Dance show tips.

[Maiden247]

My DD is taking part in her 1st big dance show next week. She has performed before but only been in one or two numbers and not had costume changes. For this show she is in 8 dances, with 6 costume changes. Today was a dress rehearsal and for all I told her to put everything in her bag as she takes it off she ended up with stuff all over, and missing a jazz shoe and a ballet sock (luckily found them at the end). Can any fellow dance mums please give me any advice/hints/tips on what we could do to help her keep everything organised and do quick costume changes easily. Thank you in advance.

You can get her a flesh coloured body suit to make costume changes easier if you want. Ours always had military organisation so it is just a question of doing as they are told and if they need the loo, asking in plenty of time so a loo trip can be slotted in between the ebb and flow of the running schedule.

Name all the shoes, socks and tights if you haven't already, and everything else that you can. People are usually pretty good at labelling school shoes but it's amazing how many unnamed ballet shoes can be shed by 30 girls kicking around in a room together for a few hours. We try to instigate a rule that any shoes or socks they take off need to go straight in their bags.

Oh and ours are told to have each pair of shoes in a named seethrough sandwich bag. It helps keep them clean and easy to identify their owner. But if no one else is doing that, it might just add complication.

Thank you @elstreeviaduct

Thank @ElstreeViaduct

Name everything. Send her with a clear plastic crate rather than a bag to put her stuff in.

Clear plastic crate, name everything, if it’s anything like our dance shows which some of the mums all pitch in and help backstage, things get pretty hectic with costume changes especially if we could be responsible for half a dozen girls with half a dozen costume changes, Some in different dances so timing is of the absolute essence, we do our absolute best for nothing and there’s nothing more annoying than a mum who doesn’t help complaining about how the costumes are received back after each rehearsal/show, maybe they are not hung as they were received or we have popped them in the box and not on the hanger, obviously we try our absolute best not to lose anything which normally does turn up if named, not saying this is you but there are mums out there!

Great idea. Thank you.

Clear plastic box, everything folded in the order it is required and costume put at the bottom as it is removed.
Learning the order of the numbers and therefore the order of the costumes.
Everything named and as mentioned before clear plastic sandwich bags.

How old is she? At my DD's dance school shows we have parent helpers who would help the younger ones and keep an eye on the disorganised ones.

Bag labelled for each routine with costume (inc any accessories), shoes and legwear (socks/tights) in.

Label everything with her name. Really, everything. Things get mixed up in the chaos busyness backstage and it can be impossible to match things up with the name.