The regular rates at my studio are $70 for adults. For under 18 it is $35. With visiting coaches, it varies since it must cover travel, hotel, and then more if they come through a comp organizer. Donald Johnson and Kasia Kozak are about $120. Allan Tornsberg was $160 (he judged at a local comp). Peter Eggleton has a condo nearby, so he's $85.

Oh wow

I'm so relieved to hear that I'm not the only one paying thousands of dollars for dance lessons!
I actually go to Fred Astaire. The first "real" package I bought was the social dance package, which basically allows you to become a good social dancer (not very picky on tecnique) and that was a 6 month program for about $2500 which included one hour lesson (it may actually be 50 or 55 minutes) a week plus some group lessons and a good amount of parties.
While I was in the middle of this program, my instructor suggested I move to the Bronze level so that the lessons left (about half) would be used towards this goal. That was almost $5000 and it's for one year (so basically the same hourly fee as the social program.
If you calculate that, while including the group lessons and parties, it definitely comes to less than $100 per session. And I'm learning 9 dances (plus, sometimes a few others on the side)

So it seems strange that AM charges $137 per lesson. I thought that AM and FA were about the same.

In the end, you have to look at your instructor's fees, not only comparing them to other instructor's fees, but to their qualifications, experience, and teaching skills (check out and talk to their students for this one). The fees can be deceiving.

"You guys really pay through the nose. I might be justified if you are being taught by the very top coaches and for the pupose of competing."

I've been thinking about that, and my conclusion is that dancing costs the same amount regardless if you do it halfway or all the way.

If you try to just walk in and take a few lessons, you pay fairly high rates and may not get your money's worth. If you get really involved and lean where to go for the best training, you will still spend a lot of money, but you will get so much more value for it because you will be connecting with outstanding teachers at a level of detail which you just can't do as a casual student. But only if you also choose to spend a lot of your time and energy to be a dedicated student.

So experienced heavily inovled dancers look at the prices beginners are being asked to pay in many places, and feel that they are unreasonable. But at least for the lessons (overpriced competitions are another story) we are having to come up with the money to pay more than you do - we are just getting more instruction for our money, and more out of each bit of instruction. It's not like you could just trade our teachers for yours - not that they wouldn't give you a chance as a student because they certainly would, but because you'd have to decide that you wanted to be that kind of student.

I read with interest the notes on fees, and agree with the one who said if you are serious it will cost you over all about the same. I parted company with AM about a year ago, I was in low cash flow and AM would not allow me to "pay as I go" any longer. Actually it was good for me. Since I'm not interested in competition but becoming a good and varied social dancer I reached out found different venues, and got some new partners I wouldn't have had otherwise. I find a lot of teaching out there to be only one mode. I thnk texts and DVDs are a good supplement to learning, but nothing is as good as a good teachers that you groove with, and more thn one teacher is good because you get a different perspective from a different teacher. I do think that contracts are not good, and one can do better with independent studios, but AM is good for those timid souls who are just getting their feet wet. I didn't start dancing until I was 63 and was scared to death at first, the socials at AM got me past that. So now I'm planning my own 3rd Annual Birthday Dance party.

Vern

It seems the franchise studios seem to charge up to your first born to become a dancer. As far as comps go, I know someone who used to dance in them (he was the pro) and it doesn't matter how good you are in most of them (just like the shows) it's all popularity. Obviously the student who pays the most, is the most popular.
As far as just dancing socially, you know just to have fun, I go to a studio, non - franchise format, that has almos any package to fit what you need. From begginner groups to private lessons. Private lessons are also a flat fee, sold in 5 or 10 weeks which include the groups. Even the groups cover all levels. In response to "Guests" comment about once you reach a certain level, basically you have no need for groups, the group levels at this studio include beginner, intermediate, advanced, and a technique class.
Sorry to keep going on and on about this, but after reading almost every post on here and I see prices that cover thousands of dollars, for a fraction of the price, you can some much more than you are getting, with experienced instructors, not someone off the streets that's one week ahead of you.

"In response to "Guests" comment about once you reach a certain level, basically you have no need for groups, the group levels at this studio include beginner, intermediate, advanced, and a technique class."

One man's "advanced" is anothers "finally ready to start looking at the important issues"

In theory it is possible to run advanced classes beneficial to anyone. In practice, it rarely happens outside of presentations at world-class competitions.

I should elaborate on the group classes a bit more. The reason I don't find the group classes at the AM studio I go useful or worthwhile is because of the following:

1. They are infrequent. They have it on average only once every 1 1/2 month. One 40 minute intermediate/advance group class in each popular dance once every month and a half. Not enough repetition.
2. not even women show up. and the ones there struggle with the materials.
3. can't really practice the steps learned in the group classes at socials because most of the women at socials aren't advanced enough nor have they attended these group classes.

Consequently, i'd just have to take good notes in the classes and practice by yourself and rely on private lessons. My instructor could just as easily take 3-4 minutes to introduce the steps in a private as oppose to me spending 45 minutes in the group class. This why I exclude any consideration for group classes in the $137/lesson fee.

You never stop learning and refining good dance basics. This is what sets a high level dancer apart from others. Basics is not just learning patterns.
This is why Donnie Burns was so good--he could win by just doing basic figures with wonderful technique. Don't underestimate the basics--this is what makes your dancing look good. However, one needs to do patterns to get started or it would be no fun just doing basic exercises. But, once you can do some patterns--work on your technique and basics. It takes a high level coach to help you with good basics since most studio pros won't be much help--they probably skipped most of the good basic work on technique themselves.

You can say that last sentance again without fear of contradiction especially in the Samba