"I was wondering if someone was willing to put in the most effort. How long would it take them to go from beginner bronze to silver, gold, master?"
It depends on the syllabus. Some are simplistic and designed to show pseudo progress rather than real results. Others are hard. Although I haven't looked at it lately, the Fred Astaire supreme gold syllabus was sufficiently difficult so as to eliminate many people (including FADS instructors) who didn't have the physical coordination to perform the patterns, let alone look good doing them.
That being the case, if you want to devote that kind of effort (8 hour days) to your dancing I'd recommend one hour of instruction to every three or four hours of practice. Find an instructor who has a good track record, thus proving he or she can dance but is clearly able to impart that dancing knowledge to someone else. You'd be surprised how many can dance but can't teach.
From someone else: "That takes months and frustration and tears and sweat and cursing..."
It doesn't. Moreover, this kind of thing exemplifies exactly what is wrong with the ballroom dance industry today, and what was wrong with it fifty years ago. When you finish a lesson, you should be feeling a little better about your dancing situation than you did one hour ago. If you don't, cross that instructor off your list and move on - quickly! The frustration, tears and cursing are not the student's fault. It's the fault of the instructor and his or her inability to teach.
