Think of the cliche "you get what you pay for" Well if you want to spend tons of money on dance lessons you must be a sport dancer. One looking to compete on the national or international level. However keep in mind the same basic concept applies to dance as it does to Hockey or baseball or any other sport. How many kids that get into sports end up in the professional arena percentage wise. The same holds true for dancers. I have known of instances where dancers attending the franchise studios are convinced ( oh how easy it is) that they are potential platinum level dancers or "must" compete and can with just some additional coaching or lessons. All of which must be paid for.
I once intervued a lady to be a dance partner for a jitterbug contest. She had just spent three thousand on dance lessons over a period of eleven months. She wasn't even able to hold a basic solid frame. Hadn't a clue what the difference was between double and triple step.
I have long given up competing. I now get more personal enjoyment and fulfillment when someone comes up to me and buys me a drink because he enjoyed watching me dance so much. When a man receives such a compliment from another man that is priceless.
I teach introduction to swing dancing on ocassion and will only teach basic steps and patterns untill the student can do them well enough that they can then learn by picking up more from just watching others dance. Too many dance studios teach people WHAT to dance not HOW to dance.

Yup.

But there is a middle path. Call it good dancing - encompasing social dancing within a well educated peer group, and competition entries as an opportunity to show your best, but not competition as "sport" where winning becomes more important than dancing. Always strive for excellence, even if there is no one else present who understands the details of that quest.

Perhaps, also, as part of that middle path is the concept of dancing without choreography.

Listening to the music and sensing where it is going, choosing steps to fit the crescendo or ritard of the musicians, floorcraft- spontaneity.

Jerry

Good is in the eye of the beholder.

Well said Jerry

To AZtony - you get "more pleasure when someone buys me a drink..." . That's because you learnt how to dance well when you were competing.
I agree broadly with what others have said about middle ground. Countless people take up sports like tennis, rugby, or a skill like playing a musical instrument because they enjoy the activity and they take coaching because they want to participate at their true potential - they just want to be good so they can express themselves (even at tennis - believe me).
Dancing is so enjoybale.. i want to win or at least dance well at comps because i enjoy dancing and i dance better the more skillful i get. I'm never going to be a champion (god knows i'm trying!!)or make a real living at it - i do other things for that.
So don't feel bad about spending a couple thousand a year on lessons - it's worth it.

$3000 over 11 months? That's1 or 2 private lessons a week. Not much training, you know, but it's actually a minimal amount of time to put in for a beginner.

Hey, why were you looking to enter a contest with a beginner like this? I'd have assumed that you'd have a better handle on the local 'talent'.

Her inability to hold a frame is due to many things other than the cost of the lessons - many folks think they are learning 'dancing' by taking a few group classes a week. Particularly by 'teachers' who have not advanced in their pursuit past the 'I look good in a bar - hope somepne will buy me a drink when they see that I can shuffle through this song' stage.

I'd actually be suspect of a teacher teaching 'basic steps and pattersn until the student can do them well enough so they can 'pick up more by watching others dance'. Sounds like a good foundation - for creating a bad social dancer ("I just follow - and I learned on the dance floor")...

What IS a double step?

I was entirely new to the area and posted an ad in the local personals for ajiterbug partner. As far as double step goes depending what part of the country your from jiterbug is done in various way. Single time, double time or triple time steps. Now I'm not talking international or American ballroom competition here either. Those of you at the top fifteen percent who claim the territory of excellence one can only aspire to do what you do for your own reasons. Those lower down in the dance stratus merely aspire to move their feet and body as the music inspires them to.
As a sidebar I would like to say that many beginner dancers give up because those at the top seem to look down at them and make them feel that they will never be "good enough". I'd rather seem the on the floor line dancing than not dancing at all.

I would hazard a guess that people don't give up because there are better dancers around them - they give up because clueless 'experts' confront them ("She couldn't even hold a frame") when they are simply social dancers themselves.

Social dancers are not affected by Competitive dancers any more than they are affected by teachers. They look UP to the better dancers. it's the curmudgeony 'old farts' that grumble about the good dancers, hoping to get a drink bought for them because they 'entertained' a beginner.

Trust me, it's a lot harder to entertian schooled dancers. You're right to stay in the bar and dance for beginners - you certainly don't have to learn much, and you can probably get little jobs teaching these folks. After all, how do they know that all you know is a few steps 'on the dance floor'?

Everyone needs encouragement and a goal. Sad to say, your goal is a very low 'bar' (pun intended).

I've had intructors from FA and Am studios refer to me as a dancers dancer.
Your pun glibly shows the snobery that prevails in the dance community. Only a minimum number of dance styles were actually created in the studios. They were created in the nightclubs and dance floors by people developing movement to a particular tempo and rythmn. The styles were then copied by the studios to take advantange of the popularity and make money doing it.