HOW TO SURVIVE COSTUMING A RECITAL

Nancy and Art Stone | Feb 18, 2009 | 0

HOW TO SURVIVE COSTUMING A RECITAL

Purchasing costumes for a dance recital and receiving them on time and making the parents and the students happy is one of the nightmares of any dance teacher's life.

Getting the students measured, the orders sent into the many costume houses that exist, sweating out the delivery time, and then when they finally arrive, praying they look something like they did in the catalog and hoping that they fit. It is a very difficult proposition and one that cannot be taken lightly...

There is no easy answer and no magic wand to make sure that it all works well, but there are a few steps that can be taken to at least make it less painful and more trouble free.

First of all, the teacher must realize that times have changed. Ten years ago the costume catalogs were mailed in November and most teachers placed their orders during the months of January and February with only the teachers that had late June shows placing them later than that. Today, most catalogs are mailed in September and teachers start ordering in October and November for many reasons.

Many of these costumes are needed for competitions which start as early as October and run every month after that until the end of May.

Many studios have elaborate programs at their recitals and in order to get the pictures of their students in the programs they have to have the costumes a month or more before the show so the photographer has time to take the pictures, and the printer has time to print the programs. In order for the costumes to arrive so much earlier, many steps have to be taken by the teachers and the costume houses so there will be few problems.

When the catalogs arrive in late September that is the time to peruse them and select the costumes that will be used for the competitions or the recital. As soon as this is done the hardest part comes next.

The teacher must now tell the parents the price of the costume, tell them when a deposit is due and when the balance has to be paid. If possible, it is much better for the full amount to be paid before the costumes are ordered since many of the costume houses give a substantial discount if the costumes are paid in full when they are ordered.

(NO COSTUME SHOULD BE ORDERED IF A STUDENT HAS NOT GIVEN AT LEAST A NON-REFUNDABLE DEPOSIT. It is not fair for the teacher to be responsible for the money due. That is the sole responsibility of the parents.)

The date the monies are due is non-negotiable and any student that hopes to be in the recital MUST get their money in on time so the costumes may be ordered in time for them to be delivered when needed.

By the time the monies are paid, the measurements for the costumes should be done, and this is a most critical part.

Each costume house has their own sizing chart and you cannot use a chart from another company when ordering.

BUT REMEMBER, THESE ARE "READY MADE COSTUMES", not custom made costumes, so there is plenty of room for error and you must take that into consideration when measuring your students.

For Example:

You are measuring your students in September or October and you may not receive the costumes until perhaps April or May. There is a very good chance that the students will grow a couple of inches by then, gain or lose a few pounds, suddenly mature into a more adult figure and so on. YOU have to be the one who decides how much room has to be left for these considerations. The costume house can only go by the sizes you order, but it is YOU who knows the students better than anyone else and YOU have to make certain decisions.

Most companies go primarily by the girth measurement. (The measurement that starts from the center of the shoulder goes through the crotch and returns to the starting point.) Even though you still have to take into account the bust, waist and hip measurements, this is the most important measurement because of the material. Most materials stretch sideways, not up and down, so a lot of discrepancies can be hidden with the stretch. But if the student has grown significantly taller for example, the costume is going to be too short in the girth.

Let us assume that a student measures a small adult in the bust, waist and hips, but is very tall and thin and her girth measures a medium adult. What do you do? Most of the time it means ordering a medium adult and being prepared that the costume will have to be taken in by the parent or if you are lucky and have one available, a seamstress. This not your fault or the fault of the costume house. It is just one of the realities of ordering costumes.

The costume houses want you to be happy when you receive your order and will make every effort to please you, but there is only so
much they can do. Remember that almost all of the material that is used comes from the Orient and although they order millions of dollars of the material in advance, they have to wait for it to come in and there are always many unexpected problems, such as boat or airline delays, manufacturing mistakes as well as the current political situation. So it is up to you to be sure that you follow their charts, place your orders early and realize that some costumes will have to be adjusted.

If you receive a costume that is the size that you ordered but does not fit the student, you will probably have to make adjustments yourself since if you want to exchange it for another size the costume house will most likely not have the size you want in stock and it will be just like placing a new order and will take just as long as your first order. (If the costume houses kept extra costumes in stock for exchanges, they would go out of business because of the many styles and sizes.)

The most important thing in ordering costumes is TO ORDER AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE. This gives the costume houses more time to fill your order properly and efficiently, more time for you to make adjustments to the costumes if there is any problem, and take some of the pressure off you when you are anxiously awaiting the delivery of the costumes.

Another suggestion is to get to know a person in the customer service department. One who you can always to get to if you have a problem or a question. It is so much easier for you and for the costume house if you always speak to the same person. This way the representative gets to know you and when you call, she already might have a good idea of why you are calling, or might remember why you called the last time. It is so much better than starting over again with someone new.

It is a stressful time of year, but if you plan properly, understand all the work that has to go into preparing your orders, order EARLY and allow EXTRA time (even more than the time the costume house is allowing in case they have any problems in manufacturing or material delivery), it should be a wonderful time for you to have a great recital and a fulfilling experience.

Art Stone

Column Sponsored by Art and Nancy Stone
Copyright © DanceArt.com All Right Reserved

Print Email Link

• Share
  • add to facebook
  • add to del.icio.us
  • add to digg
  • add to yahoo
  • related at technorati

Teacher, dance recital costume tips (all tags)