2011-2012 Travel and Local Competition Team Audition Schedule, Information, and Contract
Listed below is the information for the 2011-2012 competition season.
Please read all the information and make notes of any questions.
We will have a competition tryout meeting on August 11, 2011 from 6-7 pm to answer all questions.
Audition forms and deposits must be turned in by August 13, 2011.
What is needed to audition for Dolce Travel Competition Teams?
Parents must attend the competition tryout meeting on August 11, 2011
• All dancers must turn in their audition form by August 13, 2011, along with signed contract, all release forms, and a $300.00 deposit per dancer or $500.00 per family.
• Attend the comp try out intensive on Aug 18th and 19th (This is optional but recommended. They will learn combinations used in tryouts)
• All dancers are required to wear black and have their hair pulled back in a pony tail for auditions
• All students auditioning must be current on their account NO EXCEPTIONS
• Arrive 30 minutes prior to your scheduled time to stretch and be ready to go when you are called in.
• A strong work ethic, willingness to work hard, good attitude, and team support are a must if trying out
Placement for all teams, duets, and trios will be made by the audition panel. Please do not question the placement of your dancer as the teachers have your child’s best interest in mind when placing them. Placement is based on many factors and the teaching panels decisions are final.
We may be choosing one alternate per team to allow us the flexibility to make changes if someone is unable to fulfill their agreement.
Results will be posted no later than August 26th.
Do not call for results or to discuss results with the teachers and staff. A lot of time and thought is put into team selection and all dancers will be placed fairly.
Things to consider before Auditioning
Dolce Travel Competition Teams require a strong commitment, hard work, dedication, a passion for dance, and a drive for self-improvement. Being part of Dolce’s Nationally ranked and award winning travel competition teams is an experience your child won’t forget and the friendships they develop are priceless.
What to expect after making the Dolce Dance Competition teams
You will be a part of an exciting and awesome group of girls, directed by Kendra Harrington and taught by the leading teachers in the industry. Being a part of Dolce Travel Competition teams is a self-esteem building, energetic, and priceless learning experience. You will be amazed by how much your child will accomplish and learn in this program.
All Travel Competition Team Students will be required to take 2 Jazz, 1 ballet, and 1 stretch/conditioning class per week in addition to their team class(es) in addition to these classes if you are on a lyrical team you must also take a lyrical technique class, same will apply for tap and hip hop. The only exception is if you will be doing only tap or only hip-hop. You will be required to take 2 tech classes in your chosen style of dance.
• All comp classes and extra practices are MANATORY
• We will compete in 5-6 mandatory dance competitions, one of which will be a convention, as a full studio. Plus National Finals in June or July. Dancers who wish to compete at additional competitions are welcome to do so.
• All dancers must arrive 10 minutes before class and be ready to go when the class starts. Enter the class with a positive attitude ready to work hard and aspire to inspire your team mates.
• You must attend all scheduled competitions
• All tuition and comp fees must be paid in the month they are due
• Registration will be available at the studio. You must be registered by Sept. 1, 2011 and take your minimum required classes in August.
• Annual registration fee of $30.00 or $50.00 per family is required at registration.
• Tuition is due on the 1st of every month. We request enrollment in auto pay for all of our competition families. If fees or tuition have not been paid by the 5th of the month you will be charged a $15.00 late fee. If balances have not been paid by the 10th a second $15.00 late fee will be applied to your account. If at anytime your account becomes 30 days past due you will be removed from all classes until your account is up to date. Late fees will also be applied to all costume or entry fee balances that are 5 days past due.
• Costume deposits will be $100.00 per team, per dancer. Deposit’s are due Sept. 1, 2011. We will have $50 deposits per costume due Oct 15, 2011 and Nov 15, 2011. Solo, duet, trio costume deposits will follow the same schedule.
• We will be keeping our new travel suits this year. These are mandatory for all new competition dancers. A $100.00 deposit will be due Sept. 1st and balance due when complete. Dancers are allowed two unexcused absents per team during the season. Unexcused absents do not include times your child is sick or pre-approved by your teacher or absent due to a school related activity. There will be no excused absence the 3 weeks prior to a competition. All tech classes can be made up on another day if missed but must be made up within the same month. If a student misses too often an alternate will be asked to step in until your child can practice regularly
*Choreography days are mandatory!!!!!!! Above excused absences cannot be used on choreography days. These days are usually the only day that an outside choreographer can come into town. If you can’t make it to these practices you will be removed from the team.
