so this year all my hip hop classes will perform together in the recital. being that the classes meet on different days at different times, i decided to get them altogether on a saturday (yesterday) for a rehearsal. this is imperative for blocking and making sure everyone is comfortable with where they come in and where to stand.

we let the parents know about this rehearsal more than a month ago, to give everyone plenty of time to put it in their schedules. less than half of the students show up...

i heard every excuse from "i didn't know about it," to "well she/he plays _______ and they will be tired after the game," or "i just have other stuff to do."

was it my fault for scheduling it on a saturday? i know saturday can be a day of running errands, and participating in various activities the children are in, but it was just one saturday for an hour and a half.

it makes me mad because my name goes on this production, and if it looks bad then the parents will be upset with me!

is dance not a priority anymore?

As a parent I can understand this. Dd attends a ballet school on a weekday evening then musical theatre class (where I work) on a Saturday. We actually changed her ballet calss as certain things clashed with musical theatre.

Her dance school show which takes place at the end of July we were actually given the schedule for an extra rehearsal 4 months in advance so I coiuld work it. She has 110% commitment to musical theatre and ballet (and our MT is proper training not just doing shows) so if anything else clashed with that she would be letting lots of other people down too.

Maybe a month is not enough notice for a day they would not normally attend.

I agree...it is one saturday and what I do is give them as much notice as possible and send out reminder notices the week before as well and what I ALWAYS say is...if you are not there, I am sorry but you can't be in the show. It is not fair for those dancers who are committed and again, it is one saturday and if they can't be there, then obviously it isnt important enough. Its up to you and your SO but if I were you, I would either not let the no shows perform, or I would give them a small section in the very back. Good Luck!

I announce in September that there will be a Saturday in April/May where everybody needs to come to this important rehearsal.
As soon as I know the real date I announce it. That is really a lot more than one month ahead. I think about 3 months before.

Also consider children travelling between divorced parents during the weekends. They need more time to arrange a change in this scedule.

And I use a lot of the time untill The Date to stimulate children/parents to skip sports/weekend activities just for this one time because this rehearsal is so important.

To parents saying: "My child already knows the dance in and out", I explain: "If she is missing in the group, the rest of the dancers gets confused. She needs to take her responsibility to the group she is in too."

As a child I would have been there no matter what and dance was the priority. But as a teacher now I don't think its fair to expect the same.

Lets say the regular class is on Monday, I would expect that every child in class make a committment to that monday and not put anything else on the same time. But isn't it fair to expect that the other things they committ to have the same rights. If they have committed to soccer on Saturdays is it fair to miss soccer to come to dance when they have already made that saturday committment.

^They don't mind to skip dance for a sports match or a violin concert, the birthday party of their best friend or because they go to granny. They also skip dance because they prefer to go swimming on a sunny day.
Yes, I think it is fair to expect from them to skip something else OCCASIONALLY for dance.

I think because of the length of the dance year this is always an issue. Many parents and students think that because the season runs on average 10 months out of the year that they can skip things here and there and that it is acceptable. Many times, even though you tell them it is important to be there, they don't think twice about it. They figure they are only hurting themselves by not being there, not thinking about the effect that it has on the other children.

I know we shouldn't have to do this, but if you really need them to be there tell them ahead of time as you did, but make it mandatory. If they do not make the rehersal they don't get to dance. Don't make it an option, or just tell them it is important-tell them they have to be there.

Dance is a full time committment from the teachers, therefore it has to be the same from the students and parents or things don't work out.

lidwina wrote:

^They don't mind to skip dance for a sports match or a violin concert, the birthday party of their best friend or because they go to granny. They also skip dance because they prefer to go swimming on a sunny day.
Yes, I think it is fair to expect from them to skip something else OCCASIONALLY for dance.

Now you see my dd misses nothing that she has made a commitment to. She will miss ballet one week in June in order to dance with a professional company in something that her ballet school will get some publicity out of (she is 1 of 4 chosen girls).

She does not miss musical theatre for dance or vice versa.

Dance is not a priority anymore when the academic schools can DEMAND that their students attend THEIR soccer, cheer, musical theater rehearsals three nights a week, and then games/shows on the weekends. There are so many more kids taking these usually free extracurricular activities, someone missing can easily be replaced. And the schools' coaches know they get carte blanche from the parents; no matter how demanding their schedule - no one questions it. Soccer moms have a tight social clique with peer pressure; they have to be there to root for their team. This spirit doesn't exist in dance schools.

My dance school is so visibly small, my making similar threats would be a bad joke. I have to do the best I can under these trying circumstances as there's no one for me to appeal to. The sports coaches here blatantly badmouth dance, and the few preteens I have hide the fact that they dance, so they're not ridiculed by their peers. As long as dance schools are perceived as money-making machines (due to lots of hidden costs) no one is going to care enough to make them a priority. I'm not saying this to bash dance schools myself, I just want to warn others about what's already happened in my township. It could happen to you too.

DanceTeacherJC wrote:

I agree...it is one saturday and what I do is give them as much notice as possible and send out reminder notices the week before as well and what I ALWAYS say is...if you are not there, I am sorry but you can't be in the show.

I would do the same. If it was just once, I would make it just like my mandatory dress rehearsal. YOU HAVE TO BE THERE.

Also, if you weren't demanding it, I'd still expect them to give you adequate notice of why they couldn't come. Just not showing up would not be okay. They had a month to let you know otherwise. You should have atleast known who you could expect for the day.

I say if you do something like that again, either demand it or require a confirmation from each family so you know who's on board.

I agree with the advice you've already been given. When I have an extra rehearsal I make sure the kids know it's mandatory, if they are not there, they are not in the dance.

You are the one that has to let them know it is a priority. If you don't act like it is, neither will they.

Triskit wrote:

You are the one that has to let them know it is a priority. If you don't act like it is, neither will they.

Excellent point.

I agree with Coast and Triskit, but I will say that I also agree that Dance is not a priority. We gave notice of picture weekend 6 months ago (and practically weekly ever since!) and have parents saying their child will not be there because they have a t-ball or soccer game. (Mind you a lot of these are 5 year olds!) I am a parent of 2 atheletes who are VERY involved in softball/baseball so I totally get that. But I am astonished that they will not miss one game for a class picture with their class they have spent 9 months with!
It's almost like a popularity contest. t-ball and soccer are popular things. dance team, etc. at school is popular. If I can get my studio to be more popular to be a part of, then they will pick dance over something else??? funny world!

Isn't it funny how we all feel the same about this. What would the parents think if WE didn't feel dance was a priority? What if I didn't show up to teach my class because I had another engagement to attend to? I can say from personal experience there have been so many things I have missed out on because I made dance the priority in my life, which I'm sure you can agree.

Makes me think...the parents would think we should get fired because we missed a class to attend something else. How I wish sometimes we could fire the parents when their child misses class for something else.

DancingDiva736 wrote:

How I wish sometimes we could fire the parents when their child misses class for something else.

Oo oo oo....can we do that???!!!

Think about it, doesn't it seem extreme that you have to make the kids sign a contract and threaten them with dismissal to get them to attend a single recital rehearsal (for everyone, not talking comp team here.) And still some will miss because they can't let their sports coach down, even if they're 3 year olds doing soccer.

I agree that dance isn't enough fun compared to these other conflicting activities. What can dance teachers do about this, if they don't want to dumb dance down. Anyone?