Dance recital season is a major time for any dance studio. Showcasing your students’ hard work and talent while reflecting your studio’s creativity and skills is no easy feat. Ensuring that each year’s recital is better than the last, adds fuel to the fire and it can be tough knowing where to start. Here are some key metrics you should measure, ways to identify areas for improvement and strategies for enhancing your future recitals.
What metrics should you measure?
Whether you are at the beginning stages of planning your recital season or reflecting on a recital that just passed, a few specific metrics provide insight into your event. Some of these key metrics include:
- Audience Satisfaction: Use surveys or feedback forms to assess the audience’s satisfaction with your event. Ask about the overall experience, seating options, visibility, concessions, or length of the recital.
- Ticket Sales: Ticket sales are often a way for dance studios to increase revenue around recital season. Analyze data to understand the financial success and whether there were any challenges with pricing or accessibility.
- Preparedness: Evaluate how well-prepared your dancers were by considering feedback from instructors and observing rehearsal performance versus stage performance.
- Backstage Efficiency: Review how smoothly things ran backstage, including dance check-in, costume changes, performance flow, and stage transitions.
- Communication: Measure the effectiveness of your communication with parents, students, and staff leading up to the event. Were there any unanswered last-minute questions?
When looking at these high-level metrics and asking the right questions, you can get a clear picture of what went well and what needs improvement for future recitals.
Downlod the Recital Debrief Checklist
Let it help you stay organized when analyzing your recent recital.
Improvement Strategies for Future Recitals
Once you’ve gathered all feedback from staff, students, and their families, it’s time to turn it into strategies for improvement. Identify your timeline and it will help you decide whether you can focus on all feedback or if you want to highlight a select few!
Rehearsal Efficiency
If preparedness came up when considering your previous recitals, it’s time to take a look at your dress rehearsal schedule. The best way to ensure your dancers are prepared is to rehearse! Make sure that not only do you rehearse the performance in the actual space, but do a full run-through so your dancers know how things will flow. Consider breaking up into smaller, more focused sessions to look at the timing and technique for each individual song.
Refine the Audience Experience
Use feedback from surveys or verbal conversations to improve your audience’s experience. If seating or visibility is a concern, consider adjusting your venue setup or selecting a different space that can better accommodate your audience. While it is always difficult to ensure every single person is happy, there are some smaller things you can do to help like offering inclusive concessions or different photography options.
Backstage Operations
Making sure everything in your backstage runs smoothly is essential to making sure your performances run smoothly. Designate clear roles for your staff such as check-in, costume managers, stage managers, and other miscellaneous coordinators to help keep things moving efficiently.
Improve Communication
If communication issues arose, whether with parents, staff, or students, evaluate if you answered the questions asked and if you did, how you shared that information. Was it clear and timely? Using software that allows email and push notifications to automate reminders is a life hack when it comes to ensuring everyone is well-informed ahead of the big day.
Incorporate Technology
Consider offering a live stream option to expand your recital audience or use a dance studio management software to help you manage all the small details. Technology is one of the best ways to keep track of your financials, reports, recital preparation, staff management, and more. Let it work for you!
The key to improving your dance studio’s recital is in the details. By measuring the right metrics, leveraging the right software, and implementing targeted improvements, you can make this next recital season the best one yet. Taking the time to reflect and refine your processes will make the recital experience better for all involved.
See how Jackrabbit Dance can make this recital season easier by starting a free trial.
