Posts
Holiday Savings Event 2016
The 2016 holiday season is well under way. With Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday done, it’s time to relax and plan for those special, unique gifts that you haven’t had time to sit down and think about yet. If you have no idea where to start, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!
Wouldn’t it be great to give an “experience” to those close to you this year, rather than another “thing”, like a necktie or purse? Would’t she appreciate spending quality time with you over another bottle of perfume? And don’t you think he’d love to have a cool and exciting hobby to share with you on the weekends in the new year, instead of watching movies on the couch on a Saturday night? If you say “YES!” to a creative gift this year, I’ve got just the thing for you…Ballroom Dance Lessons!
Before I go further into the awesome savings you can receive this season on dance lessons for adults, let me explain what I mean by “Ballroom” Dance Lessons. By Ballroom Lessons, I mean learning any partner dance, from Salsa to Swing, and Two Step to Tango. It doesn’t have to be formal, just a dance that you learn to do with someone else. Ballroom dancing is more of an overall term to describe partner dancing in general.
If you don’t have someone yet to take lessons with, that’s perfectly OK! In fact, one can learn much faster by having all the attention on them. Then, once your confidence rises, you can take your moves out dancing and show off your skills to your friends. Won’t they be surprised! Keep in mind that social ballroom dancing is a great way to meet new people, even a dance partner. A self-assured person on the dance floor is a major magnet to others, believe me!
Social ballroom dance lessons are THE gift that keeps on giving. Think about it. Every time there’s an event where music is being played, he/she will know how to dance! From those upcoming weddings to kicking up your heels on the weekends at a Country bar, all bases will be covered once he/she knows how to dance. How cool is that!?
Now you can probably find great deals at your local ballroom dance studio, but if you live in Phoenix, Arizona like I do, check out the Holiday Savings Event that we have going on at Dance FX Studios in Mesa, AZ, just off the 101 freeway.
We have two Private Lesson options for the holidays that are great for couples or singles. Private Dance Lessons are a wonderful investment in that your recipient will learn to dance much quicker with one-on-one instruction. In Private Lessons, we tailor each hour to help our students reach their dancing goals. We also customize the dances that they learn based on where they see themselves using their dancing, i.e. a Salsa dance club versus a Country bar. And, we personalize each lesson in a way that you learn best. So cool!
It’s all about the individual with Private Lessons, and we want to help them to be a confident social “ballroom” dancer so they can have a blast every time they go out dancing! No more sitting on the sidelines when he/she can be out there having fun, and knowing what they’re doing.
Our two Online Offers for Private Lessons include the following: a One-Hour Introductory Dance Lesson for $25 total (per couple or single), and our Holiday Starter Package. The Starter Package includes a One-Hour Introductory Lesson plus five One-Hour Beginner’s Dance Lessons to learn the key turns and moves in up to 4 dances. Our Starter Package is $320, and includes a FREE $25 Gift Card for lessons or retail items at Dance FX Studios.
Another gift-giving option is our Club FX Membership. With this membership, a person will receive six months of Group Dance Classes (one class per week/per person) for $99 total! This is a steal, bringing each class down to $4 per class if you attend every one. As you will see, our Group Class Schedule includes a mix of three styles of dance: Country, Latin and Swing. What a great way to get a taste of popular social dances, from Merengue and Bachata, to West Coast Swing and Country Two Step!
Finally, if you know someone who is getting married in 2017, Wedding Dance Lessons are an amazing present! Thanks to you, the bride and groom will shine on the dance floor on their wedding day with a customized wedding dance. Our Wedding Dance Consultation is just $20 and includes a mini dance lesson! It’s a great way to connect with one of our professionals so that we can give an engaged couple the dance of their dreams.
Let’s say that you don’t know what your friends would like to start with, be it Private Lessons or Group Classes. No problem! You can pick up a Gift Card, or get one in our Online Store, in increments of $25. What’s great is, when you spend over $100, you get a FREE $15 Gift Card to gift to someone else, or keep for yourself!
This year, give the gift of health, energy, excitement and fun to those you love. Adult dance lessons are a blast! While you’re in our studio shopping, visit our new retail shop too. Who knows, you may even walk away with something special just for you. Happy Shopping!
Private Dance Lessons…A Great Investment in You!
In my 21 years of experience as a ballroom dance instructor, there’s one question that we hear often regarding Private Dance Lessons. “What makes one-on-one dance lessons worth so much?”. “Well, that’s an easy one!,” I always reply. I can only speak for our studio, but at Dance FX Studios, you’re going to receive something you cannot find anywhere else, and that is social dancing! Not Dancing With the Stars type of dancing, but moves that you can use in a real-world situation, like on a date, or at a wedding.
Learning to dance with us is a truly one of a kind, unique experience. Most importantly, you’re going to get exactly what you pay for! For example, if you have always wanted to be a kick-butt Country dancer, come visit us and we’ll make it happen! Or maybe you want to learn to lead with confidence in any dance style from swing to salsa. Let’s do it!
