Tony- MY guy against YOU. Care to find a mutually convenient time and place? pasodancer at msn dot com. For that matter, my OTHER guy against you too, same bat time, same bat channel. You just got called out, Mr. Bronze Four.

Anyway, on to what I was going to say- FADS isn't much better if you go by isolatd incidences. FADS somewhere in Northern IL is where one former sort of never was new guy (yeah, confusing_ came from to our place. Bout a month ago, he shows up down at our studio, wanting to just jump right in and take over... well after a couple parties, he completely disappears, and we don't hear from him ever again. He ditched his new temporary dance partner for a sold-out, 600-people charity event and didn't even say a word to her. HE was from a Fred Astaire studio. Bragged about all the training Jesse DeSoto et al gave him, and he couldn't even get up and dance at our parties.

Edit: My point is, I like neither chain very much. I've seen some really stupid policies in both, and frankly, I hate the hard-sell lack of ethics accompanying both of them. If you're happy with a studio, that's great- and it works for you, so that's a positive thing... but when someone goes calling others out... be careful. You don't know what you're getting into, and you just might get eaten for breakfast.

If you want something done right, you gotta break the "chains" sometimes.

"All I can say is we have nothing but positive experiences at our studio and feel it is worth a little more money to get the kind of quality teaching we have had."

What is a little more money? From what I've read we are talking thousands of dollars more.

Well, that's why Jim Jones was so successful- he used *real* Kool-Aid, not that cheap Flavr-Aid stuff.

I have owned a ballroom studio in Metro Detroit for 10 years. My husband and many staff members have also worked at A.M. and Freds. I think that students should take lessons where they feel the most progress and comfortable. Not all A.M's are the same. It really depends on the owners and teachers. Good luck to you and your dancing.

I danced at an AM studio in Chicago for about 4 years; initially I thought I was making some progress, but I think things kind of slowed down for me by the 2nd year and my instructor seemed to not want to teach me too much after I realized I couldn't afford too many of the expensive competitions (it's just other AM studios from around the country anyway). By the time I got to the third year I didn't feel was getting enough of the teaching quality I"d gotten in the 1st 1 & a 1/2 years and should've gotten out then but I wanted to just give my AM instructor 1 more chance. I still didn't think that I was progressing, or maybe b/c I had just 20 lessons. Anyways now I'm out of there for good and more happier for it. I went to another dance studio on the North Side of Chicago and I think they're much better teachers besides refining what I'd already learned from Arthur Murray.

Again, I am in the Detroit area, but have dance friends that own Chicago Dance. The owners there are great. They are actual dancers and not just sales people. I also know the owner of the Fred's on Michigan Ave. Worked with them when they owned the Bloomfield Arthur Murray in Michigan. I would stay away from the Fred's in Chicago.
Chicago Dance is the place to go. We drive all the way there from Michigan to work with the owners on our dancing.