* Dolce Competition Dancers cannot compete with any other competitive dance studios and must get teacher approval before taking regular classes anywhere else. This is do to confusion for the dancers if they are being taught differently than how we want a technique done. This does not include master classes, intensives, and conventions.
* Solos and duet/trios are only offered to dancers competing on Dolce Travel competition teams. Outside choreography is allowed but all songs must be approved by Kendra and Melissa prior to choreography to make sure they are not already being used. A Dolce teacher must run any solo, duet, or trio.
You must be willing to commit to a minimum of 2 teams to be considered for Dolce Travel Competition teams. (The number of teams a dancer makes will be determined by the teaching staff not to exceed your maximum) That does not mean if you put 4 teams you will be on 4 teams.
Detailed Information for Travel Competition Teams
Monthly Tuition –is due on the 1st of every month. Tuition is considered late if not paid by the 5th of the month. A $15.00 late fee will be charged to your account. If still not paid by the 10th another $15.00 will be charged to your account. If you fall a full month behind you will be removed from your classes until your account is caught up. If your child has scheduled private lessons or solo, duet, trios these will also be discontinued until your account is made current.
Auto Payment Available for Tuition This option is to charge a credit card or debit card on the 1st of every month that we have on file. You will need to sign a form at the front desk to use this option.
Family Discount- Families with more than one dancer will automatically be given a 10% discount on tuition.
Dolce is one of the few studios that include competition classes as a class that counts toward unlimited. Please consider this when you sign up for teams. With your required classes you are already half way towards unlimited.
Tuition prices are for the month and will not be pro rated for missed classes or vacations. If you are planning a vacation or you will be missing a class for extra curricular, it is the parents responsibility to put in writing the days you will be missing and turn it in to the front office at least 1 week in advance. The only exception to this is sudden illness. Please to not leave a verbal message as everyone is very busy and the information may not get to the people who need it.
Teachers will be taking roll in class this season. We will input it in studio director and send you a monthly report.
Competition dancers will pay full tuition for the full competition season beginning at registration in September 2011 through July 31, 2012.
Extra Curricular Activities At Dolce we understand and encourage our kids to be well rounded in their lives. We will have approx. 70 competition dancers this season and that means approx 70 schedules to work around. That being said, if you have chosen to be a part of Dolce Travel Teams, we need Dolce to be your top priority. We will do our best to accommodate your schedules, but if a conflict arises Dolce will need to be the priority. We will need all band, cheer, song, sports, Prom, Formal, and ect. Schedules ASAP. We need these dates to confirm our competition schedule. We will finalize our competition schedule by October at the latest.
Entry Fees All entry fees will be due 6 weeks prior to the competition date. Everyone will receive a competition book outlining when, where, and how much each competition will be. Our est. Studio Entry fees will be around $16,000 each competition, because of this we will not be able to submit entries until everyone has paid. If your entry fees are not paid by the deadline, you will be charged a $15.00 late fee per routine that you have caused to be entered late. We will also consider the alternate for that competition
Attendance It is extremely important to the development of your dancer to attend all required technique classes. If you are not able to commit to the training please consider a local only team and not travel teams. All the dancers on each team deserve the best and if you do not train you will let yourself and your team down. Any dancer who is not attending their required classes will not be able to do a solo, duet, trio, or private lessons and an alternate will step in until their attendance improves.
We can only help you grow as a dancer if you are attending technique classes. Your future dance development depends on your commitment to yourself. We are 100% committed to helping every dancer achieve their personal goals
Dance Clothing Do not come to class is baggy shirts and gym shorts!!! Please wear form-fitting clothing as it helps the teachers see what needs to be corrected. During choreography you will be required to wear black. When choreography is complete please follow the classroom dress requirements. Jazz shoes are required for all technique classes and hair should be in a ponytail or bun.
Ballet Technique Classes All competitive dancers are required to take a minimum of 1 ballet class per week with Shirley. This is a MANDATORY class. The only exception is if you are competiting in only Tap and/or Hip Hop.
