Hello fellow dancers! I would like to hear from you what your opinion of a good dance teacher is. What are your likes and dislikes, what can ballroom dance teachers do differently or better? What are our students thinking that they dont tell us from big to small? I work in a chain studio and would like to share your feedback with the staff. thanks!

Wow, you are probably better than most, since you are interested in what students want. I have danced with a chain, and here is some feedback from what people say about our instructors and how I personally feel:

Likes/things instructors do well:
1. Being approachable and genuinely caring about our progress
2. Having fun
3. Periodically asking students how they think things are going.
4. Being an expert/dance resource for students. There is an independent studio by me that is awesome at this. They even referred me to a chain studio that was closer to my house when I moved. I referred a dozen new customers to the old studio and realized it was worth the extra hour commute to go back to them.

Dislikes:
1. Treating every student exactly the same (whether they are 80 years old or 18) and not catering the private lessons to the individual.
2. Not being flexible in how people learn best. One complaint I heard was a teacher (who is an awesome dancer) was teaching a step totally exaggerated with feet off the floor. The student asked her to just do it normally, and she was offended that he was telling her how to teach.
3. Being too slick - focused on sales/appointments booked more than anything else. Not explaining the costs of competitions and events until after people sign up. Using pressure sales/ hard sell techniques.
4. Cancelling group classes when not enough people are there (after the people who did show up might have gone through some effort to get there)
5. People have different preferences about instructors who tell them jokes during lessons, ask about their kids/work/etc. Some love it. Others don't. I love my instructor but would rather not chat during my lesson - I lose focus on dancing. Find out for individuals.
6. Not being a resource for your students and badmouthing other studios. Your students are smarter than you think and there is a good network of dancers outside the chain. They will find out about workshops, comps, etc. If you make it impossible to talk to them openly, you will lose touch with your students and will not understand why they are turning over.
7. Group classes - yelling out spur of the moment which steps to do. It is annoying to listen to the music, lead-follow, dance, and listen for the instructor's yelling.
8. Group classes - when it is really crowded, have 1/2 the group dance at a time, so they can do the steps full out.

Good luck and thank you for asking!

I left a studio for a lot of the exact reasons above in the dislikes section.

#'s 1, 3 and 6 especially. The biggest problem I had with the chain I was with was the syllabus restrictions. It would really make me angry when I would discover an element in a higher level step pattern that could be used in a variety of dances. I just think there should be more focus on elements vs. patented studio patterns. That way, your students will be able to dance with students from other studios.

The only other thing I would add to the list above is don't exaggerate a student's progress in order to inflate their egos and keep them coming back for more lessons. This kind of ties in with the slick sales tactics (don't get me started). Students really are smarter than what the instructors realize in my opinion.

Haha! You are so right. I forgot to add that one. It's funny how "natural ability" and "a lot of talent" are thrown around so loosely. Why a shock it was to go to socials hosted by the independents and see how good other dancers were.

I have been taking lessons at a chain for about 3years and I have to agree with all the points mentioned so far in this posting. With respect to the one about boosting egos and inflating grades to get more $$$$,yes it may be a sales tactic but at my studio I've been told I do very well at times but I've also been told(on certain occasions) I was not performing very well. The critiques (both praises and negative comments) are more about my confidence and how I "present" the dances on the dance floor as opposed to the actual dance patterns,skill, correctness etc.

And so, I would have to add that I like lots of feedback from my studio instructors-there should always be positive and negative comments.

Other obvious things like being on time and not ending lessons early are really important to me.

I don't mind the casual "chat" but I usually control that-sometimes I might want to chat more and other times I'll just cut it off and say "lets just focus on the lesson" and I just want the instuctor to respect that.

My last point, it is very clear at our studio that teachers don't fraternize (especially outside of the studio)with students and keep very private about their personal lives. At first I didn't like this(because I had a little crush on my instructor and was curious about him!!) But now I think it's critically important otherwise it blurs the boundaries, leads to gossip among the students, and can create an unfair advantage for some students.

Instructors should be careful of what they say to students. It is disappointing to hear you have a "natural talent" only to hear another student say his/her instructor used the same words!

Another pet peeve: Don't get the students all excited about events, comps, etc. without explaining the details. One former instructor started teaching a routine and then informed us it would be an extra $1000 to $1500 to learn the rest!

On the positive side, it is nice when instructor remember some of the idle chit-chat. If I am going to talk about my children or my upcoming vacation, a brief mention by in the instructor in a future lessons means they are at listening enough to remember and not just trying to appear friendly!

When I first started at a chain studio, I was taken aback by the high pressure sales that began within the first month of my contract. Many of the same sales tactics used on me were also used on my guests or other clients. Afterwards, we would compare notes. For me, this diminishes the crediblity of the studio. I felt that more emphasis was placed on getting me to sign for contracts or competitions, than was teaching me how to dance.

Additionally, the studio was very restrictive in what dances and syllabus steps I could learn. Consequently, I did not feel comfortable going outside the studio to dance because of my limited repertoire. Given the high pressure sales mentioned earlier, I questioned whether this was a gimmick for me to stay "in-house" if you will. Not to mention, I quickly became bored doing the same old cha-cha basics.

Lastly, it is always nice when your instructor remembers a friendly conversation that you had on a previous lesson. However, sometimes I would make a remark or say something to my instructor that would later "pop up" with another instructor or the owner. Additionally, I've had instructors or management reinterate an entire conversation I had with them months before. And we are not talking about a riveting conversation either - just some idle chit chat. Again, this phenomenon is something I have heard other clients report. Instead of creating the perception that my instructor "cares," I found the situation to be....well, creepy. As paranoid as this sounds, I questioned whether this information was written in some back file somewhere for anyone to access.

Wow! I am blown away by the honesty and feedback. As a chain employee, I do believe that there are some studios that are focused on high pressure sales. I know for certain that ours is not. In fact we try everything to not sell and to be authentic with our compliments. Everyone that works at our studio is passionate and we all teach full time. We absolutely love the students and we are constantly trying to improve. We do share RELEVANT information, for instance if instructor X was having a lesson with my student I might say "Ms. Smith's goal is to lose weight" This means to the other instructor that Ms. Smith is not here to be a competition level dancer, she is here to gain self esteem and for fitness. I am sad to hear some of the negatives but that is why I asked, so we avoid the mistakes you mentioned and continue to earn the students respect. Everyday I am so blown away that of the millions of dance studios the students could have chosen, they picked ours and we never want to take that forgranted by taky sales tactics and manipulation. THANK YOU ALL! Have a wonderfu day and keep dancing! :)

That's wierd. If you don't know why the students picked you over the competition, it sort of suggests that there's nothing you are confident you are doing better than they are.

Having customer friendly business practices is important. But if the business is dancing, the ultimate requirement is to be able to communicate the art of dancing in a way that the competition cannot.