It’s been awhile since the last post for several reasons, but one of the biggest is that I’ve said most of what I originally aimed to say with this blog. Obviously posts will be more sporadic now, though by no means am I abandoning this project. Rather, I’m trying to wait until I have something worth saying that has to do with it’s original purpose: how to save money on your dancing. It’s been awhile since we really touched base on some good old-fashioned money-saving tricks, but today we’re going to talk about one of my favorites, one I’ve even mentioned before though not really explored: double lessons.
Cheap people care about the cost of something.Frugal people care about the value of something.
It gets it’s own paragraph because it’s that important. When we take a hobby as potentially expensive as ballroom dance it’s very easy to be shocked at the sticker price of some things and panic. ”Okay,” we say, “we can learn to dance but let’s do the $5 drop-in class at the community college down the block rather than the group class/private lessons series at that independent studio across town.” Now I have nothing against community college classes – in fact I highly recommend them as a way to save money – but don’t just compare the cost of those two classes, compare the value. A group class at the independent studio may be $15, but if it takes me four of those community college classes to learn the same material (and that’s quite likely if it’s a drop-in structure) then the cheap class has actually cost me money. The sticker price is important but it’s more just as important to consider what you get as what you pay.
Which brings us to the double lesson. Now it’s certainly possible to get a cheaper price on double lessons than individual lessons; I award my in-home students a $10 credit for every double lesson they take because I only need to spend gas and travel time once. That said, let’s assume for the sake of argument that you’re paying the same price for one double lesson as you would for two regular lessons. What’s the point?
Think about the last time you took a lesson. Even if you warmed up when you got to the studio, remember how long it took you to clear your head, to get into dance mode, to make yourself ready to learn? That can take anywhere from two minutes to half the lesson! That can mean you’re wasting half the lesson! If you do a double lesson you’re already warmed up by the second half, which means you’re going to get three lessons’ worth of learning out of that session! (the second half of the first lesson, the first half of the second lesson, and the second of the second lesson, rather than just half of one lesson) That’s like a 33% discount on your lesson costs.
Or how about time costs? Let’s assume you’re fairly close to your dance studio: twenty minutes away. That means forty minutes of travel time that you save every time you combine lessons. While the gasoline is probably negligible, that’s forty minutes you could be practicing your steps, earning money at another job, or spending with your family.
Bust most of all, consider how much is lost between lessons. We forget steps, we forget technique, and so much of subsequent lessons is spent on review, re-learning what we’ve already learned. You are literally paying twice for the same material. Not only does a double lesson give you less opportunity to forget, but it also reinforces the material when you first learn it so you’re more likely to hold onto it. Remember what were saying about how lessons that don’t teach you the material end up costing you money? Well here’s a great way to make those lessons a lot more cost efficient.
The biggest issue I hear with double lessons are people who feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material (“I need more time to practice between lessons!”) and people who are physically overwhelmed by the demands of two consecutive lessons (“My legs give out after an hour.”). These are valid objections but there are ways to deal with them. The volume of material is the easiest to deal with: ask the instructor to focus less on figures and more on technique. If the second half of the double ends up feeling more like supervised practice than a lesson, that’s not a bad thing: remember, practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. A good instructor when presented with the issue of feeling overwhelmed will create a lesson plan that reinforces the material from the first half rather than layering on new material.
As far as physical limits go, again you should not consider it a problem. Dance forces you to get in better shape, and one way it does that is by pushing your physical limits. If your instructor works you hard, consider the physical training a bonus in addition to learning to dance. Of course, if he or she is pushing you to the breaking point that is a problem and you should speak up about your physical limitations, but having those limits stretched is the only way to expand them.
My partner and I do almost all of our lessons these days as doubles, preferring to take a double lesson half as often as we used to take single lessons, and we’ve noticed a marked increase in both our dancing and the finances we can afford to put toward our dancing. If you’re considering how to get more from your lessons, try doubling down on them and watch what happens.
One last note: Dance Vision, publishers of the DVIDA syllabus, are having a 25% off sale on all DVDs they produce. If you’ve been waiting to get your video syllabus or technique videos, now is the time. The sale goes until Sept. 18; just enter DV25 as the promo code at check out.
October 2, 2011 at 5:42 PM |
Good article! I completely agree with your blog post :)
For myself, I have also found that when I need to save money, a double lesson every 2 weeks with diligent and intelligent practice is better than a single lesson every week.