Cost of ballet uniform

[Balletbore]

DD has just started ballet. She is 10, but has been doing other types of dance and is loving it. Her ballet school is great. However I am finding the cost of the RAD uniform for exams a real shock. She has just completed grade 2,so apparently this means a whole new uniform for grade 3. The character skirts if bought through the dance school are £35! And although am scouring ebay, it is difficult to find the ribbon colours required and specified by the dance school. Her leotard is v specific as well in terms of colour and doesn't often come up on eBay either. The problem is I encouraged her to do ballet as I did it for 10 years) mixture of RAD and ISTD exams which only required a black leotard, tights, shoes and a skirt loaned by the school so was reasonably cheap for my single mother to afford. Is it the RAD or the dance school which is specifying the uniform? Sorry of this is a bit naive, genuinely a bit surprised.

My Dd did ballet for 10 years, her exams were with BBO and it is the exam board that sets the uniform. We had to buy a brand new leotard and tights for the exam, even though they had to wear it for lessons all year, they had to wear a new one for the exam and then it was only worn for an hour and then they moved up to the next grade and required a new uniform! Absolute waste of money and as a lone parent I found it very expensive.

Thank you endofacentury That's awful. It reminded me that similarly DD had to have new ballet shoes for her exam (satin!) again will be worn once. It is interesting that BBO is similarly exacting (I. E not just a RAD thing).

This is why mine had to stop ballet...

Can you get anything secondhand from other dance mums? There is a notice board up at my kids' dance school selling on uniform. I agree about the sky high costs of some of the items. The character skirts are crazy! I tend to shop around online to save a few quid as the school marks things up. Having said that they don't insist on you buying a whole new uniform as soon as the kids move up a grade. You just get a new one once they've outgrown the old. Hope you can sort it out. It would be a shame for her to give up because of the uniform costs!

BBO are one of the few (only) exam boards that specify their own logo uniform.

For RAD it's usually fairly easy to find compliant uniform from other brands. The logo uniform used to be made by Freed which was a bit more pricy. There are specified RAD styles & colours (the dance school has some element of choice. The logo uniform is now available via IDS who sell to shops & dance schools direct or from the RAD themselves but most brands do non logo equivalents from places like Dance Direct.

Character skirts are a bit more pricey but are long lasting (many schools have a hand me down system).

There are NO requirements to buy new uniform for the exams. As long as it fits well & is clean. In fact my dd would never ever wear brand new shoes for an exam. They need to be worn in to be comfortable.

Most brands do a RAD copy. You really don't need the tiny RAD logo, and the exam criteria for RAD are very clear that no marks are given for uniform. Children just need to be clean and tidy. Anything else is the dance school themselves specifying. Plume do the cheapest RAD graded leotards.

Character skirts are more expensive because they're usually handmade, but most schools should have a second hand shop.

Also she must have had a character skirt for G2, there's absolutely no need for a new one for G3.

What leotard is required OP? For Grade 3 they usually move to an older style more flattering to developing girls such as a ruched front. Common colours are navy, teal

You might find more specific selling groups - perhaps second hand through the dance school or there are some FB groups you can ask to join (ballet and dance costumes type things).
When my DDs' first started I thought I had to get everything new (i.e tap shoes at £25 a pari) now I rarely pay more that a tenner for them, or more than £3 for ballet shoes...
Hope this helps a bit...

POsted too soon. Navy, teal & mulberry are popular.

Thank you for your thoughts and hints.
Was under the impression leotard etc had to be Freed. So will double check. It is one of the common colours amd is ruched. And will check out Plume, thank you!The ribbons on the specified character skirt for grade 3 are a different colour to those specified on the skirt for grade 2 and this was what made me a little grumpy. I will check out the fb groups though, so this is a great thought.

It's usually the dance school. The RAD have style of leotard requirements, type of shoes etc and a circle skirt for character, but it need not be expensive in theory (even the props are hand made by some schools).
One of my children's dance schools, for the RAD syllabus, has had its own leotard designed costing £45, the character skirts a similar price. These contain colours not available in any dance shop and can only be bought through the school. I worry this excludes people.

No, leotard doesn't have to be any particular brand. You could even make your own character skirt, if that way inclined.

Our school RAD uniform and character skirt colours are green/black just to add ( just to give example that RAD are actually quite relaxed about colours/brands it is just a guide - character skirt ribbons should complement the leotard colour).

At dd's they have to meet the rad requirements for the exam, but for lessons people just buy the next leotard when dc outgrow the current one. Or occasionally have manic uniform swooping 15 minutes before an exam. And we all tend to pass things around. Character skirts I've always been able to find cheap, despite dd being a bit odd size wise.

Dd is only a hobby dancer but other dc at hers do it at a very high level and go on to vocational schools etc so I can't believe it's just her school being overly casual.

