Today,in the middle of my lesson,my instructor's direct supervisor came out of the back and told him to"tone down the dance program".He was showing me some footwork/helping me clean up my turns.He simply replied 'ok'and the lesson continued.Was he doing something something wrong?Ive recently started bronze one.Any thoughts on this?I thought that his bosses behavior was rather inappropriate,especially since I pay an exorbitant amount for chain school lessons.This has left a rather bad taste in my mouth and now Im a little hesitant to participate in any of their functions.

My first impression: Very unprofessional. Your instructor's direct supervisor should not have made such a comment within earshot of anyone other than your instructor. From your description of the lesson, the supervisor could easily have waited until the lesson ended and THEN spoken to the instructor in private. To me, it shows a total lack of respect on the part of the direct supervisor for your instructor.

This could mean two things:

1. The supervisor thought your teacher was pushing you too hard, and so wanted your teacher to back off so you wouldn't get upset and quit taking lessons.

2. The supervisor thought you teacher was teaching you too much, and so wanted your teacher to back off so you wouldn't learn too much too fast and outgrow the studio and so have to go elsewhere to take lessons.

Either way, it doesn't bode well in my mind. Teachers should go at their student's pace, not slowed down to meet some kind of "you bought 60 lessons to reach this level" ideal. Supervisors should treat their people with dignity and respect.

I just found out why the 'supervisor' came by and told your teacher he was 'teaching you too fast'.

This is part of the sales technique taught to all Fred Astaire 'teachers'. It is a classic good/cop/bad/cop situation, and it is part of the 'procedure' taught in sales classes at Astaire since the 60s.

After the 'teacher' is 'reprimanded' the 'teacher' tells the student that he will talk to the supervisor. He will then come back to you and tell you that he 'went to bat' for you, since you are such an advanced student. he will then a. sell you more lessons (an 'advanced' package) so you can 'continue' the advanced training OR b. tell you that his supervisor will give you two (!) an 'assignment' and based upon the results of that assignment, decide wheter you will be 'allowed' to advance.

It is a typical chain sales technique. It is also very thoroughly documented in the sales manuals of Fred Astaire Dance Studios.

The folks who replied to the origional question (myself included) did not look at this any other way than as if it was a real situation. We commonly forget that scams and sales pitches are based upon just that - the ;mark' (in this case the student) will tend to see things based upon THEIR perceptions, not the truth.

Remember, the FIRST part of the sales technique at FADS is to 'make a friend' of your student.

This is the classic "go to bat " for your student at fads thay are grooming you for the sale of more hours... you may be told that you need to buy more lessons to work on advance techniques, Your teacher will tell you that your ready and learning faster than most. be careful if you have hours you should be able to use them befor you need to buy more! Dont get sucked in.

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.