Everyone jokes about how expensive competitive dance is.
And yes… it is.
But money isn’t actually the thing that keeps most dance parents up at night.
Costumes. Competition fees. Travel. Shoes. Makeup. Hotel rooms. Extra rehearsals.
None of that is a surprise. Most parents know what they’re signing up for before their kid ever steps on a competition stage.
Money is something I think about.
But it’s not the thing that sits in the back of my mind all season.
The real worries look a little different.
Injuries
7 is incredibly flexible.
Which sounds great in dance… until you realize flexible kids can push their bodies farther than they probably should.
That’s something I watch closely.
Recently, she dealt with Sever’s disease, which is inflammation in the growth plate of the heel. It’s common in active kids who run and jump a lot.
For dancers, that means heel pain during the exact thing they love doing.
It healed, but it was a reminder that their bodies are still growing.
Dance asks a lot from young bodies.
And sometimes the hardest part as a parent is figuring out where dedication ends and pushing too far begins.
When Something Kids Love Takes Over Life
7 truly loves dance.
But dance also has a way of taking over the calendar.
Classes. Rehearsals. Competitions. Team events.
Entire weekends disappear.
And while she loves it, I still think about balance.
I never want dance to become the reason she misses every other fun part of childhood.
At the same time, dance teaches something important too.
You don’t get the exciting parts — competitions, travel, trophies — without the work that comes first.
That’s part of the deal.
Loving Dance Even Without the Trophy
As dancers get older, competitions get harder.
At some point most dancers learn they won’t always place.
That’s something I think about as 7 gets older.
I want her to love dance whether she places or not.
Because if the only reason you love something is the trophy at the end, the love usually doesn’t last very long.
The New Challenge This Year
This season brought something we didn’t expect.
7 was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
Before that she was rarely the kid who came home from activities completely wiped out.
Lately though, some days she hits a wall.
It’s part of learning how her body works now and figuring out how everything fits together.
If you want to understand what that diagnosis looked like for our family in the beginning, I wrote more about it in The Day My Daughter Was Diagnosed – And How Fast Everything Changed.
We’re still learning.
The Other Kids
Another thing that stays in the back of my mind is the rest of our kids.
Dance can easily dominate family life.
Practices fill evenings. Competitions take over weekends.
Now that two more of our kids are on the Intermediate team, it actually helps because we’re spending that time with multiple kids at once.
Last season looked a little different.
One child was dancing at one competition while another was competing somewhere else entirely.
Which meant splitting up and juggling schedules.
Dance may revolve around one kid’s activity, but it always ends up involving the whole family.
A lot of the work that keeps everything moving happens behind the scenes, which I wrote more about in The Hidden Work of Being the Default Parent.
Competition Days
I grew up dancing through middle school and my older kids danced recreationally.
We’ve all been at the same studio 5, 6, and 7 now attend.
So I knew dance would take over our schedule.
What I didn’t fully appreciate until competition season was the chaos of new venues.
Every competition starts the same way.
Parents wandering hallways.
Dancers trying to find dressing rooms.
Everyone asking where the stage entrance is.
By day two everyone figures it out.
Then the next competition is at a completely different venue and the process starts all over again.
The Real Competition Worry
My biggest concern during competition weekends isn’t scores.
It’s the little things.
Forgetting part of a costume.
Leaving a pair of shoes at home.
Losing a hair accessory that suddenly becomes critical three minutes before a routine.
Or realizing I read the schedule wrong.
Those are the things that make dance parents hold their breath.
Why We Still Do It
Despite all of those worries, dance has given my kids incredible opportunities.
Confidence.
Friendships.
Discipline.
Watching dancers improve and step on stage with confidence is something special.
And in the end, those moments make the chaos worth it.
Photo by Rob Laughter on Unsplash
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