Oh that is annoying, a new character skirt is definitely your school being awkward, the ribbons can be any colour. My school just adds a ribbon on every so often (so for example, G1 and G2 have pink and lilac ribbon, then G3 adds the dark mulberry pink and G4s add a navy ribbon). Could you add a ribbon to the existing skirt?

If you go down this route my top tip is to just stitch the top side of the ribbon. No need to stitch at top and bottom.

It is fairly common to have one set of character skirt ribbon colours that complement the Grade 1/2 leotard colour & another set of colours that complement the Grades 3-5 leotard colour but usually that means you wear each style for 2-3 years by which time it's usually been grown out of.

If your Dd has only just passed Grade 2 then it's going to be at least a year before she's ready to take Grade 3 so there is no rush to get a new character skirt yet.

Hi, we've just moved to RAD from IDTA and my DD took g2 in December. I made her character skirt. Her teacher even let me measure the ones she sells to get it matched exactly and she preferred the one I made to the fit of a lot of the other girls'! I used RAD guidance for preferred length etc.

The RAD specifically have removed the inclusion of marks for appearance. Though general impression of a group of students really should be positive, you want the examiner in the right frame of mind about their preparation and attitude! At our school, the teacher insists on brand new satins but then allows them to dance in them for class afterwards so it's not entirely wasted. There's definitely no insistence on new leotards, just smart, clean ones. I wouldn't be happy to buy a leo for one exam. I do buy new tights though. Her teacher is very reasonably priced on the uniform leotard - her RAD approved leo for g2 was £12 (Bloch)

• so i don't mind rhe new one for each grade.

I find Bloch leotards are good quality & better fitting than Freed.

So I believe that the uniform requirements from the RAD are actually pretty flexible, but individual schools can be a lot more demanding.

If the character skirt still fits, then I'd let her keep that for a bit, she may grow out of it (height-wise) before she actually needs to do the exam, in which case it would be a waste to buy a new one now and need another one in a year.

You can buy RAD compliant uniform from Dance Direct for much less money, and they do a cheaper character skirt too (although it isn't as nice as the official one).

Do you have any friends with a dancing DD who is a similar size to your DD, they could 'share' a character skirt if they don't do the exam at the same time.

The RAD website has a lot of information about uniform for each grade, and other guidelines for exams, and it specifically states that candidates are not marked on the uniform worn.

The only thing necessary is that for the character section they do need character shoes (and a character skirt for girls), and for certain higher-level exams girls have to wear a particular sort of ballet shoe (flat, demi-pointe or pointe) and chiffon skirt or tutu.

However, most teachers prefer all their students to wear the same style of uniform, as candidates go into the exams in groups. There are a lot of leotard suppliers, which all do the correct style and colour. You don't have to wear a specific make, as long as it is the correct style for the grade.

We found that DD never had to buy new character shoes, there were always people at the dance school selling outgrown ones cheaply, and the shoes take years to wear out. Some of the ones we had were 3rd/4th-hand. Character skirts are expensive but again, there is usually someone willing to sell an outgrown one. DD changed dance schools at one point and didn't have the right colour ribbons on her skirt, so she borrowed someone else's for the actual exams.

If you go on the Dance Direct website, they have most brands and exam wear sections, and currently have a sale on!

www.rad.org.uk/documents/exam-docs/RAD_Specification_2018_12_Dec_2017_ex.pdf

RAD specifications are here and permitted uniform is not especially onerous - many colours, some across the whole of grades 1-5.

Hopefully the school can be flexible though I’m aware they aren’t always!

RAD set the uniform but the school decides how they administer this: whether to provide loan/hire for exams etc.
The RAD uniforms are made in the UK by Katz Dancewear: they have amazon and ebay pages as well as having their own website. They will be cheaper than buying from a shop.

I'm relieved that my daughters' dance school is very laid back about uniform for the upper grades. Years ago, pre-primary and primary were pink leotards then grades 1-5 were royal blue. My 2 NEVER wore brand new leotards - the best I did was wash them. We were given cast-off character skirts by a friend as as long as the ribbons did not clash with the leotard, it was fine.

At grade 6, DD1 really fancied a bright purple leotard, which I duly ordered. The dance school was fine about it, but said that her chiffon skirt and silk scarf had to match. It took me ages to track down someone who could make her the skirt. I tie-died the scarf (and I'm very proud of the results). Dozy child left the skirt and scarf at home, only realising once she was getting changed. She borrowed the teacher's daughter's skirts & scarf which were black and managed a merit.

Their dance school really doesn't like satin shoes, so we have always gone for leather. As another poster states, you need to wear them in so they are a good comfy fit before the exam. The only thing I buy new is tights because I can never get them to look pristine once they have been worn a few times. The first satin shoes I bought were pointe ones and those are not cheap. However, as both did not start pointe until their feet stopped growing, I got off fairly lightly.