Guide · For dance schools
Dance recital planning checklist: from manual chaos to digital clarity
A practical, week-by-week checklist for studio directors running recitals, showcases, and end-of-year performances — covering performer intake, safeguarding, schedules, and backstage.
12 weeks out — set the foundations
- Confirm venue, dates, and technical rider. Lock the ticketing partner.
- Draft the show page: title, hero blurb, safeguarding policy, tickets.
- Decide which performer groups need their own intake forms (main cast, ensemble, guest performers, staff).
- Publish a private studio-only preview link so directors can proof the content before parents see it.
Performer intake — one source of truth
The single biggest source of recital-week panic is scattered performer information. Guardians email one address, notes are in a shared doc, allergies are in a WhatsApp reply from four weeks ago.
- Ask each family to complete a digital intake form with performer name, date of birth, guardian contacts, emergency contact, medical notes, authorised pickup, and media consent.
- Branch questions by age: under-18 performers need guardian and authorised-adult fields; adult performers submit their own contact details.
- Set a deadline visible on the form. Close submissions automatically when it passes.
- Export the roster as CSV for stage managers before tech week.
Safeguarding — always current, always visible
Your safeguarding policy should be one click from every show page, and it should always be the latest version. Emailing a PDF once at the start of the term is not enough — families forget, new families join, policies change.
- Upload the current policy PDF to the show and display a download link on every public page.
- Capture media-permission consent inside the intake form so the answer is stored per performer, not per email thread.
- Publish authorised-pickup names alongside performer records so front-of-house staff can verify at the door.
Schedules — dates parents actually read
A single "important dates" page beats a chain of emails. Group rehearsals, fittings, tech runs, and call times together with the venue and any arrival instructions.
- Publish each date with start time, end time, venue, and a short arrival note (side door, quiet entry, warm-up room).
- Use "arrival" language rather than "call time" for parent-facing pages — it removes ambiguity.
- Post live updates when anything changes: a delayed start, a moved fitting, a new pickup location. Parents will trust one channel if it is always current.
Backstage clarity — costumes, rules, expectations
Backstage rules should live where families can re-read them the morning of the show, not buried in a mid-term email.
- Publish costume expectations (nude tights, hair, jewellery, makeup) alongside the schedule.
- State backstage rules for guardians clearly — who can come backstage, what happens after each number, what to bring.
- List behaviour expectations for performers in age-appropriate language.
Show week — the daily loop
- Morning: check the roster for last-minute intake updates and share medical / allergy notes with the on-site first-aider.
- Afternoon: push a live update if arrival times shift.
- Evening: confirm authorised-pickup adults against your roster at the stage door.
- After the run: archive the show, keep intake records per your data-retention policy, and rotate any shared passwords.
One platform for the whole season
Every item on this checklist becomes lighter when it lives in one place. Show Ready gives each production its own public page, intake forms that adapt to performer age, live schedule updates, and safeguarding policies always attached to the show — so recital week feels like a rehearsal, not a rescue.