I currently attended a ballroom competition as a spectator. I am considering participating in one with my teacher in the future. In talking to other students at this event, I realized that there is quite a difference in cost charged by an instructor from student to student. Does anyone know why this is and what is the average norm a teacher charges to attend a competition? Any information would be much appreciated.

hi monica,
why would you consider to compete with an instructor. you are better off finding a partner and compete together.
it will be a good learning curve for your dancing and also you will be saving heaps on $$

I don't agree. It may cost you more at the begining but you advance much faster providing you make sure that you understand what the teacher is having you do and that you are not just going along for the ride. Finding a partner may share the cost but you can only progress at the man's speed. Most teachers spend more time teaching the man to dance,his mistakes will be your mistakes,you will be paying for him to learn to dance. Ask any good teacher and they will say that 75% of mistakes are the man's fault.Good Luck

<<>>

Heh heh.

The man certainly has to learn more tha is true, but I can assure you that the 'man's speed' may be much faster than yours. And, since you discount the fact that you are also in the lesson, you should be learining everything that the man is learning as well.

75% of the mistakes? I really doubt it, but look at it this way -the lady has less to do (let's say half) so the proportion would be accurate - you'll have the smae amount of 'mistakes' as him, but since you feel he is doing more of the dancing than you,there may be more opportunities to 'make mistakes'.

This is very humorous, tho - many pro am ladies really DO feel that they are better dancers and that for some reason they are never the fault of the mediocre dancing that they seem to encounter. In reality, the pro am student is usually the worse part of the team - after all, they never had to confront their problems as a dancer. They have someone they pay by the minute to make them feel good....

The pro-am versus amateur couple debate will go on forever. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. It's good for you to know that finding an amateur partner and competing with him is an option and is cheaper. But the choice is yours (and often depends on circumstances; I get a bit riled up when men blithely say "find a parner"! There are many more women than men looking for partners, at least in the U.S., so that's easy for a man to say!)

That said, typical costs paid to an instructor for competing pro-am include:

--a per-dance "floor fee" for each heat you enter. This is sometimes buried in the entry fee the studio quotes you, for example, the comp charges the studio $25 per entry and the studio charges you $40. The more dances you enter, the more expensive the comp will be.

--the instructor's registration and daily entry fees.

--the instructor's travel expenses (transportation, hotel, sometimes meals)--if the instructor brings more than one student to a comp, this cost is usually split among the students.

--a "pro fee" or "studio fee"--a set amount to compensate for the income lost while the instructor is away from the studio and can't teach other students and for the fact that the instructor is sacrificing time off, personal obligations, etc. to go to the comp.

Each of these costs can vary in many ways, so I'd be surprised if any two students at a comp were paying the exact same amount!

Competitions are a major money-maker within the ballroom industry. The comp organizers are looking to make a profit, and so are the instructors and studios who take students to the comp.

If you can afford it, competing can be a lot of fun, but you do need to go into it with your eyes open.

"There are many more women than men looking for partners, at least in the U.S., so that's easy for a man to say!)"

Overall perhaps, but when you look at those with comparable skill levels, the numbers are fairly balanced - largely because without a partner to practice with, it is very hard to build real partner dance skills.

Pro-am might be a way to buy a chance to build those skills. But often those who have done it become highly dependent on their teacher, to a point where they will not be able to find an amateur partner at all. They don't have the skills to dance with a man advanced enough to give them what they are used to from their teacher, but they no longer have any interest in working with a man who is only in the process of developing his skills.

In the end, neither leader or follows advance consistently without the aid of the other.

As I said, the debate will go on forever. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Though, I must say, it is usually the amateur dancers who feel the need to put down pro-am competitors, which makes me wonder.

Not all amatuars feel a need to put down pro-am. I am an amatuar dancer of ten years and I certainly can appreciate the work the "am" part puts into the pro-am partnership.

It really however is a very different expereince to dance and train as am amatuar. The training is in the partnership as a unit, not as a single dancer. I do think it is harder to advance as an amatuar because there is time spent fixing habits. Because you are not dancing that much with the pro he/she cannot always pick up what you are doing wrong and then it becomes habit. Then you have to un-do it. Half the time it looks right, but is not.

An then there is this.... As an amatuar often I feel on the outside of the pro-am expereince. The pro-ams have something in common. They understand the joys and I am sure fustrations of the partnership, that I do not know. And often they do not know what to make of my expereince. As an amataur it is sometimes hard to develop relationships with pro-ams, just increasing the debate you talk about.

"you are not dancing that much with the pro he/she cannot always pick up what you are doing wrong and then it becomes habit. Then you have to un-do it. Half the time it looks right, but is not."

That's one of the advantages of pro-am. I don't get stuck in bad habits and I don't have to develop bad habits to compensate for my partner's flaws (or he for mine). But before anyone gets all huffy, I've also done some dancing with an amateur partner and I realize there is a different (not necessarily better) satisfaction to working with a peer, especially when you two have together mastered soemthing new and difficult or solved a problem on your own. At the risk of being a broken record, there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

It would be a serious mistake to think that pro am is any protection from bad habits. Simply look at the dancing - intermediate students performing advanced material, and the risk of bad habits in trying to achieve a superficial result is quite obivous. But not just a risk, look closer, or dance with the student, and you realize how much the teacher is covering up.