Calculator
Recital fee calculator for a children's dance school
Work out what one spring recital actually costs per dancer, and what your fee has to be to cover it.
Free tools
Calculators for the recital and the costume order
Two free calculators for the two numbers that decide a recital season, the fee per dancer and the sizing window.
Two numbers decide whether a spring recital is a good year or a hard one. The first is what the show costs you per dancer once theater rental, crew, printing and costumes are counted. The second is how many measurements will still be missing the week the costume order has to go to the supplier.
Both calculators run in your browser and keep nothing. Put in your own theater quote, your own supplier lead time and your real cast size, then read the answer. They are meant to be argued with, so if a number looks wrong for your school, change the input and watch what moves.
Calculator
Costume sizing window planner for your spring recital
See how many measurements you will still be chasing, how many hours that costs you, and the last day the costume order can go in.
Working document
The term open and costume sizing checklist
A working list that takes a children's ballet school from placement day to a costume order that arrives in the right sizes.
Open to any ballet school, no sign up
Neither calculator asks for an email address. The owner of a children's ballet school should not have to hand over her contact details to find out what one spring recital costs per dancer, or how many measurements will still be missing the week the costume order has to reach the supplier. Both run in the browser on the page you are standing on, the figures stay on your screen, and you can close the tab with nothing left behind.
They are worth having even if you never look at the software. Right now this arithmetic gets done in the margin of a supplier invoice or not at all: theater rental plus the crew you pay for the day plus programs plus the costume price times the cast, divided by every dancer who walks on stage including pre ballet, then recital day minus supplier lead time minus the fitting and alteration days you need before dress rehearsal. Written down once, those two numbers tell you whether the recital fee you announced in September still covers the show, and whether the girth and height measurements you are missing in February are a nuisance or a late order.
When the fee and the order deadline stop agreeing
A breakeven fee per dancer and a last safe order date are both true on the day you calculate them, and both start drifting the moment enrollment moves. A demo shows the fee split into installments scheduled backward from recital day, and the deadline sitting on top of a chase list that names the dancers still unmeasured. Bring the two figures you just worked out and we will start from those.