Dance FX Studios has only one item on the menu, great dance instruction! Our lessons are like a perfectly cooked steak. Marinated in strong connection, and with a tasty glass of perfectly aged experience on the side! Of course – if the budget doesn’t agree with the appetite, I suppose you could very well just go to a different restaurant and order the same thing, right? Wrong… and let me further explain. Have you ever wanted something nice for dinner, but didn’t really have the penny for it? What do you do? You go to a different restaurant, one that’s maybe a little lighter on the wallet. You order your regular steak or whatever you would’ve ordered in the first place. You take your first bite with anticipation, only to be let down by some other slightly mediocre replacement steak. Now, let us get this straight. We don’t blame the cook. His was an almost impossible task. However, that steak was more than likely derived from some lower source of meats, and the flavor is a dead giveaway. The cook couldn’t have prepared this dish any better, but as the saying goes; “a chef is only as good as his ingredients,” and that’s what you’re paying for! You see, anyone can buy and prepare a steak (or teach dance lessons) but it’s the cook’s experience combined with where he gets his ingredients that is all the more important, and more relevant to the cost than you know! There’s always more than meets the eye when it comes to the cost of our everyday goods and services. Even something as simple as a steak dinner or adult dance lessons can be put into perspective when you think of it this way.
Back to dancing…my favorite subject! Our instructors at Dance FX Studios are trained to be effective, supportive, and knowledgeable in how to create self-assured and skilled social dancers. What’s even more is that, unlike our competitors here in the valley, we do not train you for competition dancing. Meaning, we prepare you for a more real life setting and purpose. In our experience, we know most people don’t want to learn how to dance to become a competitor. We have found that most people want to learn how to dance so that they can better connect with the people around them, and feel more comfortable doing so.
So if your purpose is to connect and gain confidence – like everyone else’s – then isn’t it worth paying whatever it’s worth to learn the right way, even if it does cost a shiny penny? Make the investment in you by learning to dance. It’s a hobby and skill that no one can take away from you that is guaranteed to enhance your life more than you know. Come into Dance FX Studios in Mesa, AZ, and witness for yourself why making an investment in yourself is worth every penny!
Your First Private Dance Lesson…How Exciting!
So you have set up your first Private Dance Lesson here at Dance FX Studios in Mesa, Arizona and you’re wondering how exactly you should prepare and what to expect. Don’t worry, we can help you out and answer all of your questions or concerns.
The first step is to figure out if you want to take your dance lessons with a partner or by yourself. Whichever one you decide, you will be getting the same great quality guaranteed for every lesson. Keep in mind that there are pros and cons to each. If you dance solo, you get one-on-one time with your instructor during your Salsa Dance Lessons , for example, which can lead to you being able to focus a little better and learn quicker. At the same time, you are learning to dance with a professional, and that’s not going to happen very often when you go out. So, if you do decide to take lessons with a partner, a friend or a spouse, you get to learn what it’s like to dance with another person who is on the same level as you are. That’s more of a realistic situation that you will encounter when you decide to go out. The only negative side is that the attention in your private dance lesson will be on both of you as a couple so you may need more time to practice and more dance lessons ultimately. Social dancing is a very rewarding activity to do with a spouse, but that’s for another blog. 🙂
The next step of preparing for your lesson is to figure out what kind of dancing you would like to learn. When you come in for your Introductory Dance Lesson, we will most likely show you a range of dances and help you choose what you may be interested in. At the same time, it couldn’t help to look up a few different styles that you have in mind. We offer a bunch of different dances including Salsa, Country Two Step, Swing, Tango and much more! Every dance has its own unique rhythm and moves so your dance journey can be really exciting as you explore them. Also, if you have decided to take lessons with a partner, get an idea of what they would like to learn. That way you aren’t bickering during your lesson time (although we think that may be impossible because our lessons are so fun!). Keep in mind all of the places you two like to spend time on a night out. If it’s a Country bar, consider Country Two Step dancing. If you like your local Latin clubs, try some Salsa dancing!
Last but not least, prepare to have a fun, valuable time. Come expecting to relax and throw all that stress that has been building up from the work week right out the door. Our instructors will teach you everything you need to know. If you feel worried about being clumsy or unable to hear beats in the music, you will soon forget about it once you step onto the dance floor. We do our very best to make you feel right at home. Remember there are other people just like you learning how to dance for their very first time, so don’t feel intimidated or nervous! You may want to dress comfortably too because social dancing is a wonderful form of exercise. Wear everything you would wear to work out, minus the tennis shoes. We recommend that you bring the shoes that you would wear out dancing. If they’re new, you can break them in and learn how to feel comfortable wearing them to the bar. It may get a little bit heated while dancing, so do please do not wear long sleeves.
All of these things can assist you in preparing for your first Private Dance Lesson. If you have not taken a lesson with us yet, see our New Student Offer for private dance lessons on our website. We can’t wait to show you why Dance FX Studios in Mesa, AZ is so great!