Shirley Winters Ballet is a separate program from Dolce. All ballet classes will be paid directly to Shirley. Shirley has agreed to give a discounted rate to Dolce competition kids for their required 1 hour per week class. She will charge $25 per month for the Dolce ballet class. Any additional classes will be at the regular rate.
Costumes and Team Sweats All Dolce Competitive dancers are required to wear the Dolce Team Jackets at all competitions or events we do as a team.
We will be keeping our new competition team wear this year. We keep our team wear for 2-3 years. Please consider ordering a little big to fully cover your costume and allow for growth. A deposit of $100.00 will be due September 1, 2011. The balance is due upon delivery.
Costumes for competition teams and duet trios, usually run between $200.00 and $275.00 for each group costumes and $250.00 - $400.00 for solo costumes. (this cost includes rhinestones) If you have a limit to what you want to spend on a solo costume, please let us know at tryouts. Please keep in mind that rhinestones are a huge portion of the cost. If you are interested in purchasing a used costume for a solo or duet/trio please note this on your try out form.
Our first costume deposit will be due on Sept 1, 2011. The first costume deposit will be $100.00 per team, solo, duet, and trio. We will charge your accounts $50.00 per costume on October 15th and November 15th. The costume balances will be due upon completion of each costume. Your $300.00 tryout deposit will be credited to your account in January, 2012. All costume deposits are non-refundable. Our seamstress requires ½ of the estimated balance up front to begin our costumes, if you have not paid your deposits on time your costume will not be made. Once our competition practices begin and if your child drops out of a routine, any money deposited towards a costume will not be refunded and you will be responsible for the full price of the costume. If you are unable to complete the season for any reason you agree all costumes will remain with the studio until after National Finals. The costumes will be available for you to pick up 1 week after we return. If you choose not to return your costume, you will be charged the full replacement cost of having another made so a dancer can fill in for the missing dancer.
Choreography Fees- All teams choreographed by Dolce teachers will not be charged a choreography fee. If we bring in outside choreographers for some of our teams, solos, and duet/trios a choreography fee will be charged. If you are interested in having an outside choreographer choreograph a dance for your child please let Kendra and Melissa know ASAP, as they will need to approve all outside choreography and music. You will be responsible for paying all choreography fees for solos, duets, and trios along with weekly private lesson fees. If your child drops out of the season or is unable to attend a competition you will be charged a $100.00 choreography fee per routine that needs to be changed. You will also be responsible for the replacement dancer’s entry fees and loaning them your costume. This fee is due to the extra hours the choreographer has to put in re-choreographing the routine.
Conventions and Intensives We encourage our dancers to take advantage of these training opportunities. We are also looking into a few really great convention/competitions that we feel would be great for our dancers.
Extra Practices Dolce will have choreography weekends the month of September. Dolce may schedule extra practices during Thanksgiving and Christmas break in preparation for the beginning of the season. We appreciate everyone’s effort to attend any extra practices and there will be no extra fees for extra practices.
Closed Competition Practices Dolce will be closing all competition team practices for the 2011/2012 season. After choreography is completed we will open each competition classes for viewing.
Recital is mandatory for all competition dancers. This is a special time for family and friends to come and see what you have worked so hard to achieve. It makes it difficult to see how great a dance is if people are missing. A dancer’s absence is not fair to the rest of the team.
Recital costume $ 80.00-125.00 Recital tickets 5 @ $12.00 -$60.00 Mandatory sale of 5 tickets for all competition families
We will be selling program ads this year as a fundraiser.
Community Service Dolce Dance Studio would like to give back to the community by performing at events for kids. The things that are important to us are Valley Children’s Hospital, Margery Mason Center, and the Big Sister programs. In addition to possibly performing for any and all of these organizations we will do some fundraisers thought the year. Toys for tots, car wash, ect. Please encourage your children to participate; it is a great feeling to give.
Check Policy Dolce does except personal checks, however if you have a check returned there will be a $25.00 return check fee and checks will no longer be accepted
Sponsorship Program We are currently working on obtaining sponsors for our competition dancers in need. In addition to sponsorship we will be offering some great and easy fundraising options that will help off set the cost of competition. Please watch for fund raising options coming soon.
