I wish I would have spoken to Laura before I spent a year paying way too much money taking lessons at a chain school I left last year. My first instructor either didn't know curriculum or wasn't too interested whether I learned or not. He would teach me a few steps without much thought into technique, and we would dance these few chain school curriculum steps over and over. My second instructor was very kind yet knew what he was doing. I started Latin with him and I actually started to improve as he 'discreetly' undid many bad habits that were never addressed by my first instructor. I think that was when the supervisor/owner would constantly interrupt my lessons. Eventually, I got so exasperated and left. I miss my second instructor. It is unfortunate that he still teaches at the same studio.
I do not want to generalize all chain schools since I can only speak of my experience; however, I would like to tell 'anonymous' to just be careful. I take lessons now with a much more experienced person who is well known for both coaching and judging, and the price per lesson is about the same, if not lower, than the chain school.
It is just something to thing about...

Hi M --

I think that your post shows how important it is to have these message boards where people can go to get their questions answered. Before the widespread use of the Internet and World Wide Web, no one really had a network of contacts they could reach out to any time day or night, and anonymously to boot.

I'm very glad to hear that you're getting the kind of instruction you want and need, even though you do miss your second instructor. Stay in touch with him...since you've left the studio, if he also leaves the studio, you can try taking lessons from him again.

I once had my studio owner tell me that I was teaching a class too much too fast. Then, when the class performed at the dance (we used to have little recitals at the end of a two-month session) and she saw how well they were doing, she apologized! :)

The supervisor's behavior is very unprofessional. A supervisor in any industry should not correct an employee in front of anyone (especially customers) unless absolutely necessary and done extremely discreetly. If I were you, I'd tell the supervisor that the next time he interupts your lesson you want credit for the minutes lost! When you're paying $1+ per minute, that adds up! :)

I agree with a couple of comments from above when they suggested that your teacher was doing too good a job with you in your lesson. The superviser thought maybe that was to be saved for a future lesson. More money, enough said.

It's a shame to see that it takes a blatant bad experience like this from the supervisor experience (aside from the over inflated prices and undertrained teachers) to actually motivate a client/student to notice the value for the investment.

In the end it really does not matter how many complaints dancers post about chain studios....this never accomplishes anything.

What matters is what are you doing about it to help others not get caught up in the same tactic infested-sales re-cycling franchise studio.

But then again, it seems like so many of these students enjoy staying in chain studios, spending thousands of unecessary dollars for some 21 yr old kid to over boost their ego on how great their rumba box finally looks (yr 2 of lessons), or how great a trip to Hawaii would be just to dance necommer bronze if they fit the bill, or how fulfilling it must feel to finally do a spotlight dance and then sign up for another 5,000 worth of lessons....(thats like 48 lessons)...I mean where does it end.

It does not.

But yet, students, intelligent people with ample funds, anyone with a desire to dance....it seems that somehow in the end these same people that complain about rates and such still manage to convince themselves of how much nicer it is to continue to stay there regardless of how much greener it truly is on the other side of chain dance studio. The other side is available and full of great Independent studios or Independent teachers.

So what are you doing about making it better for yourself, your fellow dancers, and especially about this odd industry we call ballroom dance instruction.

Pay it forward.

~P.

Make it better? It sure is a difficult task.

A glazed look comes over their eyes when you mention that they are paying more than they should for less than they should expect. You're right, the older ladies are flattered and excited by a younger instructor holding them in their arms. Tell them that dance requires them to learn things on their own, practice is necessary, or that dancing is an interaction rather than motion generated and then mimicked in mirrorlike attitude, and they just smile and say 'my instructor is so easy to dance with - he puts me right where I have to go'.

And of course they are right - the chain studios are selling this as real dancing... that some young man makes the woman happy by doing all the hard stuff for them. They get to dress up and look cute (you know the look - the chainstudio 'dressup' look that makes a 60+ year old woman dress like a slut or a 1908s disco queen, or a man wear clothes that befit a 20soemthing boy, except for the potbelly and hunchedover posture).

The reality that it is a difficult and long journey is kept away from them in a chain studio - and, actually it IS a somewhat daunting prospect to realize that it takes YEARS to do it well, and most of these ladies have been told that 'training' is a xxx week or xxx month process with a closure or graduation - and also many of them would rather buy into the fantasy of the dilletante arts student - the dilletante that has a showcase made around them for no other reason than that they are PAYING for it (rather than because they have something to express). It's all lost on the chain addict.

Put a 60 year old woman with a 60 year old male teacher (or heaven forbid, a woman) and watch how soon they become dissatisfied with the 'teaching'.

Anyone know how to break a chain studio contract without paying the 25% penalty fee?Im ready to see if the grass is really greener on the other side.

delightfuldancer didn't say what state she lives in. Some states have laws limiting the size of a studio contract, and gives the student great leeway in ways to cancel ANY dance studio contract. No one should have to pay for any lesson that they don't actually take.

Altho I agree with all the badmouthing of the chains, I will just put in these 2 cents: My best teacher was a chain teacher who broke away from Freddie A, and started his own studio. I didnt go to him while he was at the chain, but I imagine that at some time while he was there, he was just as good as he was when he started my dance lessons. So, I think it IS possible to get an excellent lesson at a chain, but you have to know what you're doing. And you cannot treat a lesson as a light entertainment any more than you should treat a session with a personal trainer as something that you dont practice in between sessions. 2 cents, that's all.

Jerry

I also started with a chain, and then left to go to an independent studio, where the coaching is a much higher quality at a lower cost.

However, there is value in the chains. I was a little aprehensive to take lessons, and certianly felt uncertain of my ability. The instructor we had made us feel comfortable,taught us to have fun and relax. Had it not been for this instructor and the whole social aspect of the studio, we probably would not have not continued. As time went on, I realized that I could not get the technique and level of lesson at the chains that we needed, so we moved on. I think each type of studio has value depending where we are in our dancing progression.