Is £16 per person to attend a ballet school end of the year show too expensive?

[user1494283706]

How much would you be prepared to pay per person to see your four years old dance at her ballet end of the year show?
My daughter's ballet school is charging £16 per ticket for a 1 hour 15 minutes show where each age group/grade will dance 15 minutes each.

@Dancergirl And batons!

I always wanted to be a majorette as a child!

Rehearsals for those willing to participate should be separate from the regular lessons!

Well this is a good idea and all very well, but how many dance schools would have slots available in their timetable to effectively double the number of classes for a term? Most won't have the facilities to do that. Also, how many parents would be willing to pay double the amount of money for these additional classes?

In any case, the youngest (under 5's - including your dc) are simply not up to performing for more than a couple of minutes. Half of them won't remember what they have been asked to do or what they are there for, and quite a few won't even know to face the audience when they are on stage. It is a very daunting thing for them to do, and most won't be capable of doing much once they're up there. At that age it's like herding cats and the most you can hope for is that they can hop skip & jump around a bit looking cute.

@dodobookends, in that case, the under-five should be allowed to watch the show and learn from it instead of being locked in a changing room for two hours.

You need to take that up with the dance teacher. Being stuck in the dressing room for most of the performance is part and parcel of appearing on stage, by the way. So is wearing a crappy costume.

And it isn't much fun for the volunteer chaperones backstage who have to look after the tinies - I've done it numerous times and it's a thankless nightmare!!

At the school my dd was at when she was small, the little ones were in the first half, and could either stay to watch the 2nd half in the auditorium or be collected in the interval and go home. The trouble with that on matinees was that some would leave and then not bother to turn up for the evening show.

Under 5's are generally not permitted in theatre audiences, but usually dance schools try to make an exception to that rule.

@dodobookends Under 5's were permitted in the theatre audience. There were even babies in the audience.
My DD was only on the matinee show and not the other two shows.
I did take it with the head of the school, and her reply was to go somewhere else if I am not happy, she even suggested not bothering to bring my DD back to lessons. I stood up to her and said my DD will attend the remaining paid lessons but will not return the next term.
Since my initial post, I did enrol my child in another ballet school with high standard and reviews, which coincidentally happens to recently be getting all the ballet dancers from my DD present school.
I was asked what was happening. Why were the students leaving the school? I said nothing, but apparently, I am no the only unhappy parent.