studying abroad

[Jazz Cat E]

I was wondering, has anyone been overseas to study dance? If so, are the classes different from classes in the united states?

I'm going to be going to France for a significant amount of time and so far I've only found one studio in Paris. Could anyone make any recommendations for studios in Paris?

Thanks!

[pygmalion]

Just checking, but you do mean ballroom dance, right? (sometimes people will post in a forum that they didn't intend to.)

[MadamSamba]

Jazz, wherever I go I try to do dancing lessons. Wherever I go, I suss the place out first on the Web, then e-mail a few studios to get current times and prices and then drop by for a social or a few lessons...it's sooooo much fun!

You meet great people and learn new moves, and if you're a good dancer, it's this silly, "mysterious stranger" thing where you walk in, dance madly then disappear...

[pygmalion]

I'll google for Paris studios later today. It's usually possible to find something on the web. Maybe through IDSF -- I think they have a list of member organizations by country, with links. Hmm... :idea:

[Chris Stratton]

I've gotten the sense from talking with international gradute students that Western continental Europe (especially Germany) has less 'walk in off the street' accessability to intermediate & advanced dance training than the US or the UK does, with there being a fairly strict divide between social dancing for the public and exclusive competition programs for a small 'in' group. In contrast, I'm under the impression that Eastern Europe has quite a bit going on in terms of amateur dancing.

But France really isn't a country you hear much about in terms of ballroom news that filters across the pond. Maybe those closer can comment better? I do know a French grad student wasn't optomistic about the opportunities that awaited at home (at least as a student - sometimes she talked about opening a studio).

[robin]

I've gotten the sense from talking with international gradute students that Western continental Europe (especially Germany) has less 'walk in off the street' accessability to intermediate & advanced dance training than the US or the UK does

That's definitely true for Germany, though I don't know about "exclusive".

In Germany almost all sports are organised in "clubs" and dancesport is no exception. Clubs usually charge a relatively small monthly fee for membership and provide practice space, group classes and opportunities for private lessons. It's almost certainly possible to get lessons as a "guest" in some of those places, but if you lived in Germany and wanted to dance you'd always be part of a club. It's very easy to join, even if only for a few weeks or months.

In many ways i think this is an excellent organisational structure, that makes it much more affordable and sociable to dance. It's also a good place to find partners for practice and competitions, get advice from more experienced dancers etc. etc. If you see a ranking from Germany (e.g. http://www.tanzsport.de/ranglisten/rl.php4?file=standard_040531.csv ) you will always see the competitors names and Club, rather than town.

In terms of structure, atmosphere and cost the closest thing to these clubs in the UK or US are college dancesport clubs.

[Chris Stratton]

It's good there's some strong upside to complement what I'd heard. A former partner from a year ago who had spent a term in Germany was frustrated by a comparative lack of adult-start competition track training. She were saying things such as that if she went to a club, she'd be partnered with someone of comparable training, who would probably be a 14 year old kid since there weren't adults working hard who hadn't been doing so for many years already. I don't know how universal that is - but I do know there is a reasonable pool of college-age and older adults in the US dancing at the dedicated but early intermediate level we competed during that partnership.

[robin]

A lot of people in Germany start dancing when they are 15/16 as it is considered part of "growing up" to take at least one dance course (about 50% of the kids in my very working class school did this). Some of these feed through to dancesport clubs, so a lot of people start there at ages 16/17/18.

I can imagine that there are few "older" adults starting, but that's probably just a result of many people being exposed to dancing much younger and either they do it in their late teens or they don't do competitive dancing at all. Saying that, when I did dance in a German dancesport club for a few months (before i came to the UK) there were a fair few young adults (twenty-something). Sometimes it's easier to get a place in a formation team, of which there are lots in Germany... (though personally I'm not a big fan of formations..)

As in most other places there was usually a slight shortage of men, so I guess if you come new into a club as an intermediate female it might be difficult to find a partner, especially if you're only there for a few months. Also the experience varies a lot from one club to the other, but seeing most reasonable size cities have at least two clubs there is usually somewhere to dance for everybody. Most of these clubs are not commercial operations, though a few exist, but almost all the social dancing is taught by commercial dance schools (but also at fairly cheap rates).

Anyway, all my info on Germany is about 7 years out of date, but i imagine most still holds true today!