If the $84K was spent over the course of her lifetime and she was an older woman, this seems in line with the cost of quality private dance instruction. Good luck learning detailed technique at free pre-dance group lessons!

yes, I've heard it a dozen times...lead and follow, posture, foot position common! My guess is, those who work or own these very expensive "by-weekly lesson" that turn into 3 or 4 a week or "oh' your a natural" schools, have lost something along the way. The problem is, they are tought to tap into the vulnerable people, then extract as many lessons as the person can afford before sacrificing there own quality of life and by doing that they are exploiting these otherwise inocent people wih luering them into a fatacy world of something like ballroom dancing. In the end, wht these franchises creae, is no longer the sport of ballroom dancing but the game of it.

Recently we have switched studio's, going from an independent to FA. We also take lessons twice a week.

At least at the local stuido we now belong to the cost of our lessons is comparable to the independent. On an annual basis we will spend about 10K in lessons. We of course are buying in larger blocks that reduces the cost, an average lesson about 65.00. This is what is costs, and feel we get good value for our money.

In addition when we went to FA, we were not given an high pressure sales pitch at all. I can still remember the conversation. They told us you have been dancing for some time and know the price of priviate lessons, and know what you want..... They showed us the various packages they had , we made a decision, and that was the end of it.

It fustrates me to read constant bashing of chain studios. There are good and there are bad, just like there is with independents. You need to do your homework regardless of where you choose to take lessons.

I just cannot picture how a person could spend 84K in a year.

Janet. That works out to about three lessons a week. we found that we got enough in one lesson a week to keep us busy in practice for three evening practice sessions, but two may be better. I guess it depends on the quality of the lesson and how quickly you can learn. We also took two months off in the summer so our cost where a lot less than yours.

The amount of lessons a person takes in a week is so personal!

Twice a week works for us. We may be working on a certain technique or steps at the beginning of the week, mid week we are in the studio practicing the technique, end of week our next lesson is to follow up on our practice, review our progress.

Actually, I think that we are slow learners and often we will take a lesson and walk away with the idea and begin to practice it. Often what we were taught and what we heard turn out to be two different things, so we end up practicing incorrect technique. By having this second follow up lesson we dont practice something new incorrectly for very long ,avoiding having to fix a bad habit.

Like I said we are all different and have to figure out on our own how we learn and what works best.

Janet,that's why we taped our lessons I found I was concentrating so much on what the teacher had just said that I would miss the next couple or more sentances, I was amazed at how much I missed. Tape,play back and make notes the same day . I would do this after our lesson while we had fish and chips in the nearbye cafe.

Wow, that's a bargain compared to ice dancing lessons! Where do I sign up ;)

Several years ago 60 Minutes (or one of the others. I can't rember which)did a story on this.

They placed undercover people in studios in Florida. Students (average age around 75 I guess)were promised individual professional dance partners. Gentlemen in there 40s or so were given about 5 hours of training then placed in a red blazer and unleashed on these seniors as professional dancers.

Where the studios really bilked the student was signing them up for expensive bus tours to competitions. These bus tours were little inhouse circuits.

We had a senior move to Victoria from Saskatchewan who had been hooked into one of these scams. She called me up looking for lessons and said she wanted to go to competitions. When I interviewed her over the phone she insisted she was a gold level dancer having won all sorts of gold ribbons in competitions.

I took her to our club for an evaluation. She literally was unable to do a basic in waltz. She had been bilked out of $1,000s of dollars every year by a circuit scam just like those in Florida.

I contacted her family here and told them what had happened to her. Then we got her into some group lessons at a local community centre where they only took $8 an hour off her.

She might have enjoyed what she was getting in Saskatchewan but IMO those teachers should be in jail.

OB

OB. We use to belong to the Nanaimo dance club.

cd,

Nanaimo's a great ballroom community.

Island Fantasy Ball is a favourite of mine.

We went to Snowball this past weekend. It was a disaster though not the fault of the organizing committee. Seems the Hyatt Regency pulled the rug (er floor) out from under them when another better paying convention came along. They were offered the following weekend but the top dancers and judges are on a circuit. As a result they got a special exemptionand moved the event to the River Rock Casino stage which is 500 sq. feet undersized.

It was very dangerous and performances were timid. In the Viennese final 3 couple went to center at the same time to do flekerls. One reverse and they all smashed into one another. The American girl was elbowed so hard across the back of the head her knees buckled and her partner had to hold her up for serveral seconds.

Reason I mention this was in the Quickstep final every couple just hopped around the stage sideways except Zillion Wong (Nanaimo) and his partner. Good for them.

The rest of the event was like watching demolition derby or bumper cars.

OB