Competition season is an exciting part of the year, but can definitely have its challenges. If only the focus were on the dancers knowing their choreography! When things like costume altering, creating props, teaching parents how to do hair and make up, and performing well at the competition come into play, things can get hectic.

Knowing you’re not alone is the first point we want to make. We’ve heard about the challenges from competition season from a lot of our customers. We talked to Teresa and Treshawn at Fancy Feet Elite about things they’re learned along the way and tips they’d like to share to all of you. If you agree with these tips, let us know! Do you have more to add? Let us know that too!

Tips for Competitions

1. Set expectations with parents about when competition information will be available. Put emphasis on  this being out of your control and you are waiting for the competition to release the schedule – it’s not a hold up on your end.
2. Prepare mentally for costumes. No matter what, costume ordering is tedious and comes with frustrating moments. At Fancy Feet, we have up to 5 costumes per dancer. On top of that, we make most of our costumes so having a sewing party is key for us. We have a great group of parents who help make the costumes.
3. Get your stones ready! Adding bling to a costume makes it beautiful, unique, and grabs the judges attention. But this takes time and is expensive. Buy your stones in bulk and shop around for prices in the off season. We also have a group of parents who help stone in exchange for a portion of their child’s tuition.
4. Hold a parents meeting. About two weeks before competition season starts, we have a mandatory parents meting to go over how to do hair, make-up, shoes, and costume details. It helps for the parents to learn together and make sure the students look uniform.
5. Have a pep rally at the studio. We typically have this on a Saturday before the competition season starts. The purpose of this is to get everyone – dancing and not dancing at competitions – excited for the upcoming performances. It creates a sense of community and family among the entire studio that is uplifting and we hope continues throughout the competition season.
6. Pair up Big-Littles. Match an older dancer with a younger dancer to help the younger ones through their first competitions. This creates a unique bond between the two dancers. It’s been great to see how much bigs and littles have inspired each other.

What other tips do you have for competition season? Share them in the comments.