Are Private Lessons for Adults in Dance Classes in Reno Worth The Cost?
Are Private Lessons Worth the Cost for Ballroom, Latin or Swing Dancing?
Can I be super honest with you?
Yes.
Now you may be thinking he is only saying that because he makes his living teaching ballroom and west coast swing dance in Reno. But I will tell you the truth about learning to dance at my level. I have spent more money than most college tuitions charge on my dancing and 95 percent of it was on private lessons. It did not matter what the cost was because I would only study with champions. It did not matter if it was my Ballroom, Latin (yes, I used to compete as a Latin Ballroom dancer), or West Coast Swing coach, they had to be a champion.
Why am I bringing up that I only took lessons with champions? Well, it's because I wanted to be a champion and that was the only way I knew to get there.
Do you need to take lessons with champions only?
Hell no! Why in the heck would you spend lots of money to get the information you might not be ready for? I even tell people not to pay me to learn the basics in West Coast Swing when you can take the free beginner group class I teach every Monday night at 6pm that is free to the public at The Ballroom of Reno dance studio. I do think you should take a lesson with visiting coaches or if you are at a dance event, but wait until you are ready and a strong dancer. Your local teacher should take lessons with them and then teach you what they learned. Or better yet you take the coaching with your teacher as your partner if you don't have a dance partner you compete or dance with all the time. That way the teacher can be your memory and help you remember all the information that was dumped on you from the coach.
There was a time I was taking 8 hours a week with my partner from our ballroom coach from Russia. I asked him why my other coaches did not tell me some of the stuff he taught me. His response was, "Well, how often did you take lessons with them?" I replied once a month if we could get a lesson time. He said to me that just seeing them once is month was very much like a decorator coming in and putting new paint on the walls and new curtains in the windows. He goes, you have a good foundation so I am tearing down your walls and rebuilding your house. That really stuck with me.
Local Teachers Can be Awesome to Learn From
If you are taking lessons with me I will tell you straight up, if I am not still learning and working on a dance then I will not teach it. So, if you have a local Reno, Sparks, or Carson area ballroom teacher and they are growing in their own dancing then you have a good instructor. My students always know when I had a lesson because I have new concepts for them to understand.
I know several teachers at the Ballroom of Reno that I trust to recommend to a student because I know that teacher is always learning, practicing, and wanting to be better as a dancer and as an instructor.
Two things I Struggle With (and lose my shit over)
- People learn some patterns in a dance and then think they can go teach it. I see it all often. they don't even know their part yet they want to teach the other person. It makes no sense. I want to tell them to go watch a Youtube video and ask themselves does the thing you are teaching even resemble what everyone else is actually dancing? There is more to a dance than learning some patterns. There is style, attitude, technique, and musicality of the dance. Study while you teach someone so you learn faster, that is okay, but don't think just because you watched a couple videos you know how to teach the dance.
- Those same people that charge money for that shit!
Okay, one more. Teachers that charge way too much money for what we do and are not champions or have just put the years and hours of discipline, practice, and training even if they never competed. You must earn it to charge it. However, just cause you can does not mean you should. I don't even charge what my level of peers charge because I feel you should not have to go broke to learn how to dance.
Staff Teachers or an Independent Instructor?
Studios charge more than independents most often because they have overhead and they also want to make a profit on top of paying the teacher. Independents like myself pay a floor fee out of the cost of a lesson. Also, don't tip us. It is a nice gesture if you are a one-time lesson getting ready for a cruise but if you are a weekly student we are charging you our rate. (however, wine or whisky as a gift on holidays are always welcome 😎 )
One is not better than the other necessarily but often the independent is more experience. The Ballroom of Reno has all independent professional instructors to help keep the cost of private dance lessons affordable in Reno. Each teacher charges their own rate and has less expense so even with the lower cost it is a win-win-win.
What About Group Classes?
You must take them! You supplement your learning with the group classes. You get to dance with other dancers and if you can only afford one private a week or even a month the group classes are even more important. I always told my students that if your budget only allows one private a week you should also take a group class if you can. Two times a week will get you there more quickly. Also, we don't get good with our dancing in classes, you have to get out there on the dance floor and social dance. That is the real lesson.
Last words of advice.
Go into all your lessons like a blank canvas, don't act like you know something a teacher is telling you because you have done it before. I had to learn that the expensive hard way. If you are open to hearing and learning you will always hear something at a higher level of knowledge and will pick up on the little nuances of the movement you were not ready for in the past.
Here is The Ballrooms Youtube channel with some lesson videos to help your dancing.
I adore you for reading this.
Happy dancing and learning. Enjoy the journey no matter how many years you have been on the path.
Cheers,
J
Jeffrey has taught all over the United States but makes his home at The Ballroom of Reno School of Dance. He can teach anywhere but The Ballroom of Reno is a non-profit that touches the community through free group classes and other outreach dance programs, the 7000 square feet of the dance floor, combined with the wonderful people and no sales pressure attitude makes it the best ballroom dance studio in Reno Nv.
The dances the pros teach at The Ballroom of Reno school of dance are Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Argentine Tango, Bolero, Rumba, Cha-Cha, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, Samba, Salsa, Mambo, Merengue, Viennese Waltz, night Club two-step, Country two-step Salsa on two, Bachata dance, Cumbia dance, Bolero, your First Wedding Dance, and many other social partner dances, club dances so you can go ballroom dancing or club dancing in Reno and Sparks NV!
The Ballroom of Reno YouTube
Here is another youtube channel I have for you to learn how to dance.
Follow a beginner dancer as she learns Ballroom, Latin and Swing in Reno.
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