We’ve talked in the past about how important it is to identify what one wants to work on with one’s teachers.  In fact, it was one of the main points in our second article.  In order to achieve one’s goals in dance, as in any discipline, it is crucial to identify those goals.  It’s important, however, to be open-minded about those goals, both in terms of how to achieve them, and even what they are.

When a student books a lesson with a teacher, that student is paying for the teacher’s time, but expects to get several things out of the lesson.  The student expects to have his or her dancing improve and expects this will happen via the teacher’s expertise and instruction.  With that in mind, we can get more of that expertise, and thus more improvement and thus more value from our lessons, if we allow our teachers more leeway in how they use that expertise.  Some of this is obvious:  If a teacher is specialized in a particular dance style then one should focus on that style.  If a teacher is an expert at a technique (say, turning), he or she can probably teach that technique better than other techniques (say, arm styling).  All of these are common sense, so let’s move on.

What’s not common snese is that a good teacher isn’t just an expert instructor or dancer but an expert on dance.  A good teacher doesn’t need the student to say what’s wrong; he or she can see what’s wrong.  I may be unhappy with my arm styling in international rumba (forget “may be.”  I actually am unhappy with my rumba arm styling and I’m actively practicing so it will improve) but I rarely work on arm styling with my Latin coach.  Why?  Because she sees a lot of other areas of my rumba that need work before my arms.  Now if I were to come in and say, “L____, today we’re going to work on my arm styling,” that might (might) help the arms, but it would not improve my rumba overall.  Not the best use of an $80 lesson.  Instead, I dance rumba for her with my partner or with her and she identifies the problem areas we need to work on.

Does it work?  Well my partner and I have moved up from first round eliminations to pretty dependable semi-finals and sporadic finals.  I’d say L____ knows exactly what my rumba needs and she knows a lot better than I do.  I’ve no doubt we’ll do arms eventually, but there are other things going on first.

All too often I see students trying to dictate every aspect of the lesson, from figures to music to the technique they’re going to work on.  These may be aspects you want to work on, but remember: you’re paying your teacher to help you.  If you force him or her to work on one specific area, you’re denying him or her the chance to impart hard-won expertise on what may be your biggest problem areas.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t identify goals with your teacher, but you should allow the teacher flexibility in getting there.

Don’t say: “I want to work on arm styling.”

Instead say: “I want to look better on the floor.”

Don’t Say: “My lead is too weak.”

Do Say: “I’m having trouble leading these figures…”

Don’t Say: “I need more steps.”

Do Say: “My dancing feels repetitive.”

Note the difference.  In the bad examples, the student has given a diagnosis and prescription before even showing the teacher the problem.  In the good examples, the student identifies the problem but leaves it up to the teacher – the expert – to suggest how they should fix it.

When you start your lesson, you can identify these larger goals to your teacher and allow him or her the leeway to decide what to do about it.  But sometimes – and this has become more and more common for my partner and I – you just have to put on the music, dance for a set, and allow the teacher to see what areas are in need.

Hope you enjoyed your holidays.  I know that I did.  This Christmas, my lovely girlfriend T____ and I had one of the best gigs a dancer can get: we got to teach on a cruise ship.

In writing this blog we’ve talked a lot about strategies to save you money (negotiating prices, using DVDs to supplement lessons, budget competitions, etc.) and get increased value from the money you do spend (how to structure practices between lessons) but one of the areas we haven’t discussed much is how to use your knowledge of dance to get things of value.  The line between professional champion and amateur hobbyist is often so great that many dancers don’t realize that they have a valuable skill that they can barter to their advantage.  Many people will trade things of value, such as trips or admission to prestigious events, in return for dance lessons or entertainment.  Today, I’m going to write about using one’s dancing to go on vacation.

Now the dancing vacation, in which part of the vacation is supplemented by teaching or performing dance, is something I’ve done before.  I’ve taught at retreats and conventions – in fact, T____ and I actually met in a class I was teaching at a science fiction convention, though we didn’t start dating for several months afterward – but this was more than just a weekend getaway with one or two intro classes.  This was a full-on, week-long trip with real classes aboard a beautiful ship.  Could we pull it off?  Would we be able to maintain our professional decorum for a solid week?  Would maintaining said decorum interfere with our ability to enjoy the cruise?  Would it be something other people could benefit from?  Read on to find out.

Okay, spoilers: we had a great time.  Teaching on a cruise ship is one of the best experiences I’ve had as a teacher and one I highly recommend to all dance teachers and advanced students willing to go through the training.  It’s a lot of fun and you get all the benefits of a cruise vacation for a very substantial discount.  As the song goes, “Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try.”

What was it like?

Let’s start with the experience.  We were scheduled to teach four one-hour classes over a seven day cruise (one class during each day or half-day at sea), though we ended up teaching six classes due to minor complications.  The result was that our labor amounted to about six hours over an entire week, one of the lightest teaching loads I’ve ever had.  When you consider the compensation (discussed below), this also makes what was effectively one of the best hourly rates I’ve ever had.

The main compensation teachers get is that they’re cruise passengers.  Anytime we weren’t teaching we were able to enjoy the cruise the same as any other passenger, including having our own stateroom, meals were included, most non-alcoholic beverages, shows, public rooms, pools, activities, and so on; everything in a standard ticket.  In addition, we were able to make the same purchases as full-fare passengers for excursions, beverages, specialty restaurants, and so on.  In other words, we got a vacation.