You Get What You Pay For…
Have you ever heard that expression, “You get what you pay for?”? With all of the free group dance classes in the Country bars, Latin clubs and Casinos in Arizona, you would think there would be tons of great dancers here. Consider different social ballroom dances like Country Two Step, Salsa, Swing and Argentine Tango. Exploring these cool and exciting dances are really the same as learning a new language. Beyond learning the “ABC’s”, or basic dance steps, you will discover how to string your moves together into dance “sentences” and eventually “paragraphs” when you dance to an entire song. With regards to expecting to learn to dance in a free group class in a bar or casino, imagine how challenging it would be to get into detail on how to be an amazing leader or follower in such a setting. Even if the instructor is top-notch, learning to dance inside a group class of 20 to 30 other people is very difficult.
The fact is, when you look around at most social dancers at places like Moonshine in Tempe, AZ or Bourbon Jacks in Chandler, Arizona, the truth is that most of the couples that you are admiring hasn’t a clue what they’re doing. You might be thinking “they’re having so much fun! Isn’t that all that matters”? Actually no, that is not all that matters. Fun does matter, but what matters most when dancing at bars or nightclubs or even at your best friend’s wedding, is that those around you are safe and comfortable and that you can actually apply what you know to a real world situation. Beyond that, true fun means knowing more than 3 cool moves repeated over and over no matter what song or music type!
These are just three questions that you should ask yourself to help decide if private dance lessons are a better investment than group lessons. 1.) Do you want to avoid embarrassment? 2.) Do you want to know how to dance of just fake it? 3.) How confident do you feel about your dance ability now that you have taken a year of free group lessons?
Here’s the scoop on why dance lessons one-on-one with an instructor are the better investment in yourself and your social life:
Attention to detail!
In group Swing or Salsa dance classes, are you told if you have a proper dance frame? Did your instructor check your footwork and was it secondary to the connection you and your partner had in your upper bodies? Are you leading, or is your girlfriend back-leading? Do you have any idea if you are being taught how to lead or follow? Now the lesson is over and you think you just learned several cool moves, but the reality is that you can simply do a bunch of sloppily executed moves with no structure or foundation. How unfortunate! What’s more, was that lesson really free if you paid that bar tab and took a cab ride home?
Conversely, after just a few private dance lessons, you should know how to lead or follow during all the dance moves you are learning, not to mention dancing in the correct dance frame and so on! Simply by understanding your roles and responsibilities on the dance floor as a leader or follower, you will have advanced further than any typical group lesson. Learning these first few tools your confidence will build as you go. You are sure to have more confidence and you will take that with you to any social dance floor.
Private dance lesson are customized for how you learn best!
A disadvantage of group dance classes is that you are learning with the masses. You may pick up the material and you may not. You may learn fast or slower than other people. You may respond to challenges or nurturing. Maybe learning to dance seems difficult only because you are not being taught in a way that makes sense to you. For example, some students learn best when seeing a move over and over again, while other people learn best when an instructor explains it verbally or shows how something is done with examples that are relatable to them. In a group setting, it’s just not possible to personalize a learning experience. This tends to be quite de-motivating and be a reason why you and your partner give up a hobby that would truly enhance your lives.
Private dance lessons teach using customized instruction from a knowledgeable instructor. If you are having difficulty with traditional instruction, you will be taught in a different way that makes sense for you. Our instructors at Dance FX Studios in Mesa, Arizona are particularly focused on you and works directly with only you and your partner. Maybe the dance instructor is your dance partner? That is the very fastest way to learn. Teaching you to dance well is a dance instructor’s full-time job. It is a dance school’s job to make sure you are happy and getting your monies worth, and guess what… For all of those reasons and more, you certainly will!
Group classes are pattern-based great social partner dancing means adhering to specific rhythms. Being a great social dancer is not just learning five or six cool moves. It is also not memorizing routines that watch on YouTube. Rather than memorizing patterns and using them for all the music that comes on in the night club, through quality dance lessons you will learn spontaneity and how to use dancing to navigate around other couples or within a crowd. More importantly, dancing well means having “musicality”, which is the awareness of music and rhythm in dance. Learning music identification and knowing which dance goes with what song is the signal to every partner you dance with, or everyone watching you perform, that you know exactly what you are doing.
If you don’t know how to identify different dances or have the ability to identify music, that’s OK, it just means that you haven’t taken private dance lessons yet! The good news is, it’s never too late to enjoy the benefits of knowing how to dance. The key is getting what you pay for: quality instruction and a well-versed education. Having confidence that you know what you are doing, are able to improvise and have all the tools you need to be a great social dancer will keep you on the dance floor all night long!
Obviously you are worth the investment! There is no substitute for taking private dance lessons. Why fake and fumble it around on that dance floor when you can float with ease and comfort doing any social dance, from Salsa dancing to the Country Two Step. If you live in Phoenix, Arizona, Dance FX Studios is ready to have some fun with you while we teach you the dances of your choice. Our studio is in Mesa, AZ right off the 101 highway. We accommodate residents valley-wide and beyond. Schedule a lesson using our New Student Offer, only $25, and your days of enjoying social dancing are just around the corner!
How’d we do?
