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Competition Among Dance Teachers and Studios for Business

My ballroom teacher threw me out of my ballroom studio. Since it was the only ballroom studio in my town, I had to give up ballroom dancing for a while.

The reason for my banishment? Daring to organize West Coast Swing and Hustle dancing.

The ballroom studio teaches 13 dances. Each dance gets taught for one hour, once every three months. During the weekly socials, they get played maybe once or twice a night.

That was not enough Swing and Hustle for me. I wanted to dance Swing and Hustle for a few hours, once or twice a week. So, I organized Swing and Hustle classes and started teaching them, even though I did not know how to do them particularly well.

My ballroom dance teacher's policy was to not accept students that taught any of the same dances as the studio, consequently I had to go. I was not the first and have not been the last to be kicked out.

My ballroom teacher's decision seems misguided to me. If all the dance teachers in town are your students, seems like you will get more referrals that way. You will be the most respected authority. Your classes will be of a higher level and you will have better dance socials. She has been in business for a long time and that was what she felt she needed to do. I am not happy with her decision, but I do not hold it against her.

I publish my town's oldest and most comprehensive dance newsletters. I advertise my former ballroom teacher's programs and encourage people to go. I see all dance organizers as partners, not competitors.

The competition for dance organizers is other ways for people to spend their time.

In my county, there are about 100,000 adults, of which maybe 100 dance socially at least once a month. That is not pretty poor market penetration. My numbers may not be real accurate, but the point is there are a lot of prospects for social dancing.

It takes a lot of work to motivate and train a social dancer. The more organizers out there getting people to dance, the better.

Once someone has invested in learning to dance, they want to keep doing it. The more social dancers, the more opportunities there are to organize dance sessions, and the more opportunities for both dancers and teachers.

Dance teachers need to work together marketing the product of social dancing to the large community of people that do not dance.

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