"Why does teaching students to dance and sing have to be cheap?"

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, a choreographer in Hanoi was upset when many parents said that the price of 8 million VND to stage a performance was too expensive.

"8 million VND for script writing, music making, teaching the children for at least 5 sessions and 1 rehearsal before the performance. The number of students can be up to 35-40. All are the brains of artistic creativity and sweat of labor.

"Why does teaching students to dance and sing have to be cheap?", the female choreographer asked.

Starting from the story of a class at Nguyen Chi Thanh Secondary School, Ho Chi Minh City, spending 21 million VND on a performance to celebrate November 20, the female choreographer said that most of the comments she read criticized the parents' committee and the choreographer.

"The reason netizens object is because they do not fully understand the value of art education in schools," the choreographer expressed his personal opinion.

According to her, the salary for staging a school art performance in Hanoi is usually from 4-15 million VND, below 4 million VND no one will accept.

In particular, the 4-5 million VND level is only for special relationships, simple performances, not too many students, does not require any distinctive elements or special scripts, and does not compete for awards.

The level of 8-10 million VND is more common with the requirement of having a clear script, educational significance, good artistry, not copied from the internet, and the ability to compete for awards.

The level of 13-15 million VND is usually ordered by the school's parents, requiring the integration of interdisciplinary educational content including literature - history - local education - civic education, while ensuring high artistic value, unlike any previous work.

"With each request from parents, choreographers will create different works, with different intellectual content.

The more elaborate and unique the performance, the more skilled the choreographer is required. Because not only do they have to come up with ideas and write a script, the choreographer also has to realize that script in the most eye-catching and attractive way on stage.

What's more difficult is that the script must be feasible, all students must be able to dance and dance beautifully," the female choreographer shared.

She added that the above remuneration only applies to schools, where funding is mobilized from parents. For businesses, the remuneration for choreography will be higher.

This fee does not include the cost of renting props and costumes. The cost of renting props and costumes depends not only on the quality but also on the number of students participating in the performance and the complexity of the script.

"In the list of the class's parents' association, I saw that the choreography fee was 10 million VND, but the number of rehearsals was 10, which is twice as much as usual. The cost of renting props and costumes was 5.6 million VND. I guessed that this was a class performance, with 100% of the students participating.

In Hanoi, this is the cost for "family" relationships," the female choreographer commented.

School art is different now than it used to be.

An elementary school music teacher told Dan Tri reporter: "The cost of school arts is a sensitive issue. Most parents still consider art a secondary subject in school and arts activities are for fun, it's okay to have them, it's okay not to have them."

According to the female teacher, school art is an educational activity, organized on major holidays in schools such as the opening ceremony, November 20 and the closing ceremony. In particular, art competitions often take place on the occasion of November 20 - Vietnamese Teachers' Day.

This is also an event where parents often have to contribute money for their children to practice and have a good performance.

According to this teacher, in the past, school arts were not valued, so they were mainly "homegrown". However, now, in big cities, where cultural and entertainment life is increasingly improved, the requirements for school arts are different from before.

Since art was included in the new general education program as an important component of comprehensive education, school arts must also change to truly shoulder the responsibility of aesthetic education for students.

Many schools that innovate teaching and learning methods also use art as a tool to convey knowledge, especially interdisciplinary education content.

"The above factors have affected the "quality" and "quantity" of school arts, making this activity more professional. To be professional, there must be funding. Most schools need the support of parents to socialize arts activities," the female teacher shared.

Regarding the figure of 21 million VND for a performance, this teacher said that it cannot be evaluated as high or low, much or little. Each figure must be based on the economic level of the parents and their needs and desires.

The female teacher commented that each parent has different educational goals, leading to different assessments of the value of a performance.

"From a personal perspective, as a music teacher, I think a special school performance is worth investing in.

Parents in the city can invest tens of millions for an IELTS course, so if they invest 400,000-500,000 VND for a performance with many practice sessions and receive a lot of value from that activity, it cannot be said to be high, in general," said the female teacher.