Save Mart Center has been a huge fundraising opportunity for the families that are participating. Some families have earned up to $800.00 in a month!!
We are also working on getting a fireworks stand for 2012. This has the potential to earn $10,000.00-15,000.00 for the group.
If you have a business or know of someone interested in sponsoring please let me know and I can provide you with a request letter and I will send a receipt of payment along with our tax id #. If you are in need of sponsorship help please submit a letter of request and a brief statement of explanation to Kim. All letters and sponsorship will remain private. If you request and receive any Dolce given scholarship you will not be able to compete a solo, duet, or trio. Please consider this before submitting your request.
Solo cost Choreography cost $300.00 (this includes ½ hour private until you know the dance or 4 lessons whichever comes first) Weekly private lessons 30 minutes $30.00 Entry fees for solos are between $85.00 and $105.00 each competition. Solo costumes run $250.00 to $400.00 (we will have a costume exchange and if you find a costume it will usually be about half price)
Duet and Trios Choreography cost $350.00 (this includes ½ hour private until you know the dance or 4 lessons whichever comes first) Weekly private lessons 30 minutes $30.00 (this cost is shared with your partner) Entry fees for duet/trios are between $90.00 and $115.00 each competition. (this cost is shared with your partner) Duet/Trio costumes run $200-$300 each person (we will have a costume exchange and if you find a costume it will usually be about half price)
Outside choreography rates Renee Baldwin, Lauren Zimmerer, Chris Todar - $100 per dancer for large group and $150 per dancer for Small group.
Competition Winnings Breakdown If you are on a team, solo, or duet/trio and you win money at a competition, the breakdown will be applied as follows.
Money won will be credited to your account as it comes in. Most competitions pay winnings within 4-6 weeks.
Soloist will receive 75% of their winnings and the remaining 25% will go to the teacher that runs your dance weekly and at competitions
Duet/Trios will receive 75% of their winnings and the remaining 25% will go to the teacher that runs your dance weekly and at competitions
Groups will receive 75% of their winnings and the remaining 25% will go to the teacher that runs your dance weekly and at competitions
Please remember teachers do not get paid for the time they are at competitions and they are there for all the students 12-14 hours a day.
Optional Competitions If you choose to attend any competitions in addition to our scheduled competitions, Dolce will be happy to enter them for you. Your account must be current and your entry fees must be paid in advance. You are responsible for letting us know far enough in advance to get your entries in.
Teacher Travel Fee and Prop Transportation Charge We will charge a fee per competition this season. All costs will be added and divided evenly between families.
Prop construction fee If a teacher feels it is essential to a dance, a prop will be reused, refurbished or constructed for the dance. This cost is split evenly amongst all dancers. This prop is then kept at the studio for future use.
Please see the attached forms, sign and return as soon as possible.
2011-2012 Local Competition Information and Contract
Dolce Local Competition Teams
Dolce Local Competition Teams are designed for dancers who would like the experience of performing for an audience but are not ready for our Travel Competition teams or able to commit themselves to the training needed for travel competition teams. This program has fewer requirements and performs at local events only. This is a great start for dancers who are considering competition, but want to get their feet wet first or dancers who cannot commit to travel. The number of teams available will depend on the interest of our dancers. We will need a minimum of 5 dancers to form a team. Local only competition dancers will not be able to compete a solo or duet/trio.
What is needed for local competition teams?
• All dancers must turn in their audition form by August 20th, 2011
• Attend the Local Competition team parents meeting on August 25th at 6 pm
• It is recommend that your child take the summer session at Dolce
• All students must be current on tuition
What is expected after my child makes the Local Competition Team?
• All Local team dancers are required to take 2 technique class per week in addition to their team class. That is a 3-hour per week commitment for 1-2 teams.
• Local only teams will compete in at least 3 local competitions
• Local only teams will perform at any local event with Dolce Competition teams Examples: Christmas parade, school carnivals, in the mall, pep competitions
Attend summer session at Dolce Dance
Annual recital in June or July 2012
Estimated Cost for Performing Team
• Costume Estimate $150.00 – $175.00 per costume including rhinestones
• Competition Fees estimate $35-40 per competition per group
• Monthly tuition
• Props
Please note this estimate does not include shoes, tights, or props.