We had some concern that the necessity to maintain a professional attitude might detract from our enjoyment of the trip, but this was happily not the case.  We never found passengers to be pushy or had to bite our tongues to stay polite; on the contrary, everyone was pleasant and while we were expected to have somewhat more knowledge of the ship and its workings than typical guests, we were treated more as celebrities than staff.  It was so much fun!

Outside of teaching our classes we spent a great deal of time in the pools and hot tubs.  We ate most meals in the main dining room (which was fantastic!).  We saw several shows, played games, went ashore and were tourists, and did everything else one does on a cruise.  And of course, we danced every night when the ship’s bands played.

What does it take?

Teaching on a cruise ship requires several things.  First, you must be able to dance.  This may seem obvious but let’s make it clear.  You should dance at least at a full bronze level and silver is better.  You’re going to be both dancing and teaching on small floors in a social setting, so while it can be helpful to know international style, I highly recommend being just as proficient in the American style.  The passengers will watch you when you are at the dance parties, during which you are an advertisement for your class.  Note that this doesn’t mean dancing all-out all the time – the floors are small and if one were to try and dance silver rumba there would be no room for anyone else on the floor, and if it were silver waltz not even room for the two of you – but it does mean making sure one’s dancing is attractive and appealing at all times.

Second, you must be able to teach.  If you don’t know how to teach, learn.  Invest in private lessons with teachers you respect, spend time watching other dance teachers, and take notes.  Go back and take beginner classes to see how the teachers start with completely new students.  Learn how to present material so that it is easy to understand.  Teach your friends for free and get feedback.  Video yourself teaching group classes.  The more you work with good teachers, the better your lessons will be.  Be prepared to teach multiple levels simultaneously; though 90% of the people in our classes were beginners, a few danced a bronze level and two dancers were former professional ballroom dancers.  As such, you should be ready to teach a beginner lesson that can include information and material to keep upper level dancers interested, such as by teaching a basic pattern but including technique notes for advanced dancers (and identified as such).  Take the money a cruise would cost you at full price and invest in private lessons to get you ready to teach.  That means the first cruise will essentially be at cost and you’ll be saving money by the second.

Third, apply.  We planned this trip with Sixth Star Entertainment, which books instructors and entertainers for cruise ships.  The application process was quite long, though not arduous, and entailed filling out applications, information on our own training, videos of our dancing, letters of reference from our dance teachers, information on my certifications, competition records, and at least two phone interviews.  They were very thorough and professional in whom they would put forward for a cruise.  In return, they gave us very specific information about what we could expect when we were teaching and how to conduct ourselves aboard the ship.  Most of it is common sense (be polite to passengers) and familiar to anyone who’s worked in any industry that involves socializing with one’s patrons (defer to full-fare paying passengers when the dining room opens or there are limited seats at a show, etc.), though some were surprising (don’t sit at bar stools as they’re very popular seats and large parties can appear in an empty bar without notice).   The benefit of the manual was that we felt completely prepared for our experience aboard ship and never had to wonder what was or was not appropriate.  Sixth Star was very helpful in answering the few questions that were not in the manual, usually responding within a few hours.

Finally, there is still a cost to this vacation.  It is substantially less than a full-fare for a cruise – as I said before, averaging the discount with the number of hours we taught, this was the best-paying gig I’ve ever worked – but it is not 100% free.  In return for this fee Sixth Star arranges everything with the cruise line so all you need do is show up ready to teach and ready to cruise.  They had all the information for us, made it easy to book the cruise, helped us submit our application, and were on hand in the event anything went wrong.  Fortunately they were not needed once we were aboard ship, but having witnessed how they prepared for the cruise I felt very confident knowing they were available if needed.

If you’re a solid dancer (full bronze or higher) with teaching ability or willingness to learn, and you want a great discount vacation, try a cruise ship!

For our most recent competition, my dance partner and I tried out a new strategy, one that worked out very well for us: staying with a stranger.

Opening one’s home to dancers is very common in some groups.  Lindy hop and blues groups, for example, have been running exchanges for years.  An exchange is a multi-day dance event, usually over a weekend, that may feature social dances, workshops, and/or competitions, all of which attract out of town guests.  The local group asks its members to offer spare rooms, beds, couches, and floor space that it then offers to out-of-towners at no cost, with the understanding that the out-of-towners will open their homes when there is an exchange in their city.  Collegiate ballroom teams often to the same thing when they host competitions, hosting visiting teams in their dorm rooms and staying with other schools’ teams when traveling.

While there’s not exactly an equivalent in the general ballroom world, there’s an even better option.  Sites, such as www.couchsurfing.com connect travelers looking for a place to stay with residents happy to host them, and all for free.  My dance partner and I decided to give it a try.

Registration was easy.  Though there’s no cost to use the site, I did opt to pay $25 for physical confirmation and limited my search options to hosts who’d gone through similar confirmation.  This was an easy and still relatively cheap security procedure.  Moreover, it meant that I’d be staying with someone who knew how the site operated.  It was very easy to search for hosts geographically, and indeed I came away with far too many potential hosts.  I searched again, this time using dance-related keywords.  I ended up with Howard, who while not a ballroom dancer, was active in the blues, Lindy, and Argentine tango communities.  I figured he’d be sympathetic to a fellow dancer, and might have even participated in a few exchanges himself.

