Cast Fees, Recital Fees?

[ToThePointe]

I'm trying to find out what is standard in the industry, so if you all would oblige me by answering the following questions if your dancer performs in a spring/summer performance or recital.

 

 

Do you perform in studio or in a theater?

 

Do you pay a cast fee/recital fee and if yes, how much?

 

Do you have to buy tickets and if yes, how much per ticket?

 

Do you have to sell a minimum of tickets?

 

Do you have to purchase your own costumes?

 

Are you required to participate in fund raisers?

 

Approximately how many students are in your production?

[JRB]

In a Theater that seats over 1500, but it is never full.

I think the Costume and Flower fee are aprox. $38.00.

The tickets are very reasonable, with the option to volunteer and be a class supervisor you enter free. The tickets may be under 10 but I can't remember for certain.

We don't have to sell or purchase any minimum number of tickets.

If your child is in many dances you may have an additional costume fee of $15.00. The older advanced student's costume may consist of a leo that they keep after the performance with skirts added from the costume shop of the school or company.

There may be as many as 200 or more students in the June performance. The performance may be 2 hours long, with an intermission.

[dancemaven]

DD does perform in a Spring Concert with her dance academy each spring. The "all-school" pieces are choreographed by the teachers of each discipline (ballet, modern, tap, and jazz). The students must sign up in mid-December for participation. The rehearsals are held outside of class time, but have a specified time/day that is included in the schedule of classes. The dancers are required to attend each weekly rehearsal (with 2 excused absences). The rehearsals begin at the same time as the January term and continue through the entire term culminating in a week of "in studio" rehearsals and a week of "tech week" at the theatre.

 

The Concert is held in an equity concert theatre that is usually used by the Broadway productions and all other type travelling theatre, dance, and musical productions. Attendees do pay for tickets (I think they were $15/seat last year--or thereabouts). We buy reserved seating at the ticket box office of the theatre.

The tickets for the concert are offered by the theatre, so we do not have to purchase any minimums nor are we required to sell/purchase any (but you must have a ticket to attend).

 

I believe our academy pays a fee to use the theatre (including the union lighting/techincal/stagehands) for the tech rehearsals and the concert performance. That is what the bulk of our concert "fee" pays for.

 

For each "all-school" piece the dancer participates in, there is a concert "fee" of $90. This fee covers the costumes (which the dancer then owns) and funds the theatre fees. The costumes are always (well, almost always) tasteful and simple. The academy's small performing company also has pieces included in the concert. These costumes are often recycled from other year's pieces or borrowed from a couple of local professional companies. Any new costumes created for any of the performing company's pieces remain the property of the academy.

 

We do not have any regular fundraisers.

 

The number of dancers participating varies year to year, but in the years DD has participated, the "all school" jazz piece has had as many as 60 dancers participating (not all on stage at once!!) and the "all school" ballet piece has had almost as many.

[BW]

Here is a thread from about a year ago in which quite a few people shared their information that may be of help to you: Dollars for Dance. And here is another one about performances and fees: Spring performances.

Edited January 1, 2005 by BW

[Treefrog]

Spring recital: usually held in the high school auditorium. Tickets are about $10 for adults, $5 for (pick your favorite politically correct term for those over a certain age) and youngsters. No costume fee; costumes are very simple and owned by the studio. No ticket sales required or expected. Every student particates, which is something like 250 dancers. (Blessedly, each class no longer has its own dance once the kids consolidate into levels where each dancer takes multiple classes weekly.)

 

Some years, there is a spring show or a Faculty Showcase. Dancers in the spring show DO pay a "workshop" fee that covers rehearsal time (studio rental and faculty salary). There is never a costume fee, as again all costumes are owned by the studio (and reused when we recycle the production). These shows are held in one of two theaters on the nearby university campus (one of which is an Equity theater, I believe). Tickets cost a little more than the recital ones.

