Competition Fees?

[hellogoodbye]

Hello all,

 

I was hoping to get some feedback from any parents who do competitions.

 

This is something we're considering but what are the costs you encounter? For example what are your average competition fee entry costs, or costs per costume? I'm sure it varies, but an approximation/average would be much appreciated! 

[Balletmumof2]

This could have a lot of variants but I can tell you what we pay.

So you have an entry fee per dance which averages at about £3 per dancer per entry.

Entry fees to festivals to spectate can vary. The least I've paid is £5 and the most is £12.

Costumes are the biggest varient. I've paid between £20 and £250 per costume. You may be able to get hold of 2nd hand costumes or have them handmade. My daughters tutus have been around £150-250 and Lycra catsuits around £90. But it all depends on the costuming and if you like thing bespoke or happy to go 2nd hand or catalogue.

 

I have two daughters so my expense is pretty high. My entry fees normally total about £85 per comp. Which between them includes 9 solos, 8 duets, 4 trios, 2 troupes and 1 groupe

[BlueLou]

We have a competition this weekend - £4 per solo, £3 each dancer in a duet, £5 per day to watch. It’s quite cheap when you start and they are only doing a couple of solos, but in no time you’ll have 6 or 7 solos, duets and groups! I’m a bit of a cheapskate with costumes - mostly 2nd hand from Ebay. There are loads on there, and most have only been worn a handful of times before they are outgrown or the dancer has moved on to a new routine. I pay about £20-£30 on average for a costume, the exception being tutus! A young beginner doesn’t need a ‘pancake’ tutu, so you can get a nice enough first tutu for a dancer under 12 for about £40. But for older, more serious competitors a ‘pancake’ is a must and they start at around £200. Most dance schools recycle dance routines so sometimes it is possible to buy the costume directly from the dancer who had the routine before you, and you can sell it on afterwards within the dance school. Good luck

[Karen]

Don't forget the cost of private lessons (probably £40 - £50 per hour) and possibly accommodation and travel if you are going a distance. Obviously you can choose within personal limits here!

[sarahw]

Our private lessons are £26 ph

[Guest]

Our private lessons are £26 ph

 

Bargain!!! We pay £40 per hour private tuition, but that gets subdivided if its a duet, trio group etc. And once the dance is choreographed we try to get away with 20-30 minutes of corrections/improvements. I suspect that the price was picked because its easily divisible.

Well worth looking around for costumes - one of our most successful was a modified night dress bought in an on line sale (and it was machine washable!).The other cost, is if you need to hire halls to do your own rehearsals so avoiding endless sofa collisions at home.

Worth getting to know all the community halls in your area as again the cost can vary hugely, anything between £6 and £35 per hour.

[annaliesey]

For festivals and smaller comps it's usually around £5-7 per dancer per entry but spectators pay extra so that bumps things up

 

Costumes probably around £20-£70 on average (excluding any tutus)

 

Starpower, Destination Dance are more at around £30 per entry but you get video critiques with SP

[Loulabelle]

If I added up how much I've spent on comps over the years, I'm sure I could pay for DD to go to vocational school for a year! ????

[BlueLou]

If I added up how much I've spent on comps over the years, I'm sure I could pay for DD to go to vocational school for a year!

 

It’s always a mistake to start adding things up! It’s worse than googling your symptoms. 

[Pixiewoo]

the biggest nightmare is when they get 3 new dances at one time, AND grow out of a costume for dance they are keeping !!! ( even more of a nightmare, when the company that made the costume to our own design, says they don't use those fabrics anymore and can't/won't remake it!    only had the dance a year - DD had a growth spurt! ) that's 4 costumes I have to find for next term!

 

it costs us around £3/4 per class entry, and £5-£8 per day to watch per adult. costumes have been from £2.99 charity shop bargain dress to £80 for handmade unique design! we usually hire a local hall for a couple of hours every few weeks along with a friend to practice and add a private lesson every couple months, on top of weekly festival class.

[sarahw]

At our school those doing festivals have a weekly half hour lesson on the whole.

[straceydor]

How come our festivals and costumes are really cheap.

Custom made catsuits for a group are about £40-50 this was the most expensive

Brand new pancake Tutu was £80 only because I thought dd was worth it.

festivals solo's most expensive was £3.50 duet/Trio's £3 and troupes £2,75

Entry the most expensive was only £3

[suzysue]

Dd regularly does 4 festivals a year, the entrance fees vary, her total bill is around £60-80 (for 7 solos plus several duets, trios and groups). You can pay a small fortune on costumes but they can also be managed far more cheaply with eBay, a bit of imagination and pretty poor sewing skills!

It's the additional costs that add up, admission for parents (maybe £5 a day), travel, car parking, eating out / buying coffees and snacks. And pacifying little brother with extra data for his tablet, equivalent to his own body weight in sweets and yet more football stickers!

[PJW]

It's worth noting the difference, as Annaliesey says, between festivals and the more US style comps.

 

One we are attending later in the year is £25 per solo entry and around £10 per dancer per routine if part of a group.

 

The experiences are quite different but just be prepared for the jump in price from one to the other!

[ParentTaxi]

If there are a number of children doing festivals at the same dance school, it is worth getting your heads together - perhaps with the dance school principal - to look at ways to reduce the cost of costumes.