It was very easy sending a message to Howard and we struck up an accord right away.  I explained that this was my first time using Couch Surfing and asked his indulgence should I commit any faux pas in the process.  What  should I bring?  (sleeping bag, pillow, and a flashlight as his house had no exterior lighting)  What time should we arrive? (any time but call about an houor before we arrived)  Could we bring anything for him? (No.  We brought a CD of a local swing band anyway as a thank you gift)

What was it like staying with Howard?  About the same as it would be crashing on your friend’s couch.  We arrived about 11:00 PM due to a late departure from our home city and a traffic/construction/weather trifecta of delays.  Howard showed us around, where we’d be staying (I claimed a couch while my dance partner slept in a spare bed room), the bathroom, and then we settled in.  We chatted about the dance world, the competition, the local area, and got to know each other.  Howard and I watched an episode of Breaking Bad, and then it was time to sleep as we had an early day at the competition tomorrow.

My dance partner and I were up early as she had to do her hair and make up, while I had my own, admittedly less extensive grooming to see to.  Howard slept the morning in and we didn’t see him as we departed.  He did call us later as we’d forgotten a pair of dance shoes at the house (why did my dance partner bring them inside in the first place?  I’ll never know), which we stopped by to retrieve afterward.

Overall, it was a great experience.  We had a fun time, saved a bit of money (the cheapest area hotels were $125/night and far less convenient), and made a friend.  We were both well-rested and had a great time dancing at the comp, placing 3rd in smooth waltz, 1st in smooth foxtrot, 5th in standard waltz, 2nd in rhythm cha cha, 3rd in rhythm rumba, 5th in rhythm swing, and 2nd overall in rhythm, which included a scholarship prize.  If couch surfing has this kind of effect on our dancing I could get used to it!

My only concern would be that one takes a risk staying with strangers.  Some travelers, and I’d particularly advise single female travelers on this point, may feel more comfortable staying with hosts who have a good feedback history.  I’d also recommend having a traveling companion, especially the first couple of times, for safety’s sake.

Gaaahhh!!

60 dollars an hour?

How am I ever going to afford the 4 lessons a month that one would usually get with group lessons? Which would be $240!!

Anyone whom ever took private lessons how in the WORLD did you afford this?
Would I be able to get away with just taking one or two private classes a month and then practice at home?

Most of the responses were typical of the discussions we’ve had on this blog: do you need private lessons, if so how many, how do you get your money’s worth from a private lesson, what are typical going rates, private lessons are worth it, private lessons aren’t worth it, and so on.  These are all valuable topics and ones we’ve explored at great length for just that reason.  Only one forum member attempted to answer the original question, and the answer was less than satisfactory (“That’s what the market will bear.”).  So today, we’re pulling back the curtain: how dance teachers decide what to charge for lessons.

Opportunity Expenses

The first thing I do when I decide my pricing is look at my expenses.  How much does it cost me to give the lesson?  If I’m giving an in-home lesson this is pretty basic: gas and tolls, plus a little bit extra for wear-and-tear on the car.  If I have to rent space at a studio that’s added as well.  Will I be traveling so much I need to do a meal out of the house?  The result is most lessons cost me between $10 and $40 just to show up, the former being for someone close by me learning in their living room, and the latter for crossing state lines over a toll bridge and renting a studio.

But beyond those costs, there are opportunity costs.  Dance is not my only income; if someone wants me to come in during my day job hours I need to take that time off, unpaid, which means I need to add in another $30 – that’s $10 an hour for the lesson, plus an hour of transit each way.  In fact, even if I’m not taking time off of one job, I can’t book myself other dance lessons close together because of travel time to each lesson, thus in-home lessons require me to charge more even for time I don’t teach – thus I’m usually very willing to give substantive discounts to students doing double or triple sessions.

Now if I’m working for a studio and teaching back-to-back lessons there all day, my costs are significantly lower as there’s no travel involved beyond a normal commute.  Of course now the studio has its costs if I’m an employee or it’s floor charges if I’m renting space.

The end result: of my $60/hr cost for in-home lessons, I usually take home about $40, which when averaged over a two hour block (half hour travel, lesson, half hour travel), comes to just $20/hr.  A good rate, but hardly unreasonable.  When I work for a studio I generally charge $25/hr but won’t take the job unless it comes with several consecutive hours booked.

Now, you may say, the studio only pays me $25/hr but charges $75/hr for the lesson.  Where does the extra $50 go?

The answer is overhead.  The studio is usually paying rent on the space, and remember dance studios need a lot of space.  Mirrors can run thousands of dollars.  A sprung floor can cost $18 per square foot (link) and with even a small 600 square foot floor (20′ x 30′) will run over $10,0000.  Advertising is an ongoing expense for the studio.  Licensing music.  Maintenance.  An administrative worker, which may include both a studio manager and receptionist.  INSURANCE.  A contract lawyer on retainer.  An accountant.  And we haven’t even touched on ongoing staff training.  That extra $50 erodes very quickly.

Ability Costs

All of these are costs just to get out and teach a lesson, but what about the cost to be able to teach a lesson?  How much does it cost to become a dance teacher?

