recital fee' per say. But we do have costs associated with the recital:

Costumes (generally between $50 and $80 per costume, one costume per class)
Tickets ($18 each, everyone in the audience needs a ticket, dancers not allowed in the audience)
Moms Pass ($10, gets Mom backstage and into all shows, nobody allowed backstage without the Mom's pass)
Picture fees ($10 sitting fee per class, extra for a solo photo in the program book, buying pictures additional. All photos are optional)

 

[scrapquitler]

l is being held at a high school. I didn't think it would cost a whole lot to rent a high school but maybe I'm wrong. Thanks.

Actually, it is very pricey because, at least where I am, they have to pay a rental fee for the high school auditorium, they have to pay off duty police officers for security, they have to pay the custodian to be in the building (at overtime rate), they also have to pay for the sound equipment and lighting equipment rental and the people that run the sound and the lighting.

 

[Pigeon]

I wish we rented costumes. I hate shelling out to own costumes that get worn once. What a total waste of money, materials and landfill space.

We pay $50 in fees, plus we have to buy tickets for all of us except the performing child.

What really galls me is that they have no one at all to help the kids with costumes and costume changes. You cannot wear your costume to the performance, and she does two dances which requires two different costumes. They usually need to be pinned in the back, and my dd cannot do this herself, nor can she get the headgear on so that it stays.

Basically mom has to be out of the auditorium and in the dressing room to do the costumes. The auditorium is never nearly big enough for the crowd, and it's impossible to get back to your seat after helping with the costumes.

Essentially, after paying hundreds of dollars for lessons, hundreds more for the recital costs, mom gets to stand in the back of the auditorium for hours and really doesn't get to see the kid dance.