 

Over the years that DD has been doing festivals, our dance school has become much more organised about this. It used to be much more that individuals bought costumes, some of which were made by a mum from the dance school (though group costumes have always been hired out by the school). Over time, it has moved to being that the school keeps a wardrobe from which the vast majority of the costumes are hired (£5 per solo / duet costume, less for group costumes, a little more for tutus). The same mum now makes costumes as a part-time job, and this is paid for by specially-made new costumes being hired out at a higher rate for a couple of festivals than the 'recycled' ones. Those of us who also make the occasional costume, or have bought them in the past, can 'sell in' those costumes to the wardrobe once our own DC have grown out of them, and they are then hired out in the normal way to other DC - sometimes for the same dance if that is re-used, or for another dance fr which it is suitable. Yes, some costumes are still made outside this system - either by mums or by a local tutu-maker - but because these tend to be 'sold in' once finished with, the number of these is reducing.

 

DD currently does a LOT of dances per festival - solos, duets, trios, group dances in two age groups - but the above process keeps our costume bill down to something very manageable. I would say the total 'direct' cost of a festival for us in terms of entries + costumes + me going in for 4 days would be around £130 for her doing over 20 dances.

[Pups_mum]

It can be stupendously expensive if you let it. I know people who spend £100s on every costume, but you don't have to, and as has already been mentioned lots of costumes get sold on, either locally or on ebay, various Facebook selling groups and so on.

Things do mount up though, especially if you travel and I completely agree with suzysue that the less obvious costs like parking, the cost of food and drink etc can become significant. And yes, I have spent a great deal on compensating siblings for spending big chunks of their school holidays sat in the dark in musty theatres over the years!

Obviously you can keep costs down by things like buying costumes second hand, car sharing, taking a packed lunch and a flask instead of buying expensive coffees and lunches in cafes etc, if you are sufficiently well organised.

We enjoyed DD's festivals, and I'm glad we did it, but I'm also glad it's over if that makes any sense! It can be lots of fun, and there's plenty to learn, both about dancing and life in general, but you do need to take care that the tail doesn't start to wag the dog so to speak. It's easy to get swept up in things and end up spending a great deal of time and money on it all, especially if you commit to dances that involve other children - no problem with deciding to miss a particular festival if you only do solos, but if others are relying on your presence it's a lot different.

So do think about the time cost and cost to family life as well as the financial costs.

[Fiz]

Very good advice, Pups_mum! My dds did not do festivals but I was friendly with the mothers of two young girls who did. It turned into a treadmill and also took a toll on their marriages and family relationships. I saw both of them crying because of all the stress it produced. It had turned into a full time occupation, as if the logistics of juggling dance classes with other siblings needs were not enough!

[BlueLou]

There are definitely different approaches to dance festivals. We’ve only ever done 3 or 4 a year, which I think keeps them fun and something that both dd and I look forward to. We always try to find a nice cafe for lunch because for us it’s an occasional treat. Also, we never travel more than an hour car journey. With 3 other non-dancing children to think about I definitely wouldn’t want to do more than 4 festivals a year with my dd. Fortunately for us, our local dance school are like minded There are several dance schools I know of that compete at least once a month. To get back to the original question, the biggest impact on your overall expense (and life!) hellogoodbye will depend heavily on how many festivals a year your dance school expects you to commit to.

Edited July 15, 2016 by BlueLou

[ParentTaxi]

Meant to say - we do 3 festivals a year, those which the dance school enters dance school groups for, plus in some years the ISTD competitions (Ballet Awards, this year the Janet Cram). We wouldn't do any more.

[Guest]

The 'fun' really begins if your dc manage to qualify dances at local festivals. Suddenly you are doing regional finals a long way from home, and then you are into the realm of Premier Inn and Travelodge. And the pressure can get really bad if you let it, because suddenly there are expectations.... having said that,in the beginning my dd was young enough to be nicely distracted by the TV in the hotel room and the free biscuits.

[shygirlsmum]

We do two local festivals (both all England qualifiers) despite lots from our school gaining qualifying marks I don't know anyone who actually goes the next level. I think it's because there is such a lot going on at our school but the local festivals are definitely embraced and I have always found them to be a positive experience.

Not too expensive, a few pounds for entry (this does add up with lots of dances) costume as previous posters have said can be as much or as little as you choose to spend - groups are generally hired from school.

I actually think a week of half term activities would cost more as we would be going out to cinema/gravity etc if not at festival so I'm happy to do it.

[TooTu]

I would dread to to think what I have spent on competitions with 3 dd's. For us festival entries are between £3 - £5 per dance & approx £5 a day to watch which is reasonable but isn't long adding up with numerous dances. The U.S. style competitions which I have to say my dd's love are more expensive at usually between £25 - £35 plus it's usually extra if you want to enter any additional awards such as costume or title or if your dance goes over the time limit then you can pay for extra time. From our experience these have been between £5 - £10 to watch but we have always enjoyed the judges feedback from these. Like others have said don't forget the extras such as fuel, parking, food etc We try to bring food with us where possible to try to limit eating out where we can. Also if you travel a bit further afield there are hotel costs to consider. For costumes ours have ranged from £30 to just over £300 for tutus though we have been fortunate & been able to hire some from our dance school on a few occasions. My dd's enjoy taking part in competitions & have always found them to be a positive experience where they enjoy & look forward to meeting friends from other dance schools as well as performing their dances on stage.