Pro/Am comps can be very expensive. It very much depends on how your teacher and studio set you up for the competition, and which competition you attend. In general though, there are two main ways that this works.
The first case is where the competition is sold through the studio as a "package" for the student. The package usually includes the entry fees, the fees paid to your teacher to dance with you, some fees to the studio for organizing and managing entering you, possibly fees to the studio and/or teacher for "lost income" that they would have otherwise earned if they weren't at the competition for you, fees to cover your teacher's travel expenses if the competition is out of town, and charges for admission tickets/programs/meals at the comp/possibly hotel at the comp. In such a situation the student is presented with a very large number and told "this covers X entries", where X is often a very large number like 20,40, 60 or so on. In these situations students are led to believe that there is no room for negotiation, and are asked to spend anywhere up to as much as $10,000 to compete! It seems that fees of $1500-$5000 and the most common.
Now, before you pass out from these figures, let me explain the other option. Some studios, and also independent teachers who aren't contracted with a specific studio or franchise system, do things very differently. They will charge you just your entry fees and a fair "per-dance" fee to pay them for dancing with you at the comp. They will leave it up to you to decide if you want to be on a "package" sold through the competition organizers that includes your tickets and hotel and usually some food, so that if you don't want or need the package you don't have to pay for it. They won't charge you a large mark-up to handle submitting your entries -- heck, many don't charge anything at all for that service. They also often don't charge you for "time lost" by them being at the comp with you, but situations do vary. My point with trying to describe this is to tell you that it's possible to do a Pro/Am competition for a few hundred dollars (as little as $250-$300) rather than the $3000-$5000 figure that I've heard many people complain about.
Here's some money-saving tips to help keep your costs down:
1) Go to a local competition where no one needs to spend the night at a hotel. This will save you money because not only do you not have to pay for your room, but you also don't have to pay for your teacher's room.
2) Limit the number of dances you enter. You might hear a sales pitch telling you to do as many dances as you can to get "time on the floor." This advice is valid, within reason. Personally, I don't see the point in doing more than 5 or 10 entries (4 or 8 if you're doing Smooth) in each style. If you limit yourself to one or two styles, that means dancing 4-20 entries instead of the 60, 80, 100 that some of these competition packages set you up for. I usually enter 5-10 dances per competition, plus the scholarship event for my level. Entry fees (not including payment to your teacher for dancing with you) seem to range from $20-$50 per dance, depending on the competition. Since some competitions are much more expensive than others, you can save money by not going to one that will charge you $50 per dance to enter. Also, if you limit the number of styles you enter, you will save money on costumes and possibly on admission tickets to the ballroom, since the different styles are usually danced in different sessions.
3) Dance with a teacher who only charges a reasonable per-dance or flat fee, and whose studio doesn't charge extra fees for time lost or large fees for administration. The labor to fill out the forms to get you entered into a Pro/Am dance competition is only a few minutes, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 hour per person. It's up to you what you decide to be 'reasonable', but as an example I know teachers who charge $25 per dance plus the entry fee and who don't charge you for filling out and submitting the forms.
4) Don't buy the dinner etc. "package" if you don't want to. Sometimes it is more fun and convenient to buy the package -- especially since some comps have packages that give you discounts off of your dance entry fees, so if you do a certain number of entries you actually spend LESS by being on the package rather than more. You can sometimes figure out from looking at the competition's web site what the package fee is versus the value of the individual components and so determine if you really want to buy it or not. You can also ask your teacher for price information, but don't be suprised if some teachers or studios refuse to tell you. It's a sales tactic that can sometimes hide a lot of fees and charges that you don't really want or need to pay for. Personally, I feel if a studio or teacher won't answer your questions about what you are paying for and why and giving you the option to only pay for what you really want and need, then you should seriously consider taking your business elsewhere.
Ok, I think that's it. In short: in order to save the most amount of money dance locally, limit your styles and number of entries, and don't buy a package unless you determine that it's worth it.
Laura
