Silke. I found the part on how the clubs are in control of the competition side of dancing very interesting. My question is do the Amatuers run the clubs, employing Professional teachers on a contract bases ?. I take it that the dance schools are owned and run by anybody who wants to start a school. Here in Australia there is nothing stopping a person from opening a Dance Studio without having passed any dance teaching exams. We call them unqualified or back yard mechanics. They do serve a purpose and cater for people who only wish is to walk around the floor without any particular technique, and there are many of them. For any person wishing to compete they would need to go to a qualified teachers who have passed their teaching exams. Having said that there are many who have competed at a high level who could make good teachers. Another side is a competing Professional, they not have to pass any teaching exam. They are a competing Professional, they do not have to run or own a dance studio. There are not many in that category in this country. Most of our competing Professionals are attached to a registered dance studio. There is a clause here and that is under certain conditions an amateur can teach in a studio if they have on the premises a qualified professional. Anyway I will repeat my first question. Are your clubs that produce competitors and run competitions owned by the amateurs ?.The system you work under sounds like a much better system than the one we have here. And with dancing being so popular in Germany it obviously works. I hate to admitt this but competition dancing is falling apart here. Another comp. cancelled this week and one last week through lack of interest. The number of registered, ( you have to be registered to be eligible to compete ), has fallen this year as it did the previous year. Very nice to read your comments.

If you just want a job, why don't you see if they'll hire you as a receptionist or something? That would still be better than BK, you'd get discounted or free lessons, and you can keep your amateur status! You've already gotten some great advice and it sounds like you're going to make the right decision.

what i can summerize from your message was that you feel you were taken advantaged of by Arthur Murray in regards to money and quality of teaching? in response i would like to say: 1) Arthur Murray has been around for almost 100 years, so they are doing something right 2) they are a business ONLY funded by their students and founded ONLY on the love for movement and sharing that with others-they don't recieve outside help. which in turn just like other business's that you may be a consumer of, you have the right to take your business elsewhere w/o slandering them on a forum. 4) who is to measure who is qualified to do what? no offense, but not you. unless you are a certified dance examiner, which by the way AM directors are and no teacher will be allowed to teach unless professionally examined. i am a student of many things including ballroom dance..if i want to learn how to play tennis does my instructor have to have had competed professionally in order to have enough life/tennis experience to teach me? if you want to a realtor to show you a house and give you advice are they only applicable to do so if they own a home up to those same standards? lastly, i have a college degree, but i am not a professional in my field yet, i am i going to go slander my college and say i have to "relearn" everything they taught me because i feel they were an untrained institution...no i have to take responsibility to improve myself not blame others and close my heart to what they have to teach me based on the ASSUMPTION that i understand how they work. i trust others even if i may not understand their methods. celebrate this life. don't be bitter and ruin it for others. be well. nameste

thank you Twiggy :)

Thnks all of you for your opinions. but I started this post to learn the rules. I didn't mean that somebody isn't a professional unless they've competed, or however you took it Twiggy. In fact my teacher is awesome, a great professional dancer, and has never competed with a pro partner. I just started this post to be sure that, if and when I start teaching, I won't be able to compete as an amatuer anymore. Because I do want to have a few years of competing with an amatuer partner before I go professional. I fully understand the rules now, and everyone who has posted has helped me a great deal. By your post, twiggy, you seemed offended or something. If I offended you in any way I'm sorry, but I don't think I meant what you thought I did.

No tangoteen, i wasn;t replying to you or any of your posts to be honest i can't locate the name of the message i was replying to. my response was ment for the person who began message with "let me growl for a minute" so i wanted to "growl" back for a minute:) i am sorry if you felt like my negativity was directed to you. i don't want to direct negativity towards anyone i just don't think that this forum should slander any particular dance studio, especially if that person didn't do their research. all it does is make people like me feel discouraged and lose faith in human nature. lets keep are advice to new comers positive, and if a franchaised studio didn't work out for one person lets talk about it constructively. i feel like there are some business left in this country that are founded on good intentions and want to give the love of dance to others. i don't know. i guess i'm in the wrong too for taking my dance discouragement/learning block out on the forum. the me in me dances with the you in you and excuse my rants:)

Oh! I understand now, and I totally agree with you also. Just because one studio doesnt work for someone doesn't mean that they're all bad. Have fun and keep dancing!

Oh no...When I read the post as a response of "let me growl a bit"..I knew it was me. So I went back to look at my post.

Perhaps I was not clear. I did start ballroom dancing at Arthur Murray, and in fact am greatful that we began our dance there. Never dancing before both my husband and I were quite intimiated. AM, being a social enviorment(at least at this studio) made us feel quite comfortable. I do not think we would have continued had it not been for the instructor that made the whole experince quite fun for us.

As time went on we knew we wanted to be trained on more technique and at a competive level, and this studio could not offer that to us....(That was not thier marketing plan.) We reached the conclusion that it was time to move on but left the studio with fond regards.

What did bother me with this original post was that "it was better than working at Burger King." At AM, you do pay $90.00 an hour for a 45 minute lesson and I continue to have a problem with charging that rate with an instructor who has not reached the level to qualify as an instructor at that rate. Group class is one thing, but am I being unreasonable to expect what I have paid for.

My sincere "sorries" to the original poster if I came off a bit hard and discouraged you. It really was not my intention

Jan

thanks jan for taking time to clear that up for me, i'm sure you had better things to do (maybe dancing:) than get on the computer and defend yourself to an appartly over sensitive reader such as myself. but still odd to me that you all were paying that per hour? not to add insult to injury or anything but did you all take from AM a while ago? from my research it doesn't break down to that. anyway, i'm just trying to find my place in all this and wanted to keep the forum positive. be well. nameste -twig

Yes, it was some time ago at AM, and I am sure that each AM studio can be different. Like I said we did enjoy are time there, was just time to move on.

Perhaps we are in different parts of the state, but in the New England area, it is not unusual to pay 90.00 per hr for a priviate lesson. Right now we pay about 70.00 per hour and are able to do this by purchasing large blocks of lessons. The two instructors we have worked with for about 4 years now I feel are well worth the price way pay.

Jan