"This is simply untrue. My son is being trained as an instructor at an Arthur Murray dance studio by other professional instructors not videos. He has had several years of Jazz, tap, and ballet training prior to joining Arthur Murray."

I had 15 years of Ballroom/Latin experience before I started instructing, and my prices were well below that of Arthur Murray.


"He has been training with instructors for several months and must pass a test to become certified in six different styles of dance before he can teach a class. The instructors are very knowledgeable and do not use a book to teach a class."

Any good instructor will reference a book from time to time. I refer to the DVIDA syllabus with one of my better students all the time so I don't waste time teaching him things that he should know. Arthur Murray doesn't let their syllabus leave the studio... and it's more or less the same!


"I don't know where you are getting this from, but it does not happen in northern Virginia."

Your own response confirmed that they do. Arthur Murray may bring in someone with a dance background, but they'll "train" them in a few short months to teach Ballroom dance at a price world champions charge. I don't doubt your son's ability to dance, but to say that he could teach at that level of price? You've got to be smoking something.


Arthur Murray is a place were people go to feel good about themselves first and foremost. A distant second reason is to actually learn how to dance.

You can't learn 6 different dances in "several months" and be competent in technique, steps and both the leaders' and followers' parts as well as leading and following.

i began my dancing lessons, decades agao, at arthur murray. the teachers were good, but they definitely were pressured by management to "go slow" and sell lots of lesson packages.... I was lucky, i only signed up for a basic package that cost something like $600.00 in 1977. i learned the basics, especially in swing, cha cha, and hustle and met a bunch of friends that went dancing together every weekend. at one point my instructor took me aside and said, "you have a certain knack for this..don't buy any more lesson packages here...go someplace else, like a private studio, and take lessons there." I'm sure she would have been fired if management knew she told me that...but i took her advice and left, went to an excellent private studio, where the teachers were even better and no more contracts...just pay by the hour....that's the only way to go....

That is the same attitude our instructors in Jacksonville, FL have!

too bad you haven't got to experience my AM studio..it is in Jacksonville, Florida. They never held me back from moving on. I picked up moves, technique, and patterns quickly. We have many Silver and Gold as well as open students who compete on a regular basis and are very involved in the ballroom world. Our owners and instructors are not afraid of us moving up..they know we love staying challenged.

I used to work for Arthur Murray and I would recommend them to anyone wanting to learn to dance and to dance well. Yes, its expensive, but you get what you pay for. Our studio was like one big happy family and no one ever said they regretted any money spent there to learn.
Our instructors, including myself were professionally trained by other highly qualified instructors and dance competitors.
Anyone can go to a group class and pay $10 to learn a step or two in any given dance. But can the follower follow a partner on the dance floor? Can the leader get the follower to do what he wants them to do on the dance floor? At Arthur Murray, the student is actually taught how to dance! You learn to either follow your partner or lead your partner, and sometimes both if you are interested in that.
You are taught posture so that you will look great with your partner, you are taught how to look and act either feminine or masculine on the dance floor. You are taught balance, muscle memory, stretching techniques, choreography, the art of being social including proper etiquette for use on and off of the dance floor. You are also taught the history of the dances you are learning so that you have an understanding of the cultures that developed the different dances.
You as a student learn so much more than just steps and when you have finally reached the level of dancing that you are comfortable with, others will see you as a highly trained ambassador of dance. But most of all, you will have the time of your life learning, laughing, socializing, traveling, and so much more!!
What it comes down to is this. No one pushes you to buy anything. You are simply offered more lessons so that you can take your dancing to the level that you want to learn. Not everyone wants to be a standout on the dance floor, but some do, and they are the ones that will spend thousands of dollars to master the craft of dancing.
I had a lady tell me onetime that she and her husband had been taking dance classes for quite a while but they were not very good. She could not tell what he wanted her to do next, and he could not get her to follow him. I told her to come by the studio with her husband for a free dance lesson with me, and I would guarantee that after that one lesson their dancing would be better, and I would not even offer to sell her more lessons. She agreed and we set a date and time for the lesson. Now remember these guys had been taking group classes and they knew some steps already. They came in for the lesson, we chatted briefly, I told them what we were going to do for the lesson and we spent the next 45 minutes doing nothing more than working on their ability to lead and follow. At the end of the lesson I asked them to show me 3 steps that they had learned in group class. I then put on the music and asked them to dance with the music. After about a minute I stopped the music and asked them how they felt. Grinning from ear to ear, both of them proceeded to tell me how much better their dancing felt. He said, she actually did what I wanted her too without me telling her with my mouth. She was so overjoyed that she hugged me and asked if they could buy some lessons with me.
So there you have it.!!
Oh, and by the way, I was a student myself for about 10 years before I became an instructor! I never regretted a single dime spent!!