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.

DD is a 'not especially gifted' dancer who seems to get distinctions wearing freshly laundered leotard and tights and rather aged leather shoes. Her hair always looks immaculate.

DD's ballet school send the children in for exams in 2's and 3's (certainly up to grade 3). They swapped her skirt with a friend who had just been examined on one occasion. Is that an option?

Our ballet school has a Facebook group. The teacher used to operate a secondhand scheme, but I think she has decided that it is less hassle to let parents buy and sell on their Facebook pages.

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.

Yes, common sense isn't it. One school years ago used to request the children wore new satin shoes for exams, and another with ribbons in addition. Now they're more likely to wear leather and a slightly worn in (albeit fairly clean) pair!

Leather shoes are much more hard wearing than satin but they don't flatter some feet. However on my opinion what is even worse is new slightly baggy satin shoes that have been bought for growing room worn in an exam. (Ballet shoes should fit like a glove with no growing room)

Dd did her Intermediate Foundation Vocational exam in bettered, well worn split sole canvas shoes (& pointes for that section) & got Distinction. For Intermediate it's soft blocks & pointes.

ISTD here so no character skirts required but they do change uniform at different grades, one covers preprimary/primary/grade 1, the next is grade 2/3/4 I think then one other one. they wear the same uniform every week and there is a bit of cross over time after an exam before they are expected to have the new uniform if required. In cases where a lot have been outgrowing before an exam then they may all change to the new one before taking the exam or borrow other people's just to take the exam.

we are expected once they take grade 1 to have new satin shoes with ribbons for the exam but they then wear them in class afterwards so it isn't too bad. they just don't last as long. They do seem to fit my daughters a lot better than the leather ones though.

It's more about buying new and unworn for exam, it doesn't seem very sensible does it. My child wears a stretch canvas, personally. Obviously they should be close fitting, I don't know what the shops are thinking selling them with growing room.

Our RAD school forbids the use of split soles for grade classes and exams, even for the senior students. I remember there was some fuss when one of the girls wanted to wear them for inter foundation exam.

Thank you all. There is no fb page and the teacher is keen for us to buy from her and to be honest with a view of saving time from scouring ebay (3 kids, work full time) I was considering but having looked more at some of the sites you have all helpfully suggested am rebelling. The dance school is based at DDs school, so is convenient for pick ups etc but hadn't twigged the uniform costs when buying through the dance school) e.g £22 for age 10 leotard. The satin shoes for exams is interesting, because I took all my exams in leather shoes) donkeys years ago so I did query this at the time. The dance teacher said that she prefers to fit the shoes herself to avoid the baggy fit which some people mentioned, and so it was best to buy through her...

The thing is my daughter loves the classes, but will definitely scout around a bit more.....

I expect she makes a nice amount over the year selling clothes etc. The ballet school my dds attended had second hand character shoes & skirts available all the time.

The Royal Academy of Dance has a uniform requirement in order to ensure the health and safety, and fair assessment of all candidates. As has already been stated by other posters, candidates are not assessed on the uniform worn. What is most important is that candidates are comfortable, and that the examiner is able to see the dancer’s line.

We work with a number of approved manufacturers to create licenced uniform wear: Freed of London, IDS (International Dance Supplies), Mondor Canada, Bloch Australia and Little Ballerina, all of which are identified by a visible RAD logo on the products and packaging. Through working with these licensees, our primary objective is to ensure our customers have access to the official product globally, whilst also ensuring high quality and ethical standards. Both Freed and IDS have a direct to teacher sales service, which means the teacher can sell products on to their students. Teachers should seek guidance from the RAD before selling uniform to students.

The approved uniform is not mandatory. Where it is not possible to source this, suitable alternatives of the same colour and style may be worn.

I agree it's usually the dance school and specifically about the group of children being examined looking identical. I remember one year one of the girls in my older DD's group forgot her tights and the solution was for the others to remove theirs so that they all looked the same. (money for nothing for those of us who had provided the correct items )

My biggest bugbear - and one I have posted about before - is knickers. though. I think it is outrageous that 6-year-old girls are not allowed to wear knickers in case they can be seen through their tights. It is just such a poor message to be giving to young girls.

sorry. As you were.

My twins went through RAD ballet and I did not find the costs too onerous. They had pink leotards which lasted until the grade 3 exam when they had navy blue - we made the skirts earlier, with blue ribbons.

