Help! Overpriced ballet outfit

lostinrates

Honestly, i do agree the mark up is too high, but i do wonder if the other costs (and there should be profits too) of putting on a show will be considerd. Out side class time the teacher is thinking of coreography and the show...the work and stress of these things isn't small, even, or maybe espacially for a small school/ self employed teacher.

As an older student, in teens, i was asked to help a selfemployed teacher who had connnections where i learnt, and a teacher from our place helped her with a couple of other students from my school. The pressure on the SE teacher was immense. Each parent understandably was putting their kid first, many seemed alarmed if the teacher was treating them as a group not their child and the rest. The children get edgy and excited too....performance is a leRning experience, fun but also stressful....usually in a good way. Very few little dance school expect the rigour of professionalism that one would get somewhere more geared to children working im performing arts, but the stresses are nevertheless present and not lesser
I think. The time the parents pay for is not the only time the teacher will be working on this, and that is part of her business cost.

Its easy to say it took a few minutes to find the one costume, the teacher might have spent time choosing costumes too...so more time than just searching for one. Again, i do not say the mark up is fair, just the the costs in finding it are possibly being underestimated.

I think in tis situation i think the advice of 'granny already bought it' is probably the best and most tactful.

lbeaton

jenhug wrote: »

The thing is, if she had put say a fiver on each costume to make a little extra, then you would probably have swallowed the cost. But to almost TRIPLE the cost is just ridiculous. I'd say sorry nanny has already bought one the same and leave it at that.

I agree, I would have paid a little more but 3x is just excessive. I don't think it's right for us to be subsidising the older girls - their outfits will be more elaborate and they may even have more than 1, which is reasonable for £35 whereas our tiny tutu and hair and for the same price, not such a fair deal

balletshoes

lbeaton wrote: »

I tried that in a really nice way. I even asked whether tights and shoes would be included to justify the cost - but it was a resounding no! She replied with a long rambly text saying how time consuming organising the show is for her and how she has all these additional costs of buying samples, sending them back if poor quality or not suitable, and added to that the extra costs and stresses of guaranteeing that the costumes will be available for all the girls and not sold out. Then she said she was balancing the costs and making it £35 across the board for all stages, and told me to remember that my daughter will benefit from her system when she is older!

It's such a dilemma for me, I really hate causing conflict but I really feel I should take a stand this time, otherwise the costs will go up and up and she'll walk all over us like this every year.

thing is though, even £35 for an older girls costume is too much for one outfit, as far as I'm concerned. Most of my DD's outfits are well under £25. I think your ballet teacher is marking your card, and maybe thats a good thing, time to look around for another school (phone around and don't be afraid to ask how often/if they do their shows, and how much you'd be expected to pay for a 3-year olds show costume, roughly). The show is a major part of a lot of dance schools calendars, so its best to be prepared.

jenhug

my daughters dance school have a 50p a week kitty for costumes, the rest of it is subsidised by the dance teacher. but her mum helps a lot with sewing and she is good at recycling costumes too.

I don't see why she should charge you for returning items she doesn't like.

peachyprice

lbeaton wrote: »

Then she said she was balancing the costs and making it £35 across the board for all stages, and told me to remember that my daughter will benefit from her system when she is older!

Ok, here's a question to ask her. Are all the children being charged a flat £35 regardless of how many dances they are in?

As they get older and start doing the higher grades and perhaps also modern and tap they will have more than one part in the show, if it's still only £35 even if your child has 3 costume changes then yes, if your DD stays you will definitely benefit when she is older! If you'd be expected to pay 3 x £35 she's the only one who will benefit.

sassyblue

I'd tell her granny has bought the outfit and take it along with you, see how your little one looks alongside the others... if it is the same there's your answer. If not l'd think again about buying hers especially if your daughter's going to be on stage in it at some point.

If she moans at that, l'd tell her l respect her credentials in ballet but l cannot afford nor justify paying 3 times the normal price for the outfit.

If she gets arsey, be arsey back, she's not being fair. Let the other mums be sheeples if they want to waste £20.

peachyprice

lostinrates wrote: »

Honestly, i do agree the mark up is too high, but i do wonder if the other costs (and there should be profits too) of putting on a show will be considerd. Out side class time the teacher is thinking of coreography and the show...the work and stress of these things isn't small, even, or maybe espacially for a small school/ self employed teacher.

These costs should be covered by the ticket sales though, not by parents.

