the Price of Ballroom Dance Lessons

All lessons were sold as packages. This price included 5 1-hour private lessons, 5 1-hour group lessons, and 5 2-hour "dance parties." Group lessons focused on learning basic steps, such as Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, and Swing. There were usually between six an ten people in group lessons, and you would have to dance with several partners. In private lessons you could work on anything you wanted. In our case, we worked on a choreographed dance to a specific song for our wedding. The dance parties were about two hours long and consisted of fifteen to twenty-five attendees. They dimmed the lights, played a variety of ballroom dancing music, and encouraged you to dance with different partners. There were no taxes, surcharges or gratuities. The entire sum was paid up front in one payment.

The quality of the service was excellent. All of the instructors were very skilled and gracious. They went out of their way to encourage us and make us feel comfortable, at least in the private and group lessons. The dance parties were a nice idea, but were often rather awkward. The star pupils of the school would go out of their way to ask us to dance, and as introverts we were a little uncomfortable. I found the price to be high, and I was slightly annoyed that they were unwilling to do a la carte pricing. We ended up paying for group lessons and dance parties that we just never used.

Try to negotiate the prices a bit. In hindsight, I bet we could have worked a better deal than we got. Avoid the pitch for package deals. Or if you do take a package deal, make sure that all of the services they're offering are going to be of use to you.