 

The Faculty Showcases are fundraisers for the school, and tickets are in the $25-50 range. They consist of short works choreographed by our faculty on their semi-pro company members, and also on our more advanced dancers. Usually, a couple of dancers from the Joffrey also contribute their talent, which is a wonderful treat. Again, there is no special fee for participating.

[thedriver]

ToThePointe, thanks for starting this thread .

 

Dancer performs in a spring/summer performance or recital? late spring, full ballet production

Do you perform in studio or in a theater? local college’s performing-arts theatre

Do you pay a cast fee/recital fee and if yes, how much? performance fee = $200/dancer

Do you have to buy tickets and if yes, how much per ticket? yes, $20

Do you have to sell a minimum of tickets? no

Do you have to purchase your own costumes? no

Are you required to participate in fund raisers? no

Approximately how many students are in your production? 50

[pj]

Our school has informal performances in the studio occasionally, as circumstances warrant. Other than that, the director tries very hard to provide/encourage performance opportunities that present themselves. There are occasionally professional companies that tour in the area and our director encourages all students who "fit" the children's parts requirements to audition. In addition, the director keeps in touch with several theatres that often need performance ready pieces and provides students for those needs.

 

This past Christmas time, we were able to have a school performance in a real theatre, and one is planned for June as well.

 

The participation fee was $100 per dancer. The tickets cost $15 and there was no requirement for the parents to purchase a certain number. The costumes for group numbers were provided by the school and returned to costume inventory. The costumes for the individual numbers were purchased and kept by the individuals for use at later times. There were 23 students who participated in the performance. Our school doesn't have fundraisers.

[Momof3darlings]

Yes, both occur. Spring performances as well as recital. Spring performance has a ticket price which we are encouraged to help sell to family and friends although not required. (no real push is needed since we want a full house for our kids) It is held in a theatre.

 

Recital is optional for Senior level dancers although most do it since they get the character parts. Some high School Seniors don't due to added time away from the studio this time of year. The fee is generally $50 for costumes but no tickets are sold for this one. It is mainly billed as a preview for parents. We do a recital every other year, and an in studio performance the opposite year.

 

Approximately 100 students are involved. No, we don't have to fundraise for these shows, but we do fundraise for the year. You are not required to fundraise, although you are requested to help either through that, donations or giving of your time.

vj

[TutuMaker]

ToThePointe:

 

Do you perform in studio or in a theater?

The performances are held in early to late spring in a beautiful, old, but well maintained theater built in the 1900's (I think).

 

Do you pay a cast fee/recital fee and if yes, how much?

There are two fees. The first is an audition fee, since the company is a non-profit all auditions are open. Audition fees are normally around $20. The second fee is a costume fee it is between $35 - $45. It covers rental (if necessary), cleaning and any maintenence or necessary alterations or sometimes building.

 

Do you have to buy tickets and if yes, how much per ticket?

If you want to attend tickets run from $12 to $25 with no orchestra. If there is an orchestra tickets are double above fee.

 

Do you have to sell a minimum of tickets?

All ticket sales are conducted either through the company office or through the theater box office. Dancers are not required to sell any tickets. The company tries to bring in guest artists to boost ticket sales to those other than parents or relatives of dancers. Our guest this year is Darci Kistler.

 

Do you have to purchase your own costumes?

No, the company owns a huge number of costumes, but if different costumes are needed they are either built, borrowed or rented.

 

Are you required to participate in fund raisers?

Yes, there is a candy sale. Each dancer is expected to sell $50 of See's candy. There are also other fundraisers, but they are not manditory.

 

Approximately how many students are in your production?

Each production is different, but on average about 80 dancers participate.

