From being a personal taxi service, to classes, competitions and shows, to styling hair, applying make up and sewing costumes, it would be challenging to dance without this support. Any dancer who is aspiring to do more is going to leap at any opportunity to take more classes and perform more often. There is no doubt that lots of time and effort is therefore invested into ensuring that classes are attended and costumes are suitable, and sometimes they are required to be decorated too.

The preparation of dance shoes, particularly ballet and pointe shoes, is also imperative, with dancers often requiring different pairs for different performances. Ribbons must be sewn on and various amendments must often be made before they are danced in; it is a common notion however that if the dancer is old enough to dance en pointe, they are old enough to use a needle and thread!

In order to adequately prepare the dancer for whichever journey dance takes them on, there are undoubtedly sacrifices parents and carers will have had to make in order for young dancers to fall in love with it. Perhaps they have gone without in order to pay for new dance shoes, or sat up until the early hours tweaking costumes. Lots of money and energy has gone into the dance experience, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

"Royal Ballet School" by scillystuff is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/