I’m very up front with my students: dance is a pyramid scheme, I tell them.  You take lessons from me and I turn your checks over to my coaches.  I know who they take lessons from and who they turn their checks over to.  And I know some of the teachers they turn those checks over to.  We’re all trying to learn from better and better teachers, and those high-level teachers are exceedingly rare and quite expensive.  I charge $60/hr.  This weekend my dance partner and I got a private lesson with one of our teacher’s teachers for the bargain price of $130/hr., and it’s looking like that’s going to become a regular part of our training.

But you can bet I taught a much better waltz lesson on Monday than I would have without that lesson.

Every dime of my dance income, after my immediate expenses, goes right back into my training to make me the best teacher I can be.  That includes coaching with people who aren’t just the best dancers in the world but who are also the best dance teachers in the world.  It includes certification costs so that I can guarantee to my students that I’m providing the best experience possible for them.  It includes workshops, seminars, and congresses so that I can stay current on what’s happening in the dance world.  It includes my fitness costs so that I will have the stamina to teach my last lesson of the day with the same vigor that I taught the first.  It includes dance manuals and videos.  It includes costumes so that I can perform and entertain my students.  It includes everything that makes me a dance teacher.

How much does that cost me?

Year to date it’s cost me $2,000 more than my gross income from dance.

Value

There’s one more aspect I consider when deciding on my lesson pricing, and that’s how much I value my time.  When I consider all those variable costs and average them out to figure out how much money I need to make each lesson just to break even, that still only informs me when I do my final analysis: how much is it worth it to me not to teach the lesson?

Huh?

Here’s the formula: I consider how much someone has to pay me to come teach on a day when I’m feeling great.  On a day when I love the student, am excited about the material, want to go dance, and it’s just so beautiful I can’t wait to get out of the house.  How much do you have to pay me to come show up for that lesson?  I’ll do it for $20, my average immediate expenses.

Next, I consider how much money someone has to throw at me to get me out of bed on a day when I really don’t want to teach.  When it’s cold out and raining, when my body hurts, when the student is stubborn and talentless and unpleasant, when I just don’t want to go.  You’re going to need to give me at least $100 on that day or I’ll tell you to sod off.

Average the two together, and that’s my price: $60.

Dance lessons cost so much Achilles, because we won’t show up otherwise.

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.

A dancer can use a syllabus as a constant record of everything he or she should be doing but that may be too much to remember all it once.  In this way the dancer can focus on developing each aspect of his or her dancing to the point that it happens automatically as part of muscle memory, without worrying about forgetting other elements in the interim.  As such, it’s often best to go back through the syllabus and review older steps from time to time as one becomes capable of demonstrating higher level technique.

Generally, there are two types of syllabi: written and video.  We discussed written syllabi in the aforementioned article and will be focusing on video syllabi in this post.  I will generally be referencing the DVIDA syllabus by Dance Vision for specific examples, but will try to keep the discussion general enough to be universally applicable.  For all examples I will be using the sample video from the bronze smooth waltz DVD which demonstrates the simple twinkle (opens in seperate window).

Watching the Video

Most video syllabi follow a similar pattern: they demonstrate the step, demonstrate the step focusing on specific elements, discuss technique, and demonstrate the step again with music.  DVIDA specifically demonstrates:

1. Couple dances the figure together with timing but no music).
2. Leader demonstrates figure separately with timing but no music).
3. Leader explains foot positions.
4. Leader explains footwork.
5-7. As 2-4 from follower’s perspective.
8. Leader discusses his technique.
9. Follower discusses her technique.
10. Couple discusses partnering technique.
11. Couple demonstrates figure together with music.

That’s a great deal of information!  In fact, getting all of that information in class or private lessons might take two or three sessions, with quite a few more sessions until the material was fully integrated.  As such (and this is where most people make mistakes when using a syllabus) you should have the same timeline set for yourself.  Instead of trying to integrate everything all at once, put it in your dancing piece by piece.  We will explain.

There are two major assets of a video syllabus.  The one everyone thinks of is actually the lesser benefit: you can see a professional dancer demonstrate the step.  To be sure, that’s no small benefit, but it pales compared to the second benefit: you can pause a video whenever you want!  You can rewind it and watch a section over and over again.  When you use a video, you should be taking advantage of this fact constantly.

When you first play the video for a figure, watch the section in its entirety.  Don’t try and dance along with it, just take it in and get a sense what the instructors are trying to communicate.  If you’re academically-minded think of this as an overview reading; the goal is not to learn the step but to identify which parts you need to pay attention to and heed on your next viewing.

Next, focus on your role (if you’re a leader this will be items 2-4, if you’re a follower it will be items 5-7).  Dance them along with the video.  Focus on one aspect at a time, such as foot position, footwork, alignment, turn, etc.  I strongly recommend using a written syllabus in conjunction with the video at this time.  The video does not break down every element of every step, such as how far one turns, the alignment one faces, use of contrabody action or sway, etc.   The written syllabus provides all of this information.  While one can determine most of it from watching the dancers, not every element is discerinble to the untrained eye and many dancers take liberties with their demonstrations to reflect their preferences and styling.  Donald Johnson and Kasia Kozak, for example, alter the bronze rhythm syllabus a great deal.

