Have you seen our commercial not one person in "comp" ware. Where do you get your information?

hate to tell you this but the countries that are producing these great dancers are doing it by starting them like we start our great golfers. at the age of three. if tiger woods was not the best golfer in the world that would be a shame. and the same with dance start a kid at a young age and have him repeat it for twenty years he will be the best but dont ask tiger for golf advice because he is a terrible teacher. never learned how to explain it other than you do this and you do it ten thousand times. same with many of the "great" dancers they only know to say keep doing it just like i did and if you get the same judges they will like it. to be honest the only teachers i have found to be god communicators are the ones who started partner dancing later in life. they have to learn the mechanics of the step not just say well i won this competion so you do it this way. but what would i know i am just a machinist (funny thing when i went through my apprentice ship i did it one class at a time) who spends his hard earned money to learn how to dance at an arthur murray and is with an instructor who barely know what she is doing (according to some). but my dance card always fills. and i get the complements so they must be doing something right. in defence of the child start dancers they do have some of the best choreography and i prefer having them outline show dances

Vivo dancesport center in Hacienda Heights has good and talented teacher. They are gear more towards competitions. They teach a lot of techniques and have world champions coach there.

2 Reasons (IMO) mostly business related:

a. A selling tactic that creates an expectation of quality in the customer.

b. Maximizes profit for the business by controlling teacher costs.

Case in point:

We've had a chain move here recently. (They had been here 18 years ago but went broke.)

They advertised in our local dance supply shop for teachers they would train: full time $18 - $22/hr. (I assume they made use of our local government's funding for training courses to businesses offering full-time employment). It appears they brought in an outside teacher (as none of the local teachers knew the person) who taught an 8 week course to students recruited virtually out of high school.

Students have since discovered they are earning basic wage ($7.50/hr) part time so I've been told.

The owner of the studio is very qualified and does have overhead but as someone noted if you're paying $120/hr and the teacher gets $7.50 then you've got great margins.

Independent local fully ISTD/CDTA certified teachers are charging approx. $50/hr. - $65/hr. The chain has almost double the margins certifying their own teachers.

From a business point of view this makes terrific sense.

From a customer point of view it does not.

If the chain truly is focused on the desire of the customer wanting to develope great dancing skills then there is a mesh.

If it does not then I'd start searching for alternatives at local:

Community centres
Colleges
Universities

I'd also suggest you check out local dance supply/shoe stores to get the names of local independent teachers.

I'd also check out local competitions to find out which independent teachers partake and have students doing well at your level.

Hint: Some teachers can be very popular/charismatic. That does not mean their students do well. Look for results. My wife and I recognize our short comings. We tell all new private students that we can take them only so far then they need to go to more advanced teachers. Once they're ready for bronze we pass them on to teachers we know are competition or performance oriented. We don't worry about losing students as we know there are always more coming along.

Hope some of this helps.

OB

I've met American Style Dancers who were/are National Champions and started out in International. They are gifted.

I've met American style gifted dancers who owned studios and after several years their students couldn't do a box step (seriously).

I met 2 chain teachers this week, recent products of an 8 week course, who couldn't lead a pre-bronze student.

I know International teachers who've spent years studying.

I know an Licentiate level International teacher whose only interest is teaching steps and getting as much money out of his students as possible.

Studios have overhead that independents often don't. I was in the new chain studio this week. She advertised she put in $100,000 of renos. It shows.

I think the thing here is not to be confrontational but to help guide people to the quality situation best for them. There are quality studios and there are shady studios just as there are quality and shady independents. What we should be doing is trying to help people recognize the difference so they can decide for themselves.

I think it entirely reasonable for prospective students to be able to ask questions. It's their money.

However, I do come down on the side that if I'm going to pay double to cover the overhead I would not be satisfied with an 8 week wonder with limited experience over a fully ISTD trained teacher.

Other than that:

LET's DANCE!!!!!

OB

I wouldn't really refer to an AM or FAD instructor who received only 8 weeks training in ballroom dance a "Wonder".

Guest1,



You made me laugh! (of which we need more of in this thread).

OB

Except that many of those 8 week trained teachers took lessons for years 1st, have degrees in teaching and education, trained 8 hours or more a day for those 8 weeks, still train many hours a day, constantly are coached by world class professionals..etc. etc.

But not all and definitely not those working for the chain that just opened here.

Even as you described there is no justification in charging the equivalent of $134/hr (in our area) for the services of teachers just out of high school, with no previous ballroom experience and an 8 week course.

All they've learned is steps.

OB B.Ed., Dip. Music Ed., M. Ed, LOL. Ed.

Not at the AM here...

I was a student at AM for almost two years. During those two years that I took lessons at AM, of all the new teachers that I have seen hired and trained (at least 12-15, many do not stay long), not one of these newly trained teacher had any previous ballroom dance experience except a few did have some previous ballet or jazz dance experience from their childhood. None of them had a degree. Plus, they only received about 1-3 hours of training a day. The people that were training these newly trained instructors couldn't devote any more of their time since they were too busy spending 5-6 hours a day teaching students and making a living. These newly trained teachers were all recent high school graduates who were mostly of 19-23 years of age. Maybe it's different at your AM studio. But what you say is not true at my local AM studio.

During the first week that I signed up for lessons, the manager handed me an application to become an instructor. They were desperate for some new instructors. I refused. But chose instead to only take lessons. I ended up with a teacher who had a few years dance experience, which I feel and consider lucky.

I ended up leaving AM when I felt like I was being held back and wasn't getting any more out of it. I then found an independent instructor with many more years experience and is a blackpool competitor, which I feel much happier with.