Free tool
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 tool, no sign up
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.
The costume order deadline is not a date you pick. It is recital day minus supplier lead time minus the days you need for fittings and alterations after the boxes arrive. Everything else in the sizing window has to fit before that date, including the families who never reply.
This planner turns that into numbers. Put in your cast size, how many families answer the first request, your supplier lead time and the fitting buffer you need, and it shows the chase you are facing in dancers, in hours, and in hours per week up to the deadline.
Your result
Dancers still to chase
46
Measurements that will not arrive on their own.
Follow up hours
5.4
Your own time spent getting the last measurements in.
Order deadline in days from today
61
The last day the costume order can go to the supplier.
Follow up hours per week
0.6
The load if you spread the chasing evenly up to the deadline.
If the order deadline reads zero, recital day is already inside your supplier lead time and the order is late.
Counting backward from recital day
Take recital day, subtract the lead time your supplier quoted, then subtract the days you need between costumes arriving and dress rehearsal for fittings, alterations and the two dancers who grew three inches over winter. What is left is your last safe order day, and it is usually earlier than owners expect.
Most studios that miss it were not late by weeks. They were late by the nine families who never sent measurements, and by a deadline that felt soft because nothing bad had happened yet. Put the date on the studio wall in September, not in February when the panic starts.
The chase is the real work
A measurement window is not a communication problem, it is an arithmetic problem. If four families in ten do not reply in the first week, and each one takes seven minutes of texting, calling and catching a parent at pickup, you have bought yourself several evenings of work you never scheduled.
Two things shrink that number. Measuring the youngest levels yourself during class removes the least reliable replies entirely, and closing the window on a stated date with a stated consequence, such as being measured in studio, removes the negotiation. Both are easier to hold to once you can see the hours on this page.
Questions about this calculator
What is a realistic first week reply rate?
Schools that ask once by email and leave it there usually see a little over half. Schools that measure the youngest levels in class and only ask families of older dancers to reply see much higher numbers, because the families being asked are the ones who can measure accurately. Try both figures and compare the hours.
Should I just measure the dancers myself?
For anyone under about eight years old, yes. Parent taken measurements at that age are the most common source of a wrong size, and remeasuring one class takes less time than chasing twelve families. Older dancers and teens usually measure accurately when you give them a clear guide.
What if my supplier lead time changes?
Change the input and watch the order deadline move. Lead times shift with the season and with how many studios order the same style, so ask your supplier for a current number in the fall rather than assuming last spring still applies. Add a buffer if the answer is vague.
More free tools and working documents
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.
Make that number survive February
The figure on this screen holds until eleven families go quiet and two dancers are added to the finale. In TutuTerm the same arithmetic runs against the live roster, so the outstanding measurement list shrinks by name and the recital fee installments move with the cast size rather than behind it. Send your inputs over and we will run them through a real term on the call.