So You Think You Can Afford Ballet?

Balletparents, get ready to work side jobs, lots of overtime, start a blog, become a costume maker connoisseur as you will need a fortune to finance your ballet dancer’s dream. And by fortune, I mean money bags!

I am sure you all lay awake at night thinking about how you can afford all that is ballet/dance. Remember when you used to dream about your beautiful dancer performing on stage? Wasn't it magical?

My dreams used to be about pretty, pink tutus; beautiful satin pointe shoes; sparkly tiaras; lovely photographs and videos of each performance, ah what a delightful feeling!

Nowadays, even in my dreams I am erasing that pink after I see the price tag. It does not have to be pink, does it? And shoes, do they need to be satin?

When I am not sleeping, I am at my real job. Focusing my efforts on being the best employee so that I can support my daughters’ daydreams. All the while, I have spreadsheets on my mind. Everyone who knows me, knows that I have a spreadsheet for everything, so there are spreadsheets in my head, my desktop, my laptop, my phone and my iPad. Spreadsheets of schedules for both girls. Spreadsheets of all the cost involving each daughter. And I keep looking for ways to be prepared for what is to come.

Here are some of the costs that I came up with which will probably only grow as your dancer gets older or moves to higher levels.

If you are lucky you can find a smaller, studio with a good ballet program where the cost would be about $3000 per year. Keep in mind that as they grow and move up levels the cost only increases. Some schools will offer your dancer a scholarship, it could be partial or full. I have not seen this yet, but I hear it happens.

Private lessons are a must! Average cost is $75/hour, so having at least 3 hours per month @ $75/hour is $2500. Keep a note of the fact that this is still a very conservative approach, because let’s face it, 3 hours per month does not really accomplish much!

A great way to save is to have a semi private lesson with another dancer! Look for balletparents who share the same interest to split the cost. It did wonders for us!

If your dancer wants to compete, that involves multiple lessons, registration fees, costumes, choreography fees etc. It is also on the conservative side as it depends on the number of variations. However, $2000 per season for one competition is good for now, but also very conservative.

A great way to save is to rent a costume or a tutu or learn how to make it.

When preparing to compete, a ballet dancer will train many hours per day. To be able to sustain all the training, avoid injuries, and speed up their muscle memory, most ballet dancers must and should take Pilates. Since every dancer has different areas of improvement or needing focus, this is almost always best accomplished in a private lesson type setting. A great Pilates coach, who understands ballerinas and their body will charge on average $80/hour. So again, being very conservative with about 3 hours per month, for about 5 months, you are looking at $1280.

A great way to save on Pilates cost is to find a coach who offers semi private lessons, so that you can split a cost with another balletparent. This can be very effective as dancers can alternate exercises – as one is working on an exercise, the coach is explaining to another dancer what they should be working on.

Each year, you will want your ballet dancer to attend the best summer program they can get into, maybe even two (if you are crazy like me)! This is much needed as your ballerina must utilize the summer time wisely and get ahead on training! A good program will cost you anywhere from $5,000-$10,000. If you played your cards right, and your dancer is exactly what a particular school is looking for, he/she could be one of the few lucky ones to receive a full scholarship!

Ok, now we get into the gear, pointe shoes, flat shoes, leos, tights, warm up clothes, bags…I am probably missing a lot of other things and that will be about $1500 per year, per dancer!

Ways to save on gear – Find a brand that your dancer could become an ambassador for. They will send you free items which you have to display in a photo on social media. Also, when you find a great deal or coupon, buy in bulk – this saves on shipping cost as well!

If you are asking yourself what this sums up to be as you cannot keep track of it all, I summarized it nicely for you below. It is a copy from one of my spreadsheets!

Ballet Classes per year $ 3,000.00

Private Lessons $ 2,500.00

Competitions+Costumes $ 2,000.00

Pilates $ 1,280.00

Sumer Intensive $ 5,000.00

Pointe Shoes $ 1,000.00

Leos + tights + flat Shoes $ 500.00

Total Cost per year $ 15,280

Now, this is per year, per dancer. If you have two aspiring ballerinas, you are busy trying to figure out how to make it all work.

Let’s say Mia, who is 11 now, will dance until she is 16 years old, and then she will become a professional ballerina and get hired by a prestigious ballet company. And Stasha who is 8 now, will do the same. That means for Mia it is 5 more years of ballet school, and for Stasha it is 8 more years.

What does that mean for me? It means that the next 8 years will cost me $122,240 for Mia ($15,280*5 more years of training) PLUS $198,640 for Stasha ($15,280*8 more years of training). For a Grand Total of $320,880!

All this is not taking into consideration, the time spent driving around, gas spent driving around, time spent finding people who can help with driving around. It also does not consider all the beautiful photos you buy, audition fees, videos and who knows what else!

The only way to make it work is to get everyone on board. Educating them on the importance of discipline, energy and beauty it takes to do ballet. And for us it is just that! Everyone pitches in financially and otherwise; grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends...Someone once said, ‘It takes a village…’ I say it takes the largest country in the world to finance and support your balletdancer's dream! And any balletparent would say that it is beyond worth it!