Practice these parts until they’re automatic.  In the next section you’ll be working on technique and styling which are almost impossible to implement if you’re still wondering where your foot goes or what it should be doing.

At this point you (and your partner if you’re practicing with one) should be comfortable with the basic elements.  Move on to section 8 or 9, depending on your role.  Go through this section slowly, pausing and rewinding as needed.  Use a mirror to compare yourself with the image in the video.  Because steps are often demonstrated facing the camera the image on the screen is often inverted from what you will be practicing; as such we often find it helpful to watch the TV in a mirror so that we can match what is being demonstrated without needing to mentally flip everything.

The key to this section is to go slowlym, one part at at time.  For example, when at about 3:00 in our example video, Jim explains the traits and techniques of promenade position (i.e. leader and follower’s feet at 90 degrees to each other, upper body turned less, shoulders parallel, etc.).  While studying for the smooth exam, my practice partner and I focused on this section of the video extensively, practicing simply being in promenade position with one another; as we got comfortable and automatic with our promenade positions we practiced moving into the position, slowly and deliberately, to make sure we wound up with our entire bodies poised correctly.

This makes a natural segue into section 10, the techniques for partnering, and is done just as in sections 8 and 9.  Each aspect should be practiced until it is automatic and can be done without disrupting the previous elements of the dance.

At last, practice the entire step, which should now flow smoothly.

Review the video regularly, especially if it involves figures you are using for a performance or competition, or techniques for something else you’re working on.  Far more information is given than can be integrated all at once, and when you go through a video again after several months, you are likely to pick up more information that you received the first time.  Just like before, go through the video slowly and integrate each element point by point.

While tweeting will not be a regular form of update, we will be sending live updates from the Manhattan Amateur Classic this weekend!

I hope you all had as great a time New Year’s Eve as I did.  NYE is one of the best nights of the year for dancing.  In addition to all the great dances hosted by dance groups and studios, it’s also one of the best opportunities to take our dancing public and show our friends and family what we can do.  This year I spent NYE at a local ballroom club where a friend of mine was DJing, then New Year’s Day went to a beautiful studio down in Delaware for a dance where a new friend of mine re-introduced an old friend to dancing.  And what a perfect time, too.  The new year is a great time to reevaluate your dancing and decide how you want to approach it for the next three-hundred-odd days.

My challenge to every one of you this year is to expand your dancing to an area you’ve never tried before.  Some areas to consider include:

• Competition.
• Showcase dances.
• Teaching.
• Medal testing.
• Certification examinations.
• Going pro.

We’ll touch in on those points throughout the year, but now, let’s talk about how you can get started.

My first experience with dancing was back in high school, but I didn’t get serious until college.  In fact, I didn’t really get serious until after college, but I was enabled by a college ballroom club.  In fact, without the Beloit College Ballroom Dance Club and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Ballroom Dance Association, I probably wouldn’t even be dancing today.

One of the lesser known aspects of university dance groups is that they’re often open to non-students.  UWMBDA is a leader in the Madison-area ballroom dance community.  While other universities aren’t quite as prolific in their local communities as UWMBDA, I’ve attended dances by the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State, Rutgers, Princeton, and University of Maryland, all without being staff or student.  University clubs often offer social lessons and competition coaching, often at very low cost, to members of the community.  If you’re not taking advantage of these opportunities then I strongly urge you to reconsider.

One of the biggest impediments to getting involved with a university dance group is age.  Many prospective dancers consider themselves unsuitable because they’re not students or  no longer college-age.  Don’t let this stop you!  As previously stated, many dancers in these communities have no formal tie to the university.  Furthermore, because universities include students of all ages (especially in graduate programs) , your age may not be typical but it’s unlikely to be particularly noteworthy.

A typical university dance program works on a membership basis.  Typically, dancers pay a certain fee per year or semester.  In return, they gain access to dance classes and social dances, either for free or at significant discount.  In addition, if the university sponsors a competition team, the dancer gains access to those lessons and practices as well, and often discounts on private lessons with the team’s coach(es).  Competitions may also be subsidized to assist with travel, registration fees, hotels, etc.  Teams often maintain collections of costumes for use in competitions or performances.  Finally, they can provide a great feeling of camaraderie that can be lacking in studios if your interests don’t precisely align with that of the other students (i.e. being a competitive dancer in a social studio or vice-versa, dancing amateur in a pro-am studio, etc.).

Once you’ve decided to join a college team, a little internet research is often all that’s needed.  A Google search on “[name of college] ballroom dance” will often be all the research required.  E-mail the club president and ask how you can get involved.

Happy New Year and happy dancing!

This sums up my views pretty well.  I’m told by my students and people I meet when I’m out dancing, “Oh, you’re so talented!”  I’m not and, though I know they mean it as a compliment, I’m actually rather offended.  On average it takes me 3-4 times as long as most dancers I know to reach the same level of proficiency or learn the same material.  I don’t have talent, but I do have skill, skill I developed because my passion for dance allowed me and encouraged me to spend thousands of hours to reach my current level and push higher.

Does talent exist?  Yes, but it’s relatively insignificant.  I firmly believe that hard work trumps talent 99% of the time; the only exceptions are at the very bottom (where no one has done any work at all) and the very top (where every little advantage matters, no matter how minuscule).

Here’s to all us wonderful, untalented dancers out there!

