"proper" ballet mums - RAD uniform....or not

[stealthsquiggle]

DD does ballet lessons as an after school activity (ballet teacher comes to school) which means, amongst other things, that they are pretty laid back about uniform for lessons because no-one is there to faff around with neat hair etc - they get changed by themselves which means DD's leotard is on back to front more often than not.

Anyway, they are going to do Grade 1 Class Award in the summer (they did the preliminary one last year sometime) and she needs new leotard etc for it.

How bad would it be to get this one from Dancing Daisy instead of this one which, even adding the belt on separately from Dancing Daisy, is twice the price?

Is it absolutely not the done thing and will she and I get castigated for the fact that it doesn't have £10 "worth" of RAD badge on the back?

JulieMichelleRobinson I am not complaining. As the mother of dancers I am more than happy to pay for a decent accompanist as it can make a big difference.

And you sound more than reasonable in what you are charging. I believe our regular pianist charges approx £45 an hour. And we provide her with a lunch!

I wasn't complaining about cost of accompanists either! I was actually assuming that it was the ballet school that took the opportunity to take some profit from the whole exercise that made the "surcharge" so (relatively) high, rather than the accompanist was being decently paid. I don't really mind that either, TBH, but it does rankle slightly that it is phrased as "to help to cover the costs of the hall and accompanists" as I am sure it does a lot more than help.

I expect that some of it also goes towards the not inconsiderable amount of tiresome and complex entry administration that the dance teacher has to do, particularly in a school with a large number of students taking the exam.

There is also a fairly high charge from the examining body which the school would have to pay if there are fewer than a certain number of candidates.

they also have to pay charges if entries aren't in by a certain number of weeks before the exam for some boards but equally they can get discounts if exams are held at unpopular times. It is surprisingly complicated I have discovered.

There is a very fierce warning about the deadline and the fact that late entries won't be accepted on our letter!

...I am off on a chequebook hunt now so that I can send the blooming thing off before I forget (again)

As quite a few people have mentioned, the RAD logo is NOT compulsory. In fact none of the RAD uniform is compulsory, as long as what the children wear adheres to the guidelines. I say go ahead and buy the cheaper leotard. All companies make their budget leotards to match the colour and style of the regulation exam gear anyway, so I doubt the teacher would even notice.

Stumbled on this as have just entered the dancing world (lol) with my 3 year old. She does tap but they are all going for their ballet nursery award at the weekend! So suddenly needed to find leotard, ballet socks etc AND learn how to put hair in a bun (kill me now!) Got pink leotard from Dancing Daisy today and it is HUGE so going back, and socks look an awful bright peachy coloyr (she has pink shoes, all the rest in the class have white aargh). No time for an exchange and can't afford the regulation leotards with mark up at local dancewear shop so off to Sainsbugs where they have put a couple aside for me. However I have been told the leotards should be cotton and the Sainsbury ones look like mainly lycra - what should I do??? Should I be getting this stressed over her first nursery award???

Which exam board is it?

White shoes are unusual, mostly used by boys!

With the ballet shoes, just tie the ealastic in a bow, tuck under top of shoe and Sellotape into place. It takes care of the ealastic nicely.

The ealastic drawstrings, that is...