cost of private dance lessons

[Strix]

If your child takes dance, and participates in festivals, please tell me what you pay for the private lessons to prepare for the festival.

Ours has just gone up to £20 per 30 minute lesson and I am struggling to accept this price as reasonable, considering each festival requires some 12 - 15 private lessons.

So what do you pay?

[seeker]

What sort of dance and what sort of festival?

[CaptainNancy]

Wow! Is that 0ne-to-one?

[Strix]

She takes tap, modern, ballet. And at the last festival was entered for a character and a tap dance. There is talk of adding ballet as well for the next festival. All of these require a series of private lessons to prepare.

The festivals are similar to www.slough-arts-festival.co.uk/page7.html.

[heronsfly]

My dd has the odd private lesson in ballet before an exam or festival, they have just gone up to £25 for 30 mins, we usually try and share if poss.
And half the time the lesson is a bit short because of teacher getting caught by =pushy= parents, makes me so cross.

[Strix]

Yes, the private lessons to prepare for festival are one-to-one. I think this is usual among dance schools. So I am trying to find out what other people pay. As I think the hike up to £20 is a tad excessive. But, maybe it is the going rate. I figured if anyone knows, MN will.

[heronsfly]

I still cant do the crossing out thingy,sorry.

[Strix]

Ah... £25. Bugger. I was hoping mine was totally unreasable. Perhaps not.

When your daughter enters festivals, how many dances does she do? And how old is she?

[heronsfly]

She is 14, has danced since two and a half.
She has only danced ballet in festivals as solos,although has done some groups in modern and street.
Im not really a 'festival mum' some of them spend whole weekends there,as some children enter every catagory I struggle enough with the fees as it is, Im in south east kent, and paying approx £340 a term, and thats without exams, shoes ect

[Themumsnot]

£20 sounds quite reasonable for a one-to-one 30-min lesson. I am wondering though how old your DD is and if you feel under pressure to enter her in these festivals. 12-15 private lessons sounds a bit over the top. My three DD's go to a dance school which enters groups into the festivals but normally not individuals unless they have a particular category they are desperate to enter - usual this is the teenagers who are keen to choreograph their own dances etc. I don't think they would have anything like 12-15 lessons to prepare though. My DDs are aged 13, 11 and 8 and they would normally just have one rehearsal lesson over and above their scheduled class to prepare for a group dance in a festival.

[heronsfly]

I agree mumsnot, that sounds like us, my dd only enters the occasional ballet number, and dances in the group entry.
But, our dance school also insists on a lot of private lessons for festival children, because only a handful enter, so they cant devote any real class time to festival work .

[seeker]

Hang on a minute.

12-15 private lessons - that's about 7 hours one-to-one to prepare for a Festival? at a cost of 250-odd quid? I've never, ever heard of anyone doing so many private lessons before a festival. Are you sure they aren't ripping you off?

[Strix]

She is 8. Started festivals when she was 6. We do two or three lessons before the festival for a dance she already knows, and anywhwere from 7 - 10 lesson for a new dance (depending on difficulty).

I think three festival dances (especially considering all the preparations) for an 8 year old is too much. And, we have other things to consider like music lessons, homework, playdates (she is only 8!).

It sounds like £20 per lesson is actually a fair price. And the problem is perhpas the number of classes lessons. So, now, can I have your thought on this lesson/class schedule. This is what is proposed for summer term:

Modern class
Tap class
Ballet class
Private lessons for festival dances
Another ballet class which is only for festival children

Other activities (which I am not prepared to give up):
music lessons (once a week)
Kip McGrath (once a week)

Overall I feel it is too much. Are other young dancers expected to do all of this?

[heronsfly]

Im not sure, my dd is older and dances every day but sunday, and even that has the odd festival ect,although we may think again when gcse work really kicks in next year.
When she was 8 I think her timetable was similar to yours,although she did 3 ballet classes at that point.
She is very dedicated, and her school work has never slipped because of dancing,but she has never taken part in any other after school activities even though she would have liked to,so if the dancing is very inportant to your dd,maybe she could drop the others to give her some free time.

[Strix]

She's not dropping Kip McGrath because that is to help her with school (English). And she isn't dropping her instrument because that aids in math skills. I'm happy to support dance and encourage her when she needs it (i.e. when she doesn't win anything at a festival), but I draw the line when dance infringes on her schoolwork. We did drop tennis a couple of years ago.

[elphabadefiesgravity]

At dd's dance school it is about £23-£25 per HOUR for festival coaching. And I think that only a few lessons are required for preparation. Dd does not do dance festivals.

I know it is a bit different but I provide coaching for speech & drama festicals at a rate of just under £12 per half hour lesson. However only about 6 10-20 minute lessons (depending on whether it is poetry or monologue) are needed for preparation.

[elphabadefiesgravity]

To answer you question about are other dancers expected to do this - no. At dd's highly regarded dance school festivals are optional. Dd does ballet, tap and modern, not many of the younger students compete. The older ones do but they pick up choreography very quickly.