Registering for a competition can be a lengthy and confusing process, and if done incorrectly it can be an expensive one as well.  Worse, it’s a needlessly expensive hassle that is almost never addressed.  Today: how to register yourself for a competition and save hundreds of dollars in the process.  For purposes of example, we’ll use one of the local competitions in my area, Philadelphia Festival Dancesport Championships.  Let’s go to the forms and registrations page (link) so we can all follow along together.

Why is this so complicated?

Before we get into how to register, one needs to understand that the complexity of registration is deliberate.  Not maliciously so, but deliberate nonetheless.  Why would someone make registering for a competition needlessly complex?  To understand that, one needs to understand how the competition industry is organized.

Now before I start accusing competition organizers and dance teachers of being shiftless, money-grubbing capitalists who are only out to make a quick buck, let me state that I hold no such beliefs.  Ballroom dance is a very hard industry in which to make a go of it, and if all one desires is to make money, dance is about the worst business one could have chosen.  I hold it absolutely true that the overwhelming majority of people in the dance industry, no matter what capacity they operate in, do so out of a genuine love of dance.  There are a few bad eggs out there, as there are in any business, but by and large, dancers do not receive their principle motivation from profit.

That said, any successful business person, in the dance industry or elsewhere, must be aware of the fact that without profit he or she cannot survive in that business.  A competition does not consistently turn a profit, or at least break even, will die unless it receives some outside sponsorship, and a dance instructor who does not profit from his or her dance must find some other line of work with which to support him or herself.  This can hardly be considered a shocking revelation but it must be ackwnoweldged because it allows us to state the mandate of every competition and instructor must include the stated goal of making money.

From the Organizer’s Point of View

Competitions and instructors do this in different ways.  Competitions make money by attracting competitors and selling entries.  As in most businesses, it is usually very difficult to attract new patrons (competitors) and is comparatively easier to self additional entries to the competitors already planning to attend.  This is an example of the 80/20 rule in action.  In many respects it is fairly easy to sell additional entries.  The dancer is already at the competition, and likely wants to do as much dancing as possible rather than sit on the sidelines.  The organizer can accomodate the dancer by offering additional opportunities to dance and by charging per event rather than for the whole competition.  If those opportunities are not present, the organizer must create additional events to manufacture opportunities.

A common case of manufactured events is offering both single-dance and multi-dance events.  A beginning bronze dancer may know standard waltz, tango, and quickstep.  If these are all danced as a multi-dance, averaging the scores in each dance, the organizer only receives one entry fee.  If they are offered as single-dances, the organizer receives three fees.  If the organizer offers both single-dance and multi-dance events, there are four fees.  The organizer can even create different events by offering the same event as was earlier danced but with a prize, which is exactly what the Scholarship event is (otherwise pro-am multi-dance).

Another way events are created is by offering different levels of and allowing dancers to enter more advanced levels than they are rated.  Dancers are generally allowed to dance up, such as a bronze dancer competing in both bronze and silver.  This doubles the potential number of entries, but it extends beyond such simple doubling.  While the syllabus (pre-bronze, bronze, silver, and gold) and open (novice, pre-champion, champion) levels are generally well-known, there are others that exist only within the competition world such as Advanced Bronze, Pre-Gold, or Open Silver.  We’ll get into the details of these categories below, but they all exist for the purpose of creating additional entries.

Then there are age categories.  Just as one dance “up” levels one can also dance younger.  It’s obvious that a 16 year old dancer will probably have very different physical capabilities than a 90 year old dancer, and so normally dancers are separated into age categories.  Some dancers may want the challenge, or just the opportunity, to dance against younger dancers and so competitions permit dancers to dance down in as many age groups as they like, down to 18 years old (adults competing against children is not permitted, but often children can dance older to dance against adults).

This is why the forms have so many different options: competition organizers create lots and lots of events so that the dancers in attendance do lots and lots of dances, paying separately for each one.

From the Instructor’s Point of View

The dance instructor makes his or her money in a different way.  The instructor and his or her studio have made money selling lessons, but the competition itself presents a different financial situation.  If the instructor is at the competition, either dancing pro-am or continuing to coach and advise the dancers, he or she is not at the studio teaching lessons (thus not making the studio money), to say nothing of the costs involved in attending the competition, such as hotel, travel, and food.  As such, the instructor needs to pay for his or her expenses and make up the missed lessons.

Hence, the instructor or studio will often add a fee to the competition registration when a dancer registers through the studio.  This may be an overall fee (usually done for the studio), a per-dance fee (usually for the instructor, and almost certainly applied if dancing pro-am), or both.  I’ve seen overall fees of $50 to $500, and I’ve seen per-dance fees of $10 to $20.

Before I talk about how to avoid these fees, we should at least acknowledge that they can ocassionally be worthwhile.  Studios have access to several perks that individual dancers lack, including:

• Preferential Seating – When studios register they are often given block seating in the audience or reserved tables.  In addition to being able to sit with your friends and teachers, these seats usually provide a better view than most of the general seating.  This is particularly advantageous when watching professional competitions or evening showcases.
• Studio Support – Instructors attend competitions to take care of their students.  A student who registers separately is telling the instructor, “I don’t need you,” and the instructor will hear the message.  He or she will spend the competition time, when not on the floor, looking after the students who are paying for the instructor to attend the competition (see above costs), not on the students who’ve removed themselves.  It can be very helpful, especially at early competitions, to have an experienced hand guiding you about where to go, when to queue up for heats, deciphering schedules, assisting with costumes, and all the myriad difficulties of competitions.
• Pro-Am – If oone is dancing pro-am, one will have to register through the studio, and pay their fees, since the student and pro must register together.  In these instances the extra fees make it possible for the instructor to attend and compete with the student.
  