The last show DD's school did was in the West End in the same theatre as Phantom, it was a phenomenal show and an experience of a lifetime for the girls. The downside was the tickets were expensive £25-£30 IIRC, but that paid for all the other costs involved in putting on the show, parents only paid cost price more or less for the costumes and with their time chaperoning etc.

lostinrates

peachyprice wrote: »

These costs should be covered by the ticket sales though, not by parents.

The last show DD's school did was in the West End in the same theatre as Phantom, it was a phenomenal show and an experience of a lifetime for the girls. The downside was the tickets were expensive £25-£30 IIRC, but that paid for all the other costs involved in putting on the show, parents only paid cost price more or less for the costumes and with their time chaperoning etc.

I hVe lost two replies now, third time lucky!

lostinrates

Ok, now its posting i'll try again.

I agree, tickets should cover costs...in a succesful business. Who knows that is what is happening here?

While the west end venue would have had bigger production costs, ticketing would have been more, and as you say, quite an experience! Parents and grandparents were probably attending proudly.

Part of the reason we were asked to help as teens was to impress upon us the gritty reality of performing arts teaching for a living. That show was out a village hall in outer suburbia, and for girls well used to getting read for bigger productions we all found it exhausting and draining in a small cramped space and our teacher, the proper teacher and three of us helping...mums came, a couple of dads and a few grannies. Costs were smaller, but so was takings.

It might be that this model of charging for costume aand ticket and classes has worked for this teacher and previous dancers. Op suggests its worki for most now but her and one other mum. They might fond the way things work at a different school better, or be able to buy their own cistumes with a bit of tact and cheek in balance.

Some have suggested the cost to the parents shouldn't cover a profit and costs...like choosing, returning etc...but those are the teachers business costs. Imo its silly to mark up on costumes at that sort of rate when parents can check...but who knows....maybe she has fewer students now...people say they are stopping so manyextra curriculars, maybe she really does need to meet business costs and has tried this. Agian, i think its Rather foolish, and she may just be very greedy, we don't know and op probably cannot know either.

My comments are really about business costs and expectations of parents. ....she Should me making a profit on these events...how she does that best depends on her clientele and her business model.

duchy

I may be slightly biased as I was expelled from ballet school at the age of 2 for inattention :rotfl::rotfl:

However-it seems to me that you have three choices as the other Mums don't want to rock the boat or are Sheeple

1 Find another ballet school and vote with your feet

2 Keep up the arguement and it'll probably impact on your daughter

3 Bite the bullet and accept in the long run the way she does it is MSE as when you daughter is older she'll be paying less than the going rate -Of course that's assuming ......
The ballet school stays open and Doesn't close (retirement, ill-health, injury etc -how old is the teacher ? Not to mention recession-ballet lessons are expenable luxuries to many families when jobs are lost.)

Your daughter continues with ballet -she's 3 -can you really be sure she'll want to do ballet for the next say ten years ?

Your circumstances don't change so that you can't afford classes or if a work promotion meant you needed to move.

Personally I'd tell her to stuff it as she's making some BIG assumptions that you will want to stay with her school and are prepared to subsidize her older pupils . What happens if a new and better school opens nearby -are you going to stay with this school just to get your money back later on in costumes ?

From a business viewpoint the customers getting a subsidy should be the little ones anyway. They at this point don't have the commitment and if they didn't continue -there's little emotional or financial investment lost whereas at say 10 or 13 the children have spent years and a lot of money on dancing so it's a harder and more ingrained thing to step away from. Many of the little ones would probably enjoy baton twirling, swiiming, gymnastics etc just as much and wouldn't miss it the way the older more committed students would.

In times of expansion her idea might have some basis in business sense-in time of recession it doesn't. She's alienating the customers she should be trying to build loyalty with by blatently overcharging them-Her older students have a history with her so to some degree she can rely on their loyalty (and charge them more) but there isn't a limitless number of toddlers coming into the business at the moment as so many people are watching the pennies. Dance school rely on students investing time -and getting to the point they love it so much they couldn't bear to give it up-students who are not at that point of investment (money and emotion) need to be nutured and encouraged -otherwise they'll just go off and find another activity

Perhaps she should set her sights a little lower in the lavishness of the shows and cut her cloth according to the means of those covering her costs.

After all Sky TV don't charge me 3 times the price for my TV now on the understanding that if I'm still with them in seven years time I can get it for a bit less than whatever the future price is going to be.......but only if I stay with them -even if my box breaks down or I move house or don't like any of their programmes anymore etc..

Jam tomorrow isn't a bad business model but it's a rubbish consumer one !!!