Turn your show day woes into wows!

I get it. There are plenty of reasons why you could dread show or recital day:

• It's a hassle to get hair and make up done for your child, and the costume you paid for is “itchy”
• ​There are plenty of other things you could be doing besides attending a dress rehearsal and sitting through an entire performance
• You wouldn’t choose to purchase tickets to the show if you didn’t have to
• ​The venue isn’t exactly in your neighborhood

But wait a minute! Show day is a celebration of your child. They have worked for months preparing for the stage and dance is designed (in most cases) to be performed in front of an audience. Studio owners and directors strive to put on an enjoyable show and want to make it as painless as possible for families, with the ultimate goal of you loving the display your child gets to be a part of!
So why do dance studios require such things as costumes, make-up, tickets, and pick seemingly obscure locations for the performance? Well, it’s not all as simple as it may seem. 
Let’s start with the venue. Oh my goodness, it is HARD to find a place that will accomodate 100-300 dancers backstage and have enough seats for each child’s fan club! And it would be nice for the space to have the up to date technology required to play music on a nice sound system and scenery to compliment the dancers. A lot of thought goes into designing a performance that will delight audiences of all ages! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention these spaces are not free to use. Thus, tickets are required to cover the costs of the venue, scenery, staffing and various other expenses that are all put in place to make your child a star on the stage for a day! 
And why a dress rehearsal? We want to make the recital experience comfortable, so giving students the opportunity to familiarize themselves in a new environment is key. The dancers have not danced on that stage, with those friends, to that song before and getting the jitters out before the show makes their experience that much better.
I know your time is limited and valuable, but the memories created on the stage for your child are priceless! There will always be conflicts and choices to make when choosing whether to participate in a performance. I challenge each dance parent to see the “Wow” in show day and celebrate the accomplishment of reaching the milestone of dancing in a “real” show. The smiles captured of your child while they are dressed in sequins and sparkles make it all worth it!
Dotty Hancock