The blue lasted through grades 3 and 4 and 5, then in grade 6 we went onto mulberry. I made new skirts (and bloody good they were ) but they easily cost £35 for the materials by then as they were adult sized - they had extra buttons for them to grow into but they lasted through to grade 8. I found the long chiffon skirts a bit expensive, but I was crap at sewing chiffon so it was worth it. The long silk scarves were a bit but the ballet teacher dyed them and all the grade 6 stuff lasted till they finished at grade 8. Their friend had a hole in the leg of the leotard by the exam.

The shoes got a bit expensive as they were forever growing out of them, but I flogged most of them on. The rest of the stuff went to the local hospice charity shop so I hope someone got good wear out of them. The vocational shoes - we had to buy satin ones which was annoying as we had just bought split soles for grade 6. We went through a couple of pairs of pointe shoes but they only had time for the one exam, and the pointe shoes are most of the fun of ballet anyway.

One daughter was with another school. They had school hoodies as well and were forever doing shows and this cost a lot with the costumes and the tickets. In fact they did two shows one year, and no exams so we walked in the end.

When choosing ballet schools one of my criteria was to not have to constantly buy uniform. My daughter has done idta and istd ballet and other dance exams with three different schools and she has only ever owned two black leotards and skirts from the age of 3 to 11 as they are so stretchy (and she is quite small).
The only expense has been shoes, tap, ballet and jazz as she grows out if them or wears them out.

Thank you. I get the message that it seems to be the dance school rather than RAD. I think the problem arises because there is the assumption that parents can shop around to find a dance school which offers a uniform philosophy that works for them. The reality for me is that finding a school which offers classes on a day that suits (alongside classes my other children do) means that there is limited choice but admittedly I didn't check this out as well as I should! Expensive lesson learnt but will be shopping round extensively thanks to the hints received here. Why doesn't RAD specify that licensed uniform cannot be sold over a certain price e. G character skirts because they are sold via the approved stockists at such a high price, this has a knock on effect on second hand sales via eBay so even second hand they are going for over £12 for a skirt which only needs to be worn once. Fantastic if your dance school offers a fb page but ours doesn't.

I agree with whoever said parents can feel screened out. I do actually feel this and all my kids have done very reasonably priced hobbies so far so haven't experienced this before DD will simply have to wait for Xmas and birthday for dance related wear etc.

Why would they only be worn once? My dd's school expected them to wear their character skirt in class every week, so they got used to performing in them. Hers lasted about 6 years altogether. And her school's skirts was handmade by somebody connected to the school, they weren't ordered from official stockists at all.

I agree with Dodo, Dd wore her character skirt every week for two years.

And she has always worn knickers under her leotard for class, shows & exams. Granted they were flesh coloured high leg ones but she has never & will never go without.

Hi DD can quite happily wear her old character skirt for class but there is a need for her to have a character skirt with different ribbons for the grade three exams in a year or so time. Hence as I explained she will in reality need me to buy a new skirt (when the current one fits fine) for one days use i.e the grade three exam (whenever she takes it). So while dodo's daughter may have had a one skirt lasting many years and throughout lessons, I am expected to purchase different ones as she moves up the grades and takes the exams. She also had to take her knickers off for the exam!

Hi DD can quite happily wear her old character skirt for class but there is a need for her to have a character skirt with different ribbons for the grade three exams in a year or so time

I had similar problem. Perfectly serviceable skirt, still the correct required RAD length, but new school/grade and different coloured ribbons. I replaced the ribbons with the colour the school wanted, no problem.

We were advised to purchase nude knickers. Katz sell them, amongst others, for children.

There is UK based forum, Balletcoforum www.balletcoforum.com/forum/9-doing-dance/ which has loads of useful info for parents of dancers. It also contains a 'For Sale or Wanted' section' for dance wear. But, as a precious poster has said, there's no need for a new character skirt if it still fits - just sew new ribbons on if the old ones are truly a problem.

for one style of dancing my daughters do they need a skirt to wear in every lesson which is £65!!!!

Little kids wear a swimsuit without underwear, so I don't understand why some people think there is an issue with not wearing knickers under a leotard. You can buy flesh-coloured undies for wearing under dancewear if you want to anyway.

Whilst our uniform specifications do suggest that underwear should not be visible, they do not state that candidates should not wear knickers. The RAD places the safeguarding of children and young people at the heart of its policy making. It’s very important that candidates (and their parents) feel comfortable, and we would recommend that you speak to your teacher if you are not comfortable with any of the uniform guidance provided.

Thank you for clarifying that @RoyalAcademyofDance. My daughters attended schools following your curriculum & we were always very happy with the teachers’ professionalism.