Dance Studio Waiver to “Not teach what is taught to you”

marques

marques

New Member
I am just looking for some opinions on this situation and I am not trying to incite any rival between businesses.

A small group of salsa addicts and I are opening a dance studio. There is an existing studio in town that has been operating for a couple of years. The existing studio views us a competition and may employ a wavier/agreement to their students and instructors not teach the dance patterns they are taught/teach at any other studio.

I have a minor in Entrepreneurship and I feel that they are going to shoot themselves in the foot if they decide to go with this “No Teach” strategy. I know of no legal grounds to enforce this wavier and it makes them come off as if they can copyright a dance pattern.

2 studios mean more promotion and more students being trained and let loss in the clubs. The community benefits which is my finial goal. I do not see the point of taking cheap shots between the 2 studios
 
Welcome. I am pretty sure that these things have been discussed before on df... My take is that what is enforceable and what isn't would depend on the laws where you are. However, generally it would be tough to enforce.
 
I say let them shoot themselves in the foot. You can't control what the other studio does, but you can do what you believe is good business at your own studio. In the end, people will vote with their feet and their pocketbooks.
 
Hi, Marques.... truly, this is becoming the way of the world. There was quite an issue at the agency where I am doing my internship earlier this year about a no compete form. They do hold up in court many times.
 
marques said:
.....The existing studio views us a competition and may employ a wavier/agreement to their students and instructors not teach the dance patterns they are taught/teach at any other studio......
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Hmmm..... If both studios are teaching Casino Rueda style, could they claim any of these patterns as their own? :? As far as I know, there is no "legal" copyright for any move or pattern in Salsa. If there were, there would be alot of dancers in jail by the end of the night. It's just rubbish and for something like this, students/instructors should run far away from this school, IMO. :evil:
 
I guess that so far you teach "standard" patterns you will manage fine. In Cuban for example - no one has copyright on Uno, Dos, Tres ...La Habana etc.

If my teacher goes to Cuba and learn completely new patterns and bring them home to Gothenburg. And a competing Salsa School start teaching the same step after a while...there will be war! :twisted:

My teacher cannot say that he has copyright on these new patterns but I can understand why he gets mad. He has invested a lot of money to give his students something fresh and exotic.

/luc
 
Lucretia said:
I guess that so far you teach "standard" patterns you will manage fine. In Cuban for example - no one has copyright on Uno, Dos, Tres ...La Habana etc.

If my teacher goes to Cuba and learn completely new patterns and bring them home to Gothenburg. And a competing Salsa School start teaching the same step after a while...there will be war! :twisted:

My teacher cannot say that he has copyright on these new patterns but I can understand why he gets mad. He has invested a lot of money to give his students something fresh and exotic.

/luc
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There is a similar situation here, with one salsa dance instructor who has a rueda performance team and makes the dancers sign contracts...
 
From an ethical standpoint, I think it's fair for a studio to protect the "patterns" that it teaches in terms of exact choreography. If another studio copied the same choreography for teaching, that would be unethical at the very least.

From a business standpoint, it makes sense for a competing studio to do completely different choreography, and here's why:

If the choreography is identical, the two studios do not increase the dance potential.

But if they teach different patterns, or with a different approach, then they have the potential of coexisting because the same dancers may very well be part of both studios.

That's what has happened here in the Vancouver area, and it has been quite successful. Two different studios have very different approaches to teaching. One teaches steps and encourages the dancers to put them together on the dance floor. This suits some dancers, especially those who enjoy social dancing. The other teaches a pre-choreographed pattern which appeals to some dancers, especially those who want to compete (because it applies a slightly different discipline).

At the end of the day, quite a few dancers -- my family included -- find it convenient to be members of both studios. We enjoy both approaches and they are different enough that we feel we gain more than the sum of their parts by attending both sets of group classes. Plus, it opens up the private instructor field to some two dozen teachers available to us. If both studios taught the same thing, we would simply have chosen one or the other with no interest in using both of them simultaneously. That would have a markedly different impact on the overall dance community.
 
Adwiz, you make a great point. It has never been our intention to copy the other studio, that would be shooting ourselves in the foot. My style has change greatly from what my dance instructor has taught me and I love to see dancers with different styles. We will be encouraging our dance instructors to teach different patterns and styling, but there will be some overlapped especially at the beginner/intermediate levels. We will follow this path hopefully the other studio should not feel that we are copying them and create any tension between the two studios.

FYI the other studio does not teach any choreography.
 
marques said:
We will be encouraging our dance instructors to teach different patterns and styling, but there will be some overlapped especially at the beginner/intermediate levels.
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The two BIG dance teachers(read schools) here in my town have different ways of teaching.

One is very exact - ever single movement is taught. Hands, feets, angles, etc. All is very technical - it takes long before any one start to daaaaance.

The other one teach more by feeling and joy. Its very easy to start to dance in his classes BUT there are some lacks in the technique area.

These teacher teach basically the same patterns in the lower classes. But both of them go abroad every year to bring home new stuff for the advanced classes (one goes to Cuba the other to Brasil). So in the end they are a complementary "team" even if they have two competing salsa schools.

The students find this differences like a added value. I'm thinking about going to the "competitor" this year after having six wonderful months with the other teacher.

Marques,
My conclusion is that as far as you teach your own style and have your own way of teaching - you will manage in the long run. But I guess there will be a period of "cold war" before your old teacher understands this.


/luc
 
I think it would be pretty hard for anyone to do that. I mean, most moves are pretty much universal. Although some schools will have their own unique steps, most schools end up overlapping the repertoire taught to students up to a certain extent, one way or the other. What a silly thing!

Tiago
 
I heard that myself when I opened my school... my former instuctor kind of accused me and my partner we teach what he taught us!

My point is: how many ways are there to break an egg??? I teach basic steps... how many basic steps there are? And how many ways to do them?Please note I refer to BASIC STEPS and not styling instead of them! How many ways are there to teach a CBL? Or an inside turn?

Of course, I teach some patterns for beginners and intermediates to feel more comfy... but they are sort of international! For instance, I saw some shines sequences IDENTICAL in many performances/shows! What would happen if the performers started accusing each other???

I think Salsa is a street dance... why not keep it this way? Informal and free... :)... my 2 cents...
 
squirrel said:
I think Salsa is a street dance... why not keep it this way? Informal and free... :)... my 2 cents...
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So, Squirrel, do you offere free lessons? 8) Where are you located again?
 
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