Weirdest studio policy moments ;)

[SPratt74]

Okay, not sure if this qualifies, but one studio I know of charges an individual the same dollar amount for practice as a couple.

I was starting to wonder if I should just starting grabbing any singles walking in the door to practice to split the practice fee.

Well, what's worse is when all instructors get paid the same for different amount of experiences etc. To me that's not right especially when it's like what's the point of paying a beginning teacher the same that you could get for an advanced teacher?

 

[fascination]

I don't know how weird it is, but when I first started out one of the other students who had been at a Fred Astaires mentioned that at the dance socials the students could only use moves and patterns that they learned at the studio. Perhaps it's not as uncommon as I may think, but I've never heard of this as being a standard rule.

never heard of it as a rule but given some of the differences in starting , sometimes it ends up feeling that way

 

[fascination]

*lol* fascination, love the comment about the trained seal...I can see applauding the live band after the end of the song, but the music machine???

Okay, not sure if this qualifies, but one studio I know of charges an individual the same dollar amount for practice as a couple.

I was starting to wonder if I should just starting grabbing any singles walking in the door to practice to split the practice fee.

actually, I'd just like on to practice with

 

[saludas]

We have a no fraternization policy, which means that all student-teacher relationships must be kept a secret.
T_E

Heh heh.

 

[fascination]

lol, can't beleive I missed that ...cute TE

 

[Joe]

C'mon fascination, I want to hear that.

<clap> arrr <clap> arrr <clap> arrr <clap> arrr

A trained pirate?

 

[Love2Dance]

Yeah, I've noticed that a lot of studios seem to want to applaud everyone's dancing at the end of every song... I guess it's to make everyone feel better, but I still think it's odd... I wonder who started that?

I guess I've never gone to any of these studios with heavy or weird policies. I currently attend 3 completely different studios and maybe it's because they are non-franchise, but they don't have much in the way of "rules". I think the only blanket rule is that they don't want teachers dating students. I know that these studios use beginning instructors, but there's no policy even on what the individual instructors charge, so you can pretty much shop price under one roof if you really wanted to. I'm not sure what keeps them from getting super competitive with each other, but they all seem to get along and have fun still, so I'm sure whatever the owner does with the staff is good. Other than that, I think there's probably some rule about staff shouldn't hang out by the snacks and eat during parties, but I have yet to see any staff abide by that one completely

I guess I've just been really lucky that the places I've found to attend in my area are all really fun and no one's really done anything that weird to me yet.

 

[wooh]

Ugh, I hate clapping between songs. I hate the 2 minute wait between songs to walk off the floor. Just play the next song so I can thank my partner and then get back out and dance! If it takes you that long to walk off the floor, you should probably only dance every other song anyway!!

 

[Chris Stratton]

Well, what's worse is when all instructors get paid the same for different amount of experiences etc. To me that's not right especially when it's like what's the point of paying a beginning teacher the same that you could get for an advanced teacher?

I doubt the teachers are being paid the same amount. What is more likely is that the studio is charging the same amount for them, but paying them differently. Some of that difference might go into training costs, but most of it is just seniority sytem pay scale vs. studio lesson rate.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

when our studio sold to a franchise two rules at the paries became: you couldn't say no to a dance (I can live with that one but don't like it) and you have to clap after everydance...I HATE that rule...I would much rather thank the gentleman and take his arm and speak a few word on my way off the floor than standing there clapping like a trained seal

The now-defunct studio in town had the 2nd rule you mentioned. It wasn't a franchise studio, btw, but its owner was FAD product.

Adding: I never encountered the first rule, but I don't like it. There are two guys with whom I don't necessarily want to dance what they ask me to. With one of them, I will accept chacha or rumba but avoid everything else, and with the other one, I just don't want to dance with him at all - he thinks everything is a quickstep or viennese waltz, with a doze of swing-style U/A turns thrown in for a good measure and I really don't want to have him pull my arm out of its socket. So I reserve my right to say no to these two guys, everyone else gets an enthusiastic yes.

 

[Twilight_Elena]

lol, can't beleive I missed that ...cute TE

Huh, it's not even an attempt at being cute. Me and my ex teacher, we go out together for coffee or other parties, she picks me up from my place to go to the practice parties, all that. She and her teacher were best friends, joined at the hip. A dance friend of mine and student of my current teacher is dating, to the best of my knowledge, a teacher from a different studio of the franchise.
Yet we have to keep all this to ourselves, because we're not even supposed to have our teachers' number.

T_E

 

[SPratt74]

I doubt the teachers are being paid the same amount. What is more likely is that the studio is charging the same amount for them, but paying them differently. Some of that difference might go into training costs, but most of it is just seniority sytem pay scale vs. studio lesson rate.

Nope. They are being paid the same amount. How do I know? I started off with two instructors. One had danced for a few years and the other only danced for two years. I had to pay them the same, and they don't pay training costs etc., because most of them are going outside the state to get trained, and that is out of their own pocket, because I asked.

 

[Chris Stratton]

Nope. They are being paid the same amount. How do I know? I started off with two instructors. One had danced for a few years and the other only danced for two years. I had to pay them the same, and they don't pay training costs etc., because most of them are going outside the state to get trained, and that is out of their own pocket, because I asked.

What you pay does not indicate what the teacher is paid, unless it's the kind of situation where the studio charges them $x/hour for use of the floor and everything else stays in their pocket. That can be a good situation, but it's quite uncommon - usually you pay the studio (even if you hand payment to the teacher) and the studio pays the teacher... peanuts.

Also, "two years" vs. "a few years" is not a signficant difference in the light of how different people take to dancing and what sources of training they have had.

 

[SPratt74]

Yeah, I've noticed that a lot of studios seem to want to applaud everyone's dancing at the end of every song... I guess it's to make everyone feel better, but I still think it's odd... I wonder who started that?

I guess I've never gone to any of these studios with heavy or weird policies. I currently attend 3 completely different studios and maybe it's because they are non-franchise, but they don't have much in the way of "rules". I think the only blanket rule is that they don't want teachers dating students.

I will agree with that, because that is a general rule with the studios in our area. Well, there are two studios that I can think of that don't have any rules. It just depends on where you go.

I know that these studios use beginning instructors, but there's no policy even on what the individual instructors charge, so you can pretty much shop price under one roof if you really wanted to. I'm not sure what keeps them from getting super competitive with each other, but they all seem to get along and have fun still, so I'm sure whatever the owner does with the staff is good.

I will have to disagree with this rule. In our area, the studios charge the same everywhere except the one that I attend. He does things differently for a reason. He makes the beginning teachers take a pay cut. How do I know? I checked them all out (including ones in the surrounding cities) when I looked for a new studio. There is a reason why the rate is the same. It was set by certain people, and no one likes to go above it even though my instructor could so easily. The only time it is really cheap is when you attend workshops etc., but those are hard to go to since they are during the work week.

Other than that, I think there's probably some rule about staff shouldn't hang out by the snacks and eat during parties, but I have yet to see any staff abide by that one completely

I don't think that so much except that they don't want the staff to not be dancing when a student might be sitting down. I think that is ok and polite.

 

[mamboqueen]

I'm just curious to know how these policies, rules, practices, etc. are conveyed to students. I've not encountered any of these "policies", although it seems to me that non-fraternization policies would be more between the studio and teacher, rather than the studio-student.

It may be that I'm in my studio for my lessons and get in my car and go home and don't go to socials, etc., that I'm not seeing any of these things. Some of them are a bit odd. If they want applause all the time, they should just record an applause track and play it after the dance/song.