ugh--dance recital woes

[Briar Rose 7457]

dance recital is coming up in two weeks. I usually love the recitals, but it can get very hectic. our dance school does several mini recitals over the course of a weekend, and since my girls take so many classes we find ourselves spending most of the weekend at the recitals.

I breathed a real sigh of relief when I found out older dd wasn't dancing in any of the shows on sunday. she's supposed to got to a bat mitzvah that day. bad enough she has to do her two saturday night dances then run across town for another commitment.

and last night I found out that younger dd has a conflict for the firdya night show. her 5th grade outing is that friday and they won't get back in time for her to be in the recital. it didn't occur to me to worry about this, because we never did a friday show until this year.

ugh!

 

[RUDisney]

Well, IMO, they should just change the Friday night performance for her.

Seriously, that stinks. All that time and effort for her not to be able to participate.

 

[Pebblszzz]

Good heavens, you poor thing!

I'm sure you'll work it all out.

Good luck!

 

[Gette88]

That's a shame. My DD now 12 was in tap, ballet, and jazz. The recitals were always Sat. and Sun. Some of the classes did both shows, some only did one. I was always happy when she was only in one show. Some years she was in more then one number. Two costumes and accessories and everything else, ugh. It does get hard to juggle everything.

 

[Briar Rose 7457]

Originally posted by RUDisney
Well, IMO, they should just change the Friday night performance for her.

Seriously, that stinks. All that time and effort for her not to be able to participate.

wouldn't I love to do that!
if I had realized before the teacher set the schedule ...

another girl had a conflict for saturday afternoon -- her drama school had its recital scheduled. she told the dance teacher about it two months ago. so the dance teacher made sure all of her classes were in the saturday night show. but with two weeks until the recital it wouldn't be fair to ask the dance teacher to change the schedule just to accomodate my dd.

come to think of it, though, the other girl is also going on the 5th grade trip. and she's in at least one of the same classes as my dd. I wonder how she's going to handle it.

sigh.

 

[princess lovers mom]

My dd recital is also in 2 weeks...we live for this weekend. It is a huge event in our town. The production is on stage at the state college...this years theme is broadway numbers...we have 3 hour rehersals on the stage for the 2 Sundays prior to the weekend performances which are friday night, sat matinee and evening and sun matinee. Our dates are known when classes begin in sept...the owner looks at the yearly school schedule so as not to conflict with any plays/trips etc and the kids from age 4 to 18 are expected not to make any other committments for that weekend...they are not allowed to dance the shows if they cannot be there for all performances...it is just not an option that we have. They could still take the classes all year, but not perform...now that's ugh!!

...that being said all of the girls (and guys) live for this weekend...it is an amazing performance and the talent is unmatched in our area...we may get stressed, but we all bond that much closer every year and start planning for the next...

 

[Briar Rose 7457]

that sounds wonderful. I wish it could be the same here. but our dance school draws students from 4 different school districts, and it would be impossible for the teacher/director to make sure that there are no conflicts with anything happening at any of the schools.

sigh. if our biggest problems are scheduling conflicts, we're doing ok. but still, it is annoying.

 

[Amusement Park Junkie]

Coordinating the shows is not an easy job for the studios either. DD will be in her 9th recital this year. I don't work for the studio, but I've jumped in the last 5 years and done a lot to help out. I design the program and the recital t-shirts, and the last 3 years I've figured out the dance order, as well. We're now up to about 65 dances, so we broke it up into two parts 3 years ago. There's a (roughly) two hour show in the morning, and a completely different one in the afternoon.
The first step is to divide the dances in half. The owner and I get together and divide the dances by type of dance and level of student, to try and make the shows somewhat even.
The next step is to look for "family" conflicts. If a family only has two dances (one girl w/ two dances, or two girls with one dance each), we try to put them in the same show so the family doesn't have to watch all day for two dances. (Once they have 3 or more, all bets are off.) This sounds easy, but with so many dancers in multiple dances you can end up with a string of 8-10 dances that all need to be in the same show.
Finally, is the order of the dances. I usually try to make sure that each dancer has at least a 3 dance break in which to change costumes for their next dance. This is the only part I have somewhat automated. I wrote a sorting program to go through and work out an order that leaves a break for each dancer. It still takes a bit of trial and error, but it makes me wonder how teachers/studios do it manually.
Then I usually overhear comments such as: "Jenna is only 5, doesn't the studio realize that she usually takes a nap at 3 in the afternnon? She should have been at the end of the program."
There's no way to please everyone. You just do the best you can.

 

[snuggles]

Our dance recital is next weekend. Finally got the costume hemmed today. I'm so glad my dd can drive now. It will make things so much easier this year.

 

[bsnyder]

DD's recital isn't until June 14th. But this is actually a week earlier than it's been in years past, so I'm happy that our summer can finally start on June 15th!

This is the first year she'll be in both shows....one's Saturday afternoon, the other is Saturday night. DD is very excited about being old enough to be in both shows. On the other hand, her older brothers immediately wanted to know if they had to attend both shows! LOL!

 

[DisneyHumbug]

My DD's recital is always 4th of July weekend - what a pain! It's held at the state college also (Stalller Center at StonyBrook) and the tickets are expensive......the costumes cost a fortune - this is one of my pet peeves......why can't they wear the costumes again? or at least recycle them!!!!! Next year she'll be a senior, so hopefully that will be her last recital.

 

[Briar Rose 7457]

my dd's friends have their recital at the Staller Center Memorial Day weekend.

we're lucky, we have ours at a high school just a short drive from our dance studio. in fact, it's the hgih school that my dd's will eventually attend. smaller auditorium, but less pandemonium.

 

[MaryJ]

My DD has her recital the last Saturday in May. Unfortunately, she may not be able to dance. She sprained her foot in ballet class last week, and still cannot put much weight on it. She went to her solo class last night and went through the routine once, but was in alot of pain. Hopefully, much healing will take place this weekend. Next year will be her last recital; she keeps comforting herself by saying, "I can dance in my senior recital....I can dance in my senior recital." Prayers and PD for her please.

 

[Briar Rose 7457]

absolutely. if it were up to me, she will dance in her recital.

younger dd is going to limp through rehearsal tonight. she fell off her bike earlier this week and did a real number on her knees. but she'll be fine for the recital, as it's not until the 8th.

 

[DisneyHumbug]

The woman who owns my DD's dance studio is really money-hungry and has the recital in July so she can collect June's tuition. It used to be the beginning of June, but she got greedy.

 

[Briar Rose 7457]

when my dd's first starred dancing, we didn't have recitals. the former owner didn't want to be bothered and she didn't need the money. our recitals are less expensive than other dance studios, but still...

though I do love to see my dd's dance.