Arangetram fee in USA - $40,000?

ramapati · Post by **ramapati** » 25 Nov 2008, 13:46

Ooops. In the first sentence, what I meant was that I'd no clue about the expenses in USA.

foreigndesi · Post by **foreigndesi** » 16 Jun 2009, 01:19

To the people who didn't have a live orchestra, a live orchestra is infact KEY. When one can dance along with a live orchestra, one really understands how to be a dancer, and adjust to that. It is possible to find local Artists though, it might require some research but it is possible.

Arangetrams (Including classes) at my school are about $15000 Canadian. We have live music with local artists, two costumes only, modest decorations, light snacks (no meals or gifts, the main focus is the dancing!), and an evening of dancing. One thing that we're not stingy about is classes, at the end of the day you want the dancing to be the best, and everything is secondary.

At our school brochures/ printed invitations are optional, so there are opportunties to make it less. Maybe you should consider all the expenses of your friend, very few things are necessary (Sometimes a good auditorium is a good investment because it really sets the professional ambience for the show)

pradina · Post by **pradina** » 16 Jun 2009, 20:19

I did my arangetram recently in VA. I found a theater at a local community center. Other than my class fees, all costs (including live orchestra, transportation, two non-silk costumes, theater rental, brochures, invitations, other material printing, intermission snacks) came to about $5000.

Most of the invitations were sent as evites. I designed my invitations (print & evite), programme sheet & other publicity material. My friends designed my brochure. So only printing costs were involved. Most of the printing was done in India, which also helps. We did the photo session at home and I edited my pictures to studio-quality. Photoshop rules! I had family members do the video recording.

All in all, the only major financial investments were classes & orchestra. Good to have time and some good friends/family on your side as well. All else is entirely scaleable.

nthek · Post by **nthek** » 01 Jul 2009, 10:39

There are other teachers in the Bay Area including Sundara Swaminathan, Savitha Sastry and Katherine Kunjiraman who are all excellent dancers and teachers. I have worked closely with two of these teachers and they are very understanding in each individual students financial situation in conducting an arangetram.

I suggest looking at the india currents and attending different arangetrams and productions by these teachers to assess the quality of the students and the grandeur of the programs.

All the best!!
nthek

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 02 Jul 2009, 21:11

Pradina,
I loved your post. What a smart person you are--and hopefully a trend-setter too! Just yesterday, a friend was lamenting about how some young women, when it comes to their weddings (arangETRams too, I guess) want to go the nine yards and more, trying to keep up with the Joneses. While we vidESi parents and grandparents love to see our children imbibe the values of both cultures, there is a trend where they are influenced by the 'I want pomp and circumstances' elements from both!
Of course, some parents go along with it too, or worse, go for it even if the children are not for it. Given the economic times, offsprings AND parents can now start to think anew and be practical without sacrificing the aesthetic side of the occasion.
Your post is a good example. Intelligent thinking and planning has gone into it...
Wishing you many years of enjoyment from dancing...

pradina · Post by **pradina** » 03 Jul 2009, 00:57

Arasi,

Thank you. I'm no trendsetter by any means. My point was simple - keep the focus on dance. I just refused to follow the norm. If something didn't make sense to me, I didn't do it (in some instances, tried not to). It was probably to easier to make my choices as I was the organizer too. Making the choices was easy, but execution was something else altogether. Any time I digressed, my better half was sure to give me a little nudge

Unfortunately, the imbibing of culture amongst dEsis/vidEsis is applied only superficially. There is so much fuss about the costume(s), photos/video, theater, food, etc., etc. Art, unfortunately, is lost amidst all this. That the arangetram is considered a graduation... well, any dancer worth his/her salt knows how preposterous that is.

It was an uphill battle at times. You will not believe some of the suggestions from random sources. But, I think I got my way through most of it.

Most of all, I enjoyed it.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 03 Jul 2009, 01:51

Pradina: The big expense you wisely saved is on that dinner. Last summer, my friend spent $18 a plate for dinner for his daughter's arangetram. 1000 people showed up!

BTW, the original poster in this thread mentioned that the dance school wanted that much money just for the arangetram which included the orchestra, teacher's special fees and the special two weeks of training. Does your $5000 include those arangetram-specific teacher/dance school related expenses?

pradina · Post by **pradina** » 03 Jul 2009, 03:30

pradina wrote:Other than my class fees, all costs (including live orchestra, transportation, two non-silk costumes, theater rental, brochures, invitations, other material printing, intermission snacks) came to about $5000.

My earlier quote (above) should be "Including classes, all costs came to about $5000"

Vasanthakokilam, you are spot on. I avoided the whole dinner scenario. Only about 20-25 ppl for dinner, including guru's family, musicians, family, & close friends. That cost has also been included above.

The event, however, was open to all. It was between 4 and 6:30 pm, so people could make their own dinner plans after the show. Like attending a typical kutcheri.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 03 Jul 2009, 04:44

Pradina,
I would imagine the guests were offered some light refreshment.

VK,
From what I hear, your friend did not get hit that badly when it came to dinner expenses!

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 03 Jul 2009, 04:56

pradina wisely and smartly avoided the unnessasary and still accomplished what she set out.

pradina · Post by **pradina** » 03 Jul 2009, 06:07

arasi wrote:Pradina,
I would imagine the guests were offered some light refreshment.

Single-serve packs of chips & cookies, and couple varieties of soda.

sudharani · Post by **sudharani** » 03 Jul 2009, 15:22

Those dance students who pay $1500 for 10 days of Dhananjayans' Yogaville camp, say that the $40000 for arangetram looks cheap.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 03 Jul 2009, 22:21

I do not get it. Assuming 6 hour days with the camp, that comes to $25 an hour. High but not outrageous. Let us assume the dance school spends 120 hours of special training in the 3 weeks before the arangetram, that should be only $3000. Let us assume two people are involved. That is $6000.00. Add another $2000 as special guru fees for arangetram, I do not see more than $8000 to the dance school. And I think I am being very generous in my calculations.

sudharani · Post by **sudharani** » 03 Jul 2009, 22:38

vasanthakokilam wrote: Assuming 6 hour days with the camp, that comes to $25 an hour. High but not outrageous.

You know how many students there are in one group? Not many gurus can make $30,000 in 10 days, or can spend $1,000,000 to set up a dance school in a small village in the jungles.

vasanthakokilam wrote: Let us assume the dance school spends 120 hours of special training in the 3 weeks before the arangetram,

I don't get it. The 'special training' does not happen in a group of 20, does it? It's one-to-one, and if it is done in just 3 weeks before the arangetram, such is the outcome: very poor.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 04 Jul 2009, 01:01

Sudharani: BTW, I was not questioning your assessment but the impression of someone else who you quoted, in bringing in Dhananjayans' fees and the $40000 for the arangetram. Hence my side by side comparison in trying to see where the $40000 comes from. I agree those two are different things. If it is a rhetorical comment, that is perfectly fine.

I do not have any issues with Dhananjayans' making $30000 in 10 days. Good for them, sounds like the profession many people dream of. That is the way to do it, it does not feel like each student is paying a lot but the economy of scale lets them make decent money. That is the way business is done. That is why these summer CM workshops are a great money making opportunity for artists.