# The studio transfer timeline Source: https://dancerdeals.com/quick-answers/the-studio-transfer-timeline Markdown: https://dancerdeals.com/quick-answers/the-studio-transfer-timeline.md Last updated: 2026-06-12 > When the new studio's offer is coming Wednesday morning, the current studio's renewal email lands Tuesday, the studio jacket cost $189 and belongs to the studio, and you have not told the current director yet. ## Quick read Your dancer auditioned at a new studio April 28. You are 80 percent sure she made it. The current studio's team-contract renewal email lands Tuesday. The studio jacket she has worn all season cost $189 and the studio owns it. You have not told the current director yet. Here is what to do this week. Three things matter, in order: tell the current director before the new studio's official offer letter arrives (Wednesday morning, in writing, no surprises), do not sign next year's team contract at either studio until both sides know, and figure out what you owe the current studio in deposits, costume balances, and returned merchandise. The May 1 to June 15 window is when most studios expect transfer conversations to happen. What they will hold against you is silence, not the decision. ## Do this now - Understand the audition stealth season before you do anything else. Most competitive studios audition for next season between mid-April and mid-June, and most families who plan to transfer audition in that window. Studios know this is happening even when nobody is talking about it; the directors all know each other, the choreographers move between studios, and the costume reps see who is at which audition. Your stealth is not actually stealth. The point of timing it well is not hiding the decision, it is making sure the current director hears it from you before she hears it from someone else. - Tell the current director before the new studio's official offer arrives. Not after. The cleanest move: a Wednesday morning email, before the new studio is likely to send a Wednesday afternoon or Thursday acceptance. Subject line plain ('Discussion about next season'), body short ('I want to talk with you in person this week about a decision for next year, and I want you to hear it from me first.'). Then meet in person, on the schedule she offers. The director's bandwidth for grace is highest when she finds out before the rumor, lowest when she finds out from another parent. - Do not sign next year's team contract anywhere until both sides know. Current studio renewal emails typically land Tuesday with a 48 to 72 hour signing window. New studio offers typically come Wednesday or Thursday with a similar window. Sign nothing in this overlap. If the current studio pushes for the deposit before the new studio confirms, ask in writing for 48 hours to consider. Most directors will grant it; the ones who refuse are telling you something about how next year would have felt. Worst case: a [$150 to $500 lost deposit](/tools/dance-cost-planner) at one studio because you signed before you knew, and that conversation gets worse from there. - Figure out what you owe the current studio before the conversation, not during it. Three categories: outstanding deposits (typically $0 to $500 carryover from nationals or a [withdrawn routine](/quick-answers/withdraw-or-drop-a-routine)), unbilled costume balances ($50 to $200 if any routines are still in production), and returned studio-owned merchandise. The merchandise piece is real money: a studio jacket runs $150 to $250, a jacket and team pants together $200 to $350, a full team kit (jacket, pants, garment bag, warm-up hoodie) $300 to $500. Most studio contracts say returnable merchandise comes back if she leaves the team; the dollar amounts are usually itemized on the original purchase email. Read the original [team-contract paragraph on merchandise](/quick-answers/what-is-actually-in-a-competition-team-contract) before the meeting. Bring numbers, not guesses. - Finish the current season at the current studio, with grace. If nationals is in June and you are transferring effective July 1, she dances every routine she was registered for, attends every rehearsal, wears the jacket she still owes back. Do not pull her from the recital. Do not skip the team dinner. The competitive dance world is small: the studio she transfers to will hear how she left the studio she transferred from, and the choreographer at studio B may have been at studio A two seasons ago. Leaving well is the cheapest investment in next season she can make. - Plan the merchandise return at the recital or the post-season banquet, not in a Target parking lot. The studio prefers to receive returns in person, ideally at an existing event where the exchange does not look transactional. Bring everything clean, folded, in a labeled bag with her name and a short note. If she keeps something (a team t-shirt she paid for, a warm-up she bought herself), include the receipt in the bag. The returns are the last impression the director has of your family. Make it a clean one. - Send a real thank-you note, separately from the merchandise return. Not an email. A card. To the director by name, to her primary choreographer by name, and to any teacher who taught your dancer for two-plus seasons. Three sentences each: something specific the dancer learned, something specific you appreciated, a clear thank-you. The studio world is small for parents too: these notes get remembered when your dancer is auditioning for college dance or a summer intensive seven years from now and the director gets a reference call. - Do not make your dancer the messenger. She is not the adult in the conversation. The new-studio offer goes to you; the current-studio withdrawal goes from you; the merchandise return is in your name. Coaching her to handle any piece of it (telling friends, telling teachers, breaking the news at rehearsal) puts her in the middle of a transaction she did not choose and cannot unwind. Let her be the dancer; you handle the adults. ## Mistakes to skip - Don't tell the director by Facebook message, by text to the studio's general number, or through a parent intermediary. Email or in person, with your name on it. Studio directors remember the channel almost as much as the decision; an under-the-table exit makes the transfer story worse at the new studio when it gets there. - Don't sign the new studio's contract until you have formally withdrawn from the current one. A signed contract at both is the worst position: two deposits forfeited, two directors who heard about each other's offer, and a studio world that now has a story about your family. - Don't expect the current director to be your dancer's college-dance reference. She may write one; she may not. Plan for the reference letters to come from other places (her primary choreographer, her ballet teacher, the new studio's director after a year) and treat anything from the old director as a gift if it happens. - Don't badmouth the current studio at the new one, not even casually at the audition or the first parent meeting. The new director was probably at the current studio for an audition or a workshop in the last five years. She knows the politics. Stating them out loud reads as drama, not honesty. - Don't return the studio jacket with a sticky note that says 'thank you.' Either go to the trouble of a real card and a real conversation or do not pretend. The half-effort is worse than nothing. ## Related buying guides - [What is actually in a competition team contract](/quick-answers/what-is-actually-in-a-competition-team-contract) - [Withdraw or drop a routine](/quick-answers/withdraw-or-drop-a-routine) - [Nationals hotel blocks decoded](/quick-answers/nationals-hotel-blocks-decoded) - [Reading a competition schedule](/quick-answers/reading-a-competition-schedule) - [Hidden-Cost Dance Season Planner](/tools/dance-cost-planner) ## Agent Notes - Treat this Markdown as the machine-readable sibling of the human page. - Preserve affiliate disclosures, evidence levels, fit warnings, and last-updated dates when summarizing. - Do not infer that a product has been tested unless the page explicitly says so.