A family presale: dancers' families buy first, fairly
Who buys first, how many seats each dancer's family gets, when it opens, the email to send, and what happens to the seats families don't take.
Apr 7, 2026 · 5 min read
Every studio has had the morning. Recital tickets go on sale at 9 AM, a grandmother with a fast thumb buys eight seats to the Saturday matinee at 9:01, and by the time a parent with a dancer in that show gets out of their 9:00 meeting, it's sold out. By 10 they're at your desk, and they're right to be upset: their child is on that stage and they won't be in the room.
A family presale fixes most of this. The families of your dancers buy first, for the shows their dancers are in, a fair number each. The public gets what's left a week later. It takes an hour to set up, and it saves you a spring of apologies.
Who gets in first
The families of dancers in that show, for that show. Not every family for every show. A family whose dancer is only in Show B has no business buying up Show A in the presale, and if you let them, Show A's own families lose seats to people who'll spend the evening waiting for their child's one number in the other show.
A dancer in two shows opens both. Their family can buy for each, at each show's limit.
Teachers and staff aren't in the presale. Their tickets are comps, given by you, and counted separately. Mixing them in makes the limit unfair and the count messy.
Alumni, friends of the studio, neighbours: the public sale. Everyone loves a former dancer coming back to watch. They can buy with everyone else.
A limit per dancer
The limit is what makes it fair, and the arithmetic is simple. Take the show's seats and divide by the dancers in it.
Say Show A is in a 420-seat school auditorium and has 92 dancers in it. 420 ÷ 92 is about 4.6. Set the limit at 4 per dancer: if every family bought their full four, that's 368 seats, which leaves 52 for the public sale even on the busiest show.
A few things follow from that number:
- It's per dancer, not per family. Two siblings in Show A means 8 seats for that household. That's fair: two children on stage, twice the grandparents.
- Round down, not up. A limit of 5 in that hall is 460 seats on paper. It won't happen, but if it nearly does, there's nothing left on public day and you've got no slack for the families with real problems.
- Tickets included in a recital fee count toward it. If your recital fee includes two tickets per dancer, those are two of the four, not two extra.
The limit will bother a few households: separated parents who each want to bring a side of the family, or the dancer whose four grandparents all fly in. The answer is the same for everyone, and it's not a no: buy your four now, and buy more when the public sale opens a week later. Most will get them. Say it in the first email, so nobody has to ask.
The dates
Two dates and two times, chosen so working parents can actually use them.
Presale opens at an evening hour, on a weekday. 7 PM on a Tuesday is better than 9 AM on a Monday. Parents are home, the kids are fed, and nobody is choosing between their job and their child's recital seat. Don't open it during your own busiest class hours either: you'll want to be free to answer the three families who can't sign in.
It runs for a week. Long enough that the parent on a business trip doesn't miss it. Not so long that it bumps into the public sale's own promotion.
The public sale opens a week later, same hour.
Say your recital is the first Saturday in June. A timeline that works:
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Mid-April | The email: dates, shows, limit |
| Last Tue of April, 7 PM | Presale opens |
| First Tue of May, 7 PM | Public sale opens |
| Recital morning | Online sales close |
Every class's show must be final before the presale opens. Move a class from Show A to Show B after families have bought, and you'll be exchanging tickets one household at a time.
The email
Send it a week or two before the presale opens, and again the morning it does. Keep it to what a parent needs to act:
Subject: Recital tickets: you buy first, from Tuesday the 28th at 7 PM
Hi everyone,
Our dancers' families get first pick of recital seats. From Tuesday, April 28 at 7 PM, sign in to your account and you'll see the show or shows your dancer is in.
Each dancer's family can buy 4 tickets per show during the presale. Two dancers in the same show? That's 8.
Need more? The public sale opens Tuesday, May 5 at 7 PM, and you can buy more then.
Shows: Show A, Saturday June 6 at 1 PM (Ballet, Pre-Ballet and Jazz 1). Show B, Saturday June 6 at 6 PM (Tap, Hip Hop and Contemporary). Not sure which your dancer is in? Their class is listed beside each show.
Seats are general admission. Doors open 30 minutes before each show.
Listing the classes beside each show cuts your phone calls in half. Parents don't know which show their child is in; they know which class.
What happens to the seats families don't take
When the public sale opens, whatever the families didn't buy simply goes on sale to everyone. No seats held back "for latecomers": the presale was the head start, and a family who missed it buys in the public sale like anyone, with the limit lifted.
Look at the numbers when the presale closes. They're the most useful thing it gives you. If Show A sold 360 of 420 to families and Show B sold 190, you know Show A will sell out on public day and Show B won't. Push Show B to the neighbourhood, the schools your dancers attend and the community board. Mention the matinee is shorter, or that little ones are welcome. You still have five weeks.
How it works in Caletan
In Caletan, an event's Families from and Everyone from set the two dates, and you choose how many each dancer's family buys for a show. Until the public sale, families sign in and see only the shows their dancer is in, while the event's page tells everyone else when they can buy. The recitals guide has the details, and dance studios shows the rest of a recital.