• Eligibility – By registering with a studio, your performance is factored into your studio’s and instructor’s averages, making them eligible for top studio and top teacher awards, and making you eligible to participate in those awards.  Likewise, one must register with a studio in order to compete in team matches.
• Assistance Registering – When you register with a studio, they often take care of all the paperwork for you.  While this article will attempt to explain how to do your own paperwork, sometimes it’s just easier to turn it over to someone else.
• Bonus Perks – Studios that support competitions for many years often have additional perks thrown their way by the competition’s organizers.  For example, one studio I know when attending a certain large competition is often given the presidential suite to host parties, and for students and instructors to relax in.

Are these benefits worth the extra costs?  That’s up to you.  I’ve registered independently and I’ve registered with studios and the benefits are often justified, but not always.  Compare your studio’s registration prices with those of registering independently, and if the costs are out of line, don’t be afraid to ask the studio’s competition coordinator what you get for the extra money.  Don’t say, “Why does it cost so much more to register with you?  Why shouldn’t I just go sign up on my own, dance, and pay $200 less?”  which is both confrontational and rude.  Instead say, “I noticed that our studio has added some extra fees to register.  What are the benefits to registering with you and paying the extra money?”

If they can’t say anything more than, “Well then you get to be part of our studio at the competition,” I’d run.

Okay, I’m Going on my Own.  How do I Fill out the Damn Form?

Maybe you don’t think the studio is worth the extra money to register with them or maybe they’re not supporting the competition you want to go to.  Either way, you need to sign yourself up.  How do you do it?

What Forms do I Need?

More difficult than filling out the forms themselves, the biggest hurdle is often figuring out which forms need filling out.  Let’s go back to the Philly Festival website again.  There are thirteen downloads, some of which are clearly forms and some of which are not.  Rather than guess which ones we’ll need based on vague titles, we’re going to go through them one-by-one.

1) Package Information is not actually a form.  Instead, it provides information on package registration that include hotel reservations, admission to the ballroom, preferred seating at events, and so forth.  These can actually be very good deals but, as you see, the page does not include prices which would have been sent to the studios so that they could add their own mark-up without students being the wiser.  call or e-mail to get the price (in fact, do this even if registering with the studio so you have something to compare).

You will note that while package information is given, neither this form nor any of the others allow a way to order said package.  One should e-mail or call the competition organizers to place an order for a package.

Next we have 2) Pro Am Entry Form.  We’ll skip this one since we would only fill it out if registering with a studio, in which case they would fill it out for us or with us.  Moving on, however, we come to 3) Am Am Single Dances, one of the most important forms for an amateur competitor.  Going from the top we have the names and contact information for the competitors which isn’t too difficult.  We also have a line for NDCA#.  Most competitions require dancers to register with either the NDCA or USA Dance (depending on who is sanctioning the competition).  This can be done on each organization’s website for a small fee (between $30 and $80 depending on one’s specifics) and numbers usually arrive in about a week.  The most difficult line in this opening section is “Teacher” and is used to calculate Top Teacher awards and for Scholarship events (see below).  Unless one is competing as part of a studio with a teacher bringing dozens of students, that teacher is unlikely to win top teacher and scholarship is usually reserved for pro-am.  Fill it out honestly or leave it blank; it doesn’t usually matter.

Next on the form we come to the meat and potatoes: the entries themselves.  Let’s go through column-by-column.

The first column is level and is, probably, the most confusing part of this form.  The legend at the bottom helps a little but not much, so let’s just define each level:

• Newcomer – Seemingly the simplest category, everyone knows you’re a newcomer when you start but it’s hotly debated when you stop being a newcomer.  I’ve seen definitions that include, “Your first comp and only your first comp,” “Has been dancing for less than 6 months,” “Has been dancing for less than 1 year,” “Has taken less than 50 hours of private lessons,” and “Has never placed (top 3).”  I recommend always doing newcomer if it’s your first competition and get your teacher’s opinion after that.  If you can, stay in newcomer until you place in the top 3 or they kick you up.  Interestingly enough, there are no restrtictions on figures in Newcomer, but dancers are strongly advised to limit themselves to basic (pre-bronze) figures.
• Pre-Bronze – This category is often combined with Newcomer at competitions.  When separated, it’s a category for dancers who aren’t allowed to compete in Newcomer because that category is limited to first-time competitors or is limited by a maximum time or number of lessons, but who don’t feel they’re ready for Bronze yet.  Usually figures are limited to the first half of the syllabus (specified as pre-bronze in international.  Varies in American).
• Intermediate Bronze – This category has the same figure limits as pre-bronze but is for dancers who’ve placed in pre-bronze.  I don’t recommend dancing intermediate bronze unless you’re trying to do every dance you can; very few dancers enter it.  Even if you don’t know full bronze figures, go to Full Bronze and dance your pre-bronze routine.
• Full Bronze – This category allows the entire bronze syllabus and is the definitive bronze category.
• Open Bronze – This is a strange category.  Open work is normally limited to the open post-syllabus categories (Novice, Pre-Champion, Champion) and in open dancers are not restricted to school figures (a.k.a. syllabus).  Open Bronze allows dancers to compete with that freedom but against other dancers at their same level.  It provides an opportunity to dance with minimal restrictions much earlier than would otherwise be possible.
• Pre-Silver – This level is not listed on the Philly Festival entry form, but I’m including it for the sake of completeness.  Pre-Silver allows Bronze dancers to dance with Silver technique and some Silver figures (usually the first third of the syllabus) but they only compared against other bronze dancers.  It provides a way to try out a higher level a little bit early.
• Intermediate/Full/Open Silver – As Intermediate/Full/Open Bronze for Silver dancers.
• Pre-Gold – As Pre-Silver, for Silver dancers.
• Gold/Open Gold – As Full Bronze/Open Bronze, for Gold dancers.
• Gold Star – Some studios include a syllabus that extends past the Gold level.  Regardless of their names, they are usually competed as Gold Star and are danced like Full Bronze, for Gold Star dancers.

