instructors' salary

[emanuela]

How much do beginner level dance instructors make? :?:
Emanuela

[SalsaAmore]

For independent Salsa instructors starting out around here usually $55-65 hour for private lessons, $60-65 a series for a 4-week series group going for an hour to two hours. Private groups and parties can run anywhere from $100+. Usually, beginning instructors start out with lower rates to build up a client base then raise rates later as they become more recognized.

[Larinda McRaven]

A beginner ballroom teacher can expect to make $15 an hour. They will probably each 20 hours a week ... gross $300. Any good studio will provide and guarantee of at least $250 so the teacher won't starve after a bad week.

This is the best of circumstances for a beginning ballroom teacher employed by a studio.

[DancingMommy]

When I was teaching, I made $8/hour for lessons taught or parties attended. I made 3% commission on packages sold (big whup). After a year, I made $9/hour - wahoo.

No really. I was so thrilled. Honest. I swear. Paying my car payment wasn't easy but hey....

[Larinda McRaven]

I think DancingMommys experience is pretty average.

[delamusica]

Yeah, that sounds exactly like what beginning teachers make here.

[Chris Stratton]

Nobody earns good money until they earn recognition. But working as a dance teacher is not necessarily the only way to do that, nor the best way to earn a living during that quest. Nor is spending all day on your feet necessarily the best way to train your body. But if dancing is your dream, doing it all day can certainly be tempting.

[emanuela]

But if dancing is your dream, doing it all day can certainly be tempting.

You know I'm a newbie in the ballroom dancing world, and I was amazed to learn that teachers can be hired without any ballroom experience and trained by the studio. I thought it would be "nice" be a part-time dance instructor while I'm attending college full-time (I have to quit my present too serious job to go back to school). Anyhow, I'm under the impression that studios wants to hire mostly male instructors. Am I right?
Emanuela

[standardgirl]

I just have a question....
Let's say that there is a couple who is above average in the competitive professional dancing world from some Eastern European country.
Is it really common for them to make about $200 to $300 gross a week when they are first given visa and hired as dance teachers in the states?
Is this also the reason why a lot of them end up breaking their first contract with the studio?

[Joe]

Probably they see that they can make more as independent teachers and split...

[sunderi]

I just started teaching dance. I'm making $8/hour teaching, with the possibility of more as I start to teach more, and as I take further certification tests.

[dTas]

i started at $10/hr at a studio and moved up to $12/hr. of course there were incentives like parties and commission.

now i'm independant and make $50/private hour + floor fee if teaching at a studio. generally teach 6 hrs a week, on a busy week its 10+ hrs.

makes for a good week. not teaching until my feet fall off and have time to enjoy dancing.

[SalsaAmore]

I never realized that studios were like that. God, I'm glad I didn't go that route. I think teachers with a good amount of dance training (10+ yrs) under their belt really shouldn't go through the studio route at all if that's what they get paid. It's just exploitation. But, it does take perseverance, courage and dedication to your craft to build a client base to start out on your own. Marketing is an integral part of that. I think I would rather work part-time doing office work (sitting or some other part-time work) and build my business on the side than teaching dance full-time at that rate and getting tired of dancing. I hope if you are doing that then you are really enjoying yourself, but not let it get the best of you or lose your interest in teaching or dancing, god forbid. I wish you all the best.

[JohnK]

What is a "floor fee"? I assume it's what an independent teacher is charged for use of studio facilities and is passed on in some fashion to the student. How much is a "typical" floor fee? Do they differentiate if you have exclusive access to the studio vs sharing it with other instructors? And how do you work out who controls the sound system?

[Larinda McRaven]

Floor fees are enerally between 10-20 dollars per hour at ballroom studios.

When there are several teachers, you share the music, taking turns, and being aware of who needs it for an upcoming show or comp, who just put it on and is using it, who put it in 10 songs ago, or how long you have gone without a turn... It is a very highly developed skill, keeping an awareness of everyone elses use and needs and then balancing them with yours.

[chachachacat]

Floor fees are enerally between 10-20 dollars per hour at ballroom studios.

When there are several teachers, you share the music, taking turns, and being aware of who needs it for an upcoming show or comp, who just put it on and is using it, who put it in 10 songs ago, or how long you have gone without a turn... It is a very highly developed skill, keeping an awareness of everyone elses use and needs and then balancing them with yours.
You said it well!

[dTas]

what i like is when the sound system is set to just play one song (max 3 minutes) and that's it. you only really need one song (at a time) to dance with your student and then you go back to working with them on something.

that way if there isn't any music playing you know that the system is available. also... if the system is being used then you listen for when the music is done.

of course exceptions can be made for those students practicing rounds or something like that.

and yes, floor fees range from 10-20 dollars per hour and you share the floor with whom ever else is there. sometimes you get lucky and you have the floor all to yourself. to reserve the studio for an hour costs much more and varies from studio to studio.

[Sagitta]

Good to know. I had no idea bout different people practicing in the same room...elsewhere...though I know that Cornell ballroom team members do that. More economical, definitely.