Paying for costumes for a dance show

[jenniepanda]

DD is 5 and her dance school is putting on a show in July. We had a letter at christmas asking for a £20 deposit for the costumes, which when I didn't pay was followed up by another letter and then a phone call to get me to pay. Then today we have been given a brown envelope with £23 written on it - the cost I am supposed to pay for one costume for the one dance she is in. Several other girls are in tap and modern classes and have been asked to pay about the same for each outfit.
Is this normal? I was involved in numerous dance shows and pantomimes and school porductions when I was younger and my parents never had to pay for any. Has the world moved on since then, or AIBU to be very disgruntled at the cost of these costumes?
I should also add that offered to help with the costumes as I love sewing, I was told I'd have to make a whole set, so am supposed to be making 13 of these dresses, however they will pay me £8 per dress!
I'm seriously considering pulling DD out of the show and finding another dance school as I just don't agree with they way they have gone about doing this.
Please help me put this into perspective!!

I had to pay £12 per ticket to watch dd's dance show. However I have in the past hired theatres and you also have to factor in the cost of the sound and lighting people. It is astronomical plus paying the teachers for the extra time to be there on the day.

We do our performances in a school hall using minimal costume and we get complaints that they are not snazzy enough compared to local dance schools/amdrams. You honestly can't win.

We have an optional extra performance troupe who took part in a show as part of a local dance festival. They wore 60's style dresses with wigs and accessories. The dresses cost me £12-15 each to buy (depending on size plus around £7 for the wig and around £3-4 for the gloves, then add VAT and postage on top.

The exact same dress sells in Matalan for £25.

If your child wants to do shows then you do have to realise that there are costs involved.

cargirl - that is a complete rip-off! The dance teacher has the costumes and she is hiring them out to you? Have I got that right?

Our dance teacher tries to ensure that you only pay for one or two costumes max (about £40 per child), the rest come from her stock or, with drama pieces, your own white t-shirt and jeans for example. Any costume you pay for, you keep.

Meant to say that this would only be for the bi-annual theatre show. Any in-between productions or prize-giving would be reusing old stuff.

I disagree hocuspocus. £10 is roughly what a local hire shop would charge. The dance teacher has to buy the costumes in the first place, clean, repair and replace them as necessary. Then store them.

Why is it a rip off?

Each year she has to buy new stuff as there aren't enough of the right sizes etc. She also gets them cleaned afterwards etc - some of these costumes are very expensive tutus etc.

She recycles as much as she can, I'd rather pay towards her having the stock than having to buy costumes for £40 and then what would I do with them - £40 x 3 children is £120!!!!

Being in the show is optional and she is by far the most reasonalable teacher in the area. She doesn't insist they do exams, lets some children move up with their friends when they want to carry on but aren't ever going to be "good" enough to do well in the exams etc. She does her best to make dancing affordable for all not just all the very wealthy who dominate this area.

But they are only being used about once a year! Not like a hire shop at all. We are obviously lucky in that our dance teacher absorbs those costs herself. The children wear a costume for 20 mins and, as there is no food and drink allowed in the dressing rooms, the likelyhood (sp?) of having to be cleaned after one wear is minimal.

I absorb the costs on the whole but the only way I am able to do this is to charge more for weekly tuition.

I have to say I have absolutely NO IDEA how your dd's dance teacher manages to ban food and drink in the dressing room. They can be stuck there for quite a while. I tried once when they were doing a very short show for charity, only at the theatre for 2 hours in total and got letters of complaint from parents complaining that it was barbaric to withold food and drink (I had specified water only unless a child had a medical reason tyo require food)

Of course they have to be cleaned. They are on stage doing a vigorous activity, they get sewaty under the lights, yuk to not cleaning them, and many are fragile so have to be cleaned professionally.

Themore reasonably priced costumes are not made to last. We once did a dance using beautiful fringe skirts, all gold and glittery, cost £50 for the material plus making them for 12 skirts but they were so fragile. To buy more hard wearing costumes more suitable for a weeks run or for competition you can double/treble the price.

They get worn at least 3 times per show - dress rehearsal and 2 shows, they get make up on them and yes yuck sweat. Very few costumes get used every show perhaps alternately at most - so that is a lot of shows to make back the £40+ purchase price. Our dance school is very up front with the costs, I get a very good siblings discount on classes, the classes are very small etc and it is very good value for money compared to other dance schools in the area.

The mind boggles if I had to buy 6 outfits at a time every time they did shows! Even if I were able to sell them and make some money back I'd still have to find a lot of money up front. The teacher even said to me if there was a problem for me to hire 6 outfits at a total cost of £45 to let her know. They are great at sourcing 2nd hand uniform etc, loaning character skirts for exams etc.

At dd's ballet school they kept costs down by designing costumes where a lot of the work could be done by parents.

cory in my day at dance school they were plain nylon type leotards and tights (pre lycra!) and the mums had to sew on different designs of sequins etc etc!

I'm not in any rush to go down that route

There is a market with our dance school for 2nd hand shoes (tap shoes anyway; ballet shoes tend to get a bit worn). I sold DD's last pair for £5 which since I bought them 2nd hand for about £8 is not bad.

Not for leotards tho really. I tend to pass these on to other mums with younger DDs.

The costumes are different every year, tho again, our school has always recycled as much as poss eg "last year's red leotard without the frill and a different headdress" etc.

If any one is still watching this thread: I am a mum of 3 who runs a Community Dance School & a dear friend of mine (also a mum & Principal of a Dance School)has made me aware of this site. We are both due to put on a show this year.
We buy our costumes from various sources (Costume websites & shops such as Primark) and we only charge parents a hire fee. This means parents don't have to fork out the full amount of a costume that will probably never be worn again.
As mums, we appreciate the cost of parenting.
There is a lot of cost involved in putting on a show: Costumes; postage; posting returns if they don't fit; programmes; tickets; makeup; venues; lighting & sound engineers; running orders etc etc. There is also a lot of unpaid work - hours & hours of it (usually in the early hours of the morning when our kids are asleep).
Please don't tar all us Dance Schools with the same brush. Shop around for a Principal with Principles. some of us genuinely want to provide a service affordable for ALL. Mx

Yes it's normal. My niece goes to a dance school and my SIL has to pay for all her costumes, Although the school are organising a sponsored walk to help pay for some costumes the girls will need for a big show coming up.