[2thepointe]

ToThePointe,

 

We perform at a local high school and a college theater. We borrow costumes from the studio and pay a nominal fee of $20 per costume to defray the cost of cleaning, etc. The costumes never go home with a child. They are organized at the show and handed out to each student to minimize loss. The costumes are not glitzy, so you tend to notice the quality of the dancing. Our school has approximately 1,100 students so there are many shows (11 last year), but even the most advanced students may not perform in every show. The shows vary from each other with respect to which numbers are done, but are never much longer than 1 3/4 hours.

 

We do buy tickets. I think they were $10 each. I work backstage for most of the shows. We also receive a small stipend for volunteering to work backstage. We are not required to sell a minimum number of tickets, nor do we do fund-raising.

 

I have been involved with other studios where costume fees were exorbitant (over $100 each, even though the cost out of the catalog was significantly less), extensive fund-raising was done, shows were performed at a middle school auditorium, and show tickets were $20 each. We also paid choreography fees during the year.

 

I probably also need to mention that our studio is not strictly a ballet studio. My daughter studies pointe, ballet, modern, theater jazz, NY jazz, and tap.

 

The other 2thepointe

[ma de deux]

Our studio has a $100 theater fee and then a $50 part fee for each part.......this can be up to 3 or 4 parts. So it can be quite a hefty sum. The tickets are 18 for adult and 12 for children. This fee is for every show. We do Nutcracker, Spring and summer showcase. So multply those numbers by 3!!!!!!!!! Plus multiply that by the number of dancers in the family ................. Is our studio out of line??

[ToThePointe]

The reason I ask is I remember my parents paying cast fees when I was younger, but the studio owned the costumes.

 

The last studio I worked for, their charges for Nutcracker were an audition fee ($10 if I remember correctly), an $80.00 cast fee, you must sell 10 tickets each ($12 - $16), sell $15.00 in ad space each, and participate in other fundraisers. For their recital, it's almost the same with no audition fee, but the dancers have to buy the costumes, between $50 - $80 each (some 2 - 4 costumes). If they met a certain goal with the fund raisers, the excess would then go towards their costume fees.

 

Now I understand that one must try to break even on a show, and there is nothing wrong with seeing a profit for your hard work, but I felt that to be too much.

 

Anyway, now I own my own school, and I'm trying to do what is right, fair, and ethical for all.

 

Thank you for your input, it is greatly appreciated.

 

Disclaimer: Now that the school has gotten a bit bigger, all rehearsals for the shows are held outside of class time, performances are not mandatory with no repercussions for non-participation, and are billed as To The Pointe Youth Ensemble, so as to keep them separate and out of the school.

[Tiffany]

Knock, knock, Adult/college ballet student here.

 

Dancer performs in a spring/summer performance or recital? We usually do a full-length classical ballet in the fall and in the spring; sometimes, not always there is a performance at the end of the summer session as well, but it is not a full-length ballet.

 

Do you perform in studio or in a theater? local college’s theatre

 

Do you pay a cast fee/recital fee and if yes, how much? performance fee is $100 for Sr and Jr Co, $75 for Apprentice I and II, no extra costs per costume. All audiitons are open and the fee is $20.

 

Do you have to buy tickets and if yes, how much per ticket? yes, $20/adult, $10/child, we receive 1 free ticket per ever $200 worth sold. We also sell program ads which range from $20 to $100 or $200 (can't remember). I would love to not have to sell tickets as one person posted but I can't afford to buy them myself and our youth co./studio needs the money.

 

Do you have to sell a minimum of tickets? yes, must sell $200 of tickets and ads combined

 

Do you have to purchase your own costumes? no, the studio owns them, and this fee is covered in the participation fee

 

Are you required to participate in fund raisers? no

 

Approximately how many students are in your production? 40-80

[BW]

Bumping this up because "tis the season"...

 

It's so interesting to read about different schools and how they approach things like Nutcrackers, for example, since it is that season...

[balletbooster]

I think another interesting question to ask is:

 

Company school, Pre-Pro or Residency?

 

Might be interesting to see if the answers follow any trends for the various sorts of schools.