The next column is age.  As we said before, age category is designed to increase the number of total entries, making the event more lucrative, so one may enter one’s own age category and lower.  It should be noted that the base age category is based on the younger partner.  Thus a 65 year-old man and 60 year-old woman could enter C category (51-60 years) but they could also enter B, A1, and A.  They could not enter D because the woman is too young.

The next column is where one specifies dances.  The dances are abbreviated under their categories by the first initials and include smooth waltz, tango, foxtrot, Viennese waltz, Peabody, rhythm cha cha, rumba, swing, mambo, merengue, samba, bolero, hustle, west coast swing, salsa, standard, waltz, tango, Viennese, foxtrot, quickstep, and Latin cha cha, samba, rumba, paso doble, and jive.

In each line, one should select the level and age group, the enter all the dances the couple will be entering under those headings.

Next, total up the number of entries and fill in the appropriate spaces to determine how much one must pay for single dances.  WARNING: THESE COSTS CAN QUICKLY SPIRAL OUT OF CONTROL.  It is strongly recommended to avoid entering unusual categories (i.e. Open Bronze, pre-silver, etc.) to save on numbers of entries.

There is also a section for exhibition dances.  These are solo performances with your own choreography in a style of your choice to music of your selection.  Typically you will receive written remarks from the judges as well as individual scores.  If you are planning to do an exhibition dance, mark the entry here.

Next there is 4) Pro/Am Scholarship Form.  This is a multi-dance event and is the only event in which amateurs can win money (however the money may only be used for lesons.  In fact, the check is made out to the student’s teacher!).  That said, because it is a pro/am event, we will not be discussing it here.

5) DVIDA Entry Form is for another pro/am scholarship event, the prize money for which may be spent on Dance Vision products (the prizes are awarded as gift certificates).

6) Professional Entry Form is for professional competition.  As a student, you won’t need it.

7) General Admission Ticket & Grand Banquet is potentially a very important form.  Many competitions do not include general admission when registering competition entries, and one should call or e-mail the competition organizer if at all unclear where your competition falls (this competition does not include general admission).  One should refer back to the competition schedule to figure out when all of one’s entries will be run, and then figure out what sessions will be needed.  It should be noted that many packages (see Form 1) include these general admissions and banquet tickets.

Of particular note are items 4/5 and 5, the banquet & competition and pro competition entries.  Saturday evening is when most competitions have professionals compete, and often precede this with a dinner.  If you are interested in seeing the professional competition, one should order either the banquet & competition or the professional competition, but not both.  Personally, I don’t find the banquet worthwhile and can get a much better meal for less, even from the hotel restaurant, but many people prefer the convenience and camaraderie of the banquet, as well as the opportunities for social dancing (though they are often surprisingly limited).

8) Awards Page simply contains prize information for top teacher and top studio.  We need not concern ourselves with it.

The following page, 9) Dancesport Series is for an ongoing qualifying pro/am event.  If you’re dancing pro/am, ask your instructor about it, but even then you won’t need to fill this out on your own.

10) Visit Philadelphia and 11) Hotel Information contain tourist and lodging information respectively.  The Hotel Information form is somewhat useful but does not need to be filled out.

The last form for us is 12) Adult Amateur Form.  The form is filled out similarly to the Am/Am single dance form but is greatly simplified.  Note that each event is multi-dance, meaning every couple dances all the listed dances in each style, the scores of which are considered collectively.  There are fewer levels and age categories as, because this is multi-dance, each event takes longer.  The form notes that dancing multiple age categories is not recommended as events may be run simultaneously and, in my experience, they often are.  Take this warning seriously.

The last form is 13) Rules & Regulations.  I strongly recommend taking the time to review these rules thoroughly.  For example, these rules state that Newcomer is for dancers who have never competed before only and that you may only dance in two different age categories, both of which may require us to revise our entries.

So there you have it: these forms aren’t particularly confusing once the terminology is explained, but they do require some understanding.  Remember, they are not written for the independent competitor, so if you are going it alone, don’t be afraid to contact the competition organizer and ask for help.

After all, it’s your comp too.