to be horrified at what we are expected to fork out for all things Ballet Christmas show related?

[emkana]

costume £ 33

finale t-shirt £8

Tickets to see show £8 each

DVD of show £20

No YANBU if it is your first ballet show!!

It is very hard to say no to the kids, and to be fair, DD who has done two shows now, has watched the DVD many times, and danced along to the other dances, that I thought it was worthwhile.

But it is a lot of money to outlay on top of the lessons, and the uniform and shoes!

Have you done any exams yet, as they can be pricey as well - £9 each as well as the cost of the lesson, and new socks and shoes so they looked neat!!!!

My nieces costumes are a little higher in price, plus they have photos which are expensive as well as dvd - can cost over £1-- for ballet alone never mind the other classes she does

this is the reason i wasn't too sad when dd wanted to give it up after a few months I was that they want you to buy a skirt etc etc just for one show, surely they can have some that they can re-use or hire

£9 for an exam? I wish! dd1s exam is costing me £32 and she is due to take tap and modern ones as well-I need a second job!

Thanx for starting this thread - echoes my own thoughts... but I am more incensed/resigned to the money making ethos and exploitation behind it all.

Yes the kids enjoy it, yes the dressing up/ makeup is fun but I'm expected to pay for £45 worth of costume to be used for a week, (i know someone who had to fork out £400... yes you read it right... for various costumes), the extra lessons, etc.

Personally I think its time parents wised up to the money making nature of many (NOT ALL) dance schools. Harsh maybe but also fair

change school! DD's ballet teacher provides all the costumes for shows and tickets are usually £5 each but there's only been one big show in 4 years. The rest are small end of term productions which the parents are invited to free. Fees are £30 per half term so she's not raking it in from fees to pay for costumes either. I couldn't afford those sorts of prices and DD would have to give it up.

YANBU to be shocked at how much this is going to cost you, but it does seem to be standard practice.

Dancing is my DD's only extra-curricular activity (and not surprising at that kind of cost) but the enjoyment and experience she's had from doing the show does make me feel like the cost is worthwhile.

Although it is a lot of money, dd1 does get a lot out of it. It has done her confidence no end of good and she has good posture and moves gracefully (most of the time). She has been dancing for 5 years and is doing her first professional panto this year which will be a great experience for her - teach her what hard work is!

I don't think they are actually trying to rip people off, well not the majority of dance schools anyway. My dd belongs to quite a few dance schools or varying kinds. They all charge for costumes, unless of course they have some left over from a previous show which fit all the children (very unlikely). My dd's summer show costumes came to £180, and she wasn't in that many dances, plus new ballet shoes, ribbons, socks, hair bits and bobs, tickets, food for all the performances, parking for three performances (as i had to stay) and of course extra rehearsals/lessons for months before hand..... But......she so enjoyed the whole experience and we all regularly watch the dvd and it will be lovely to look back on. There is the option that dd didn't have to do the show but she really wanted to.
Her other dance school doesn't spend so much on outfits for the show and if i am honest it shows, the performances never look quite so professional even though the standard of dance is probably better.

i was shocked when we had DDs first show, was £12 fir dress, £20 dvd, £5 photo, and tickets were £11 each and they even charged full price for SGK son who was 4 weeks at the time

I think these prices must make it impossible for lots of children to take part and that's a shame. Thank God for DD's fab ballet teacher who has a loft full of costumes and always one to fit everyone. She has hundreds, been running a school for many years.

Our stage dance school rips people off. They provided children appearing in the previous Joseph production in the West End. They charged the children the price of the coach to take them up to the theatre and for insurance, I think they were in it 2 or 3 times a week for quite a long run and the children got paid nothing, although I suspect the school got paid.

My DD did panto when she was younger and after a six week run + one week of rehearsals were given a £15.00 gift voucher. That did not cover transport or drinks or meals between shows. She is now in a professional panto and for the first time is being paid, and she has a lead role.

Oh good, a place to rant! I'm feeling exactly the same at the moment. Not only was I horrified that tickets for the show were $35 each (about 15 pounds!!!), I would expect to buy the costume for what I have to pay to hire it and the dvd is also about 22 pounds. The icing on the cake was at the "dress rehearsal" when the teacher started on about the fact that they HAVE to do 2 classes next year to do the exams - they're 5 ffs!!!! I couldn't give a fig about the exams, but DD might if everyone else is doing them.

YANBU, but this is actually quite normal at any ballet school that I know of.

last years costume fee's etc for my 5 were over £400!!

this year will be cheaper however, the boys have opted out of dancing now as they seem to find that beavers and cubs fulfil their needs better.

so many mums at the dance school complain about the price of the shows..........but al dance schools that I have heard of charge either at shows, or their fee's for just the dance classes are double the fee's we pay (IYGWIM)......ie, they pay nothing for the shows (bar tickets and DVD's), but pay extortionate termly fee's for lessons.

we pay a minimal amount for costume hire for shows (most I can remember was around £30 for 5 costume changes for DD1), show tickets are between £5-£8 (depending on if you go to the dress rehearsal, or the "proper" show), termly fees are £36 per half hour class, and exams are around £15 each (which includes any costume hire - we do team exams as well as individual ones, so they need to look the same). Admittedly it does add up (am not thinking about how much this term has cost as they all grew over the holidays so needed new shoes, leotards etc), but not all ballet schools are horrendously expensive money-making businesses.

I knew there was a reason for choosing an uptight ballet school that doesn;t do shows...

My cousin has a wardrobe full of costumes from when she did her stage school shows from when she was about 2 to 17 and they were about £20 per costume per scene. The stage school made the parents buy new costumes each show. It's part and parcel of the training sadly, that parents have to stump up constantly but it does seem silly that some costumes can't be carried over from year to the next. If the parents didn't pay for the costumes, it would probably be uneconomical to put on the shows as the ticket prices would have to go up.

Christy, the school would NOT have got paid for Joseph. The school would have been expected to rehearse the kids, get them there and provide chaperones, all for nothing.

I am being asked to do similar for a touring production of another show and it is going to cost us a fortune, but the kids will have a wonderful experience.

The school wasn't paid for Joseph, i heard that from someone involved in the production, its kind of how it goes!
Although i pay loads for outfits, tickets,dvds etc., etc., i do know that the school has made a loss from dance shows in the past. The teachers just want to put on a show, they hire a town centre theatre, so the children have that wonderful experience and so that the parents can enjoy seeing all that their children have learnt over the monts/years