Just curious, do any of your studios have to pay for competition practice, right before a competition, or does the SO just set up practice times for the kids to be there.

I worked for a SO a while back who charged for any rehearsal time before competition,

Our competition dancers practice each of their dances for one hour a week. It is paid for as a regular class. We don't have time in the schedule for any *extra* practices besides what we do in their competition class/rehearsal each week.

There are additional practices, but the SO just sets them up.

We have a strictly competition practice on the first saturday of every month, and the students pay an additional $20 on top of their tuition to take care of this.

On this practice day we only run dances over and over again, we never add new parts or make drastic changes we run them over, and over and over again!

At the studio where I teach now, the SO does not charge for competition rehearsals but reminds everyone that she is doing this for free and still has to pay her instructors. However, if I get an extra hour of pay for these "rehearsals" it is a shock. The kids and parents appreciate the extra help for the most part so I can't really complain too much. Although there are always those few that feel differently....

At my studio, I never schedule extra rehearsals before comps no matter what. To me, as the instructor/SO, that tells my parents that I did not do my job in class getting their kids prepared for competition. If that truly were the case, and I felt forced to call an extra rehearsal, I would not charge for it, as it's essentially my fault that it's needed in the first place!

We are strictly a competitive team so all of our classes are revolved around their competition routines.

Our mascots are divided by age. Our 3 yr olds practice one day for 45 minutes and our 4 year olds practice one day for 45 min.
Then they have a dance together which practices another day for 30 min.

Our first graders practice for an hour twice a week doing one dance on one day and the other on the second day.

Our elementary team which is grades 3-4 practice two days a week for 1 1/2 hours each day. They do 4 routines.

Our intermediate team grades 4-6 practice two days a week for 1 1/2 hours each day. They do 4 routines.

Our Junior team grades 7-9 practice two days a week for 1 1/2 hours each day. They do 4 routines.

Our senior team grades 9-12 practice two days a week for 1 hour each day. They do 5 routines. (very advanced girls)

We also have officer groups in the elementary and intermediate level that practice two days a week for an hour each day. They do 3-4 routines.

All of our practices are spent working on these dances. Getting them cleaned, polished and perfected!!!

Our competition season does not start until the end of January. When we come back from Christmas break we have GYM practices which is where we rent a gym from a local middle school and have our practices at the gym to get our markings on the floor and entrances and exits. We do not dance on a stage, we dance on gym floors. When we have these practices it costs a lot of money to rent the gym so the SO charges everyone a fee for how many ever dances a student is in. These are not extra practices, but just something that we have to do to get our markings on the floor so the girls know where to go on the floor. The judges look for spacing and things like that compared to the lines on the floor.

We do have one extra practice that is mandatory on MLK day. It is at the gym as well. We use it as a show off day where the parents can come and we start from the babys all the way to the big girls and they show off team dances, solos, trios, quartets, ensembles, and officers. We occassionally have extra practices if needed, but rarely need them.

Each parent also pays a small extra fee during competition for the instructors to run through the dances and remind them of things before they dance. Our instructors get paid to go to competition. This is per request of the parents not instructors. The parents get really upset if they don't get a run through before they dance. This includes teams, solos, trios, quartets, ensembles and officers.

yes, crazy, I know!!!!

I am similar to love2tchdance. I have mostly competition girls and these girls learn, practice, and perfect their routines all year. That is what we work for during the year. I don't have any special time or special days. I figure by the time competitions come around, we are prepared and ready. No additional time is needed.

Any rehearsal time should be just like any other paid class. I paid the teachers, therefore they paid for rehearsal.

I had a teacher, once, call a rehearsal and she said she would do it for free. I said no way. They pay and she gets paid or they will look for free again and again.

I also added $5 to each competition fee for each dance the dancers were performing to cover some costs of being at competitions. They were aware of this, too.

Gardentoes11 wrote:

At my studio, I never schedule extra rehearsals before comps no matter what. To me, as the instructor/SO, that tells my parents that I did not do my job in class getting their kids prepared for competition. If that truly were the case, and I felt forced to call an extra rehearsal, I would not charge for it, as it's essentially my fault that it's needed in the first place!

I agree with you a little but...class time should be used for technique and fine tuning. Not choreography. I do a lot of outside rehearsals because I want class time to make them stronger. How can they become better dancers if they are always doing choreography in class?

A well-trained company or team must learn from classes and technique, then they can learn their routines fast. We did five ballets per year. They had a few weeks of rehearsals before the ballet. These were full-blown ballets. People would ask how they could learn so fast and we would say that they know how to dance already so they should be able to pick up new dances fast.

Also, working on stuff that they do not do well yet, is something I see a lot in competitions. When I have judged such dancers I tell the teachers, rather than rehearsing new dances so much, have them spend more time in class just learning to dance well.

But, sometimes a last minute rehearsal is in order but even so, all time in the studio was paid time. Some schools just include that in the cost of being on team and in company.

Our ballet company had a fee that covered all rehearsal times.

I agree with a lot of you on competition dances being perfected throughout the year so it should already be perfect. But the week prior to competitions we usually have a dress rehearsal where EVERYONE comes to do their dances (kind of like dress rehearsal for recital). We just do it at the studio but this way the parents and students can come to watch their fellow competition dancers and it gives the dancers a chance to have an audience. It usually works out great and we do it for free!