A&I
ButterflyBallroom
and
Dance Training Center
Our Mission Statement
"To help every student acheive the highest possible level of proficiency, in the shortest possible length of time, for the least possible amount of money."
Our Motto
"We can teach you to fly."
Our Goals
1. To provide the highest level of expertise in dance teaching and training.
2. To become recognized leaders in ballroom dance science and technology.
3. To promote the art and sport of ballroom dance.
4. To provide the best place to dance socially in the area.
5. To provide a venue for exhibition dancing.
Our Vision
We have the dream of creating...
1. A school where all the students work together with the staff as a team to accomplish the goals and mission of the school.
2. A school where the established students befriend and assist the newcomers to make them feel comfortable and welcome.
3. A school where the students and the staff strive to acheive the highest possible level of proficiency thereby raising the standard of social dancing. We will teach you how to survive in a social setting and look good when you are daning socially. We do this by teaching the men to lead and the ladies to read the lead as well as how to solve problems on the dance floor. We want our students to be able to go anywhere and dance to any type of music.
4. A school where the students would prefer to be average students in an excellent school rather than be excellent students in an
average school.
5. A school with up-front pricing where the prospective student knows what the prices are before he buys.
6. A school that offers enough programs that anyone can afford to take lessons.
Our Expectations
1. We want our students to fufill the needs of outsiders without hesitation. Students come for a variety of reasons. Most will come because they need a place to interact with others in a social way. We expect our students to recognize this and make the newcomer feel welcome.
2. We want our school to be a community. We want it to be a place
where everyone cares about the well being of the others in the school. The students are encouraged to become involved in the outside lives of others in the school. (Celebrating birthdays and anniversaries etc.)
3. We want every student to be a teacher and every teacher to be a student. We want our students to assist the newcomers through their scary first times as a dancer. We want our teachers to
never stop learning and developing their skills.
4. We want our students to be dancers and not step regurgitators. This means that they dance with their whole body and not just
with their feet.
5. We want our students to be artists and not plagiarists. We want them to develop their own unique style and not copy their
teacher.
6. We want our students to view change as an opportunity and not an obstacle. There will be periodic changes in our methodology to up with the needs of our community.
Our Pricing
In keeping with our vision of having up-front pricing, we are commtted to certain principles concerning our pricing strategy.
1. We will never take you, the student, into an closed office and try
to pressure you into buying more lessons than you may want.
2. We will never give one price to one person and a different price to another person for the same program.
3. We will never offer an introductory special at a low price and then charge higher prices for subsequent programs.
4. We will never attempt to force you, the student, to sign a long-
term contract.
5. We will always seek the student's advice and input before we change our pricing structure.
Our students describe us as "No frills dance lessons". What they mean by this is that we do not spend a lot of money on superfluous frills such as a fancy location. We keep our overhead as low as possible to keep prices reasonable.
Our Methodology
Our school operates from the fundamental premise that any successful methodology will originate from the theory and the theory originates with the philosophy. If the philosophy in non-existent then the theory will be inconsistent. If the theory is inconsistent, then the method will be haphazard at it best.
When looking for a school, a person should ask questions about the philosophy, theory, and method of dance. If the teacher or school cannot effectively answer these questions then that person should look for another school. The philosophy is like the destination. The theory is like the road map. The method is like the mode of transportation. If you do not know where you are going; then you will never know if you have arrived.
Outlined below are the six areas of our theortical study.
1. Rhythm Study - The students learn the rhythm of each dance and how to express that rhythm with their bodies.
2. Figure Study - The students learn how to create figures and how
they relate to one another in the context of a dance. Figures are often called steps.
3. Partnership Study - The men l;earn how to initiate a lead and the ladies learn how to read a lead.
4. Movement Study - The students learn how to move their bodies is an efficient manner using the Laws of Physics.
5. Character Study - The students learn how to style the dances in both a generic and personal manner. Generic characte involves duplicating with the body the physical,mental,emptional, and spiritual ebb and flow of the music. Personal character involves an expression of the dancer's personality.
6. Improvisation Study - The students learn how to recover from mistakes, avoid collisions,follow various sections of the music and personalize their dance figures. (steps)
Our Business Strategy
We focus on what we call the three "P"s.
1. Product - We attempt to make our product,dance lessons, the best it can possible be.
2. People - We believe in treating all our students and staff like members of our family.
3. Promotion - We try to let as many people as possible know about our school through special promotions such as charitable events.
FAQ's-Frequently Asked Qestions
1. How did you get your name?
a: The first part of the name is "A & I". These intiials stand fo the"American and International". There are two fundamental
styles of dance. "The American Style" and "The International
Style". When we were deciding on the name for the school,
we planned to teach both styles, but most importantly, our market research revealed that most people looking in the
phone book for a dance school will follow the listings in alphabetical order especially if there are only a few listings.
The "A & I" put us first in any phone book we are listed. The next part of the name, "Butterfly Ballroom", came about in this way. We took a business course that taught us we should
pick a name that was easy to remember by customers.
"Ken's School of Dance" does not create a good enough image to stimulate customer memory. We needed a name that would create a mental image in the in the minds of potential customers. We were watching a show on television one day when one of the main characters mentioned how she had always wanted to learn Ballroom Dancing so she could float around the room like a butterfly. This gave us the perfrect visual image. It also had the added benefit since butterflies
my wife's favorite animal and decorating would be easier
since we had scads of butterflies laying around the house
already. It also led easily to the school's motto of "We can
teach you to fly". Likewise, the word ballroom told
everybody that saw the name exactly what we teach.
"Ken's Dance Studio" could be anything from ballet to line
dancing. This allows people looking up our school on places
like the internet some idea of what we do without wasting time
and money on phone calls. The last part of the name,
"Dance Training Center", was added to tell potential students
that we handled more than just lessons. We have been
working toward other areas of dance that relate,such as
outside dances. For example, we were the first group to
organize and celebrate "National Ballroom Dance Week" in
Savannah.
2. Why are your prices lower than the industry average?
a: When we first started planning to open our own school, we collected a lot of data about pricing dance lessons. We were
working at a school that had many programs with a variety of prices. We made a list of total lessons we sold each year and another list of the amount of money charged. We divided the total amount of money by the total number of lessons
sold. In this way we obtained the average cost per lesson.
Also, whenever a student stopped buying lessons, we asked
them why. Invariably, they would say that it was because of
the cost. We would then ask them what they would consider a
fair price. Interestingly, the answer was close to the average
cost per lesson in our computations. This told us that this the
market price in the Savannah area. Ironically, we took a
business course on pricing a product and in this course we
studied how the big corporations handle pricing. When they
enter an established market with stiff competition and a
product that already has a history; they always price their
competing product at about 30% below the market price.
Whenever they introduce a new product to an area, they price
it at about 30% above the average. Our school opened in
1998 in Savannah. Our competition was well established.
One studio had been opened for 20 years and the other had
been opened for 30 years. Our determined market price from
our research for private lessons was almost exactly 30%
below the average price for this area. We also determined to
offer group lesson to non-private students. This was a product
not offered by the other schools so we charged 30% higher
than the national average to force the competition to lower the
price to the national average in order to compete.
3.Why do you practice up-front pricing?
a: When we were in the planning stages for our school, we
surveyed all our students asking them what they would like from
a dance school. The response we received most from people
was that they did not like not knowing up front how much
lessons would cost. They did not like teachers being obtuse
about prices. They wanted a school where the prices would be
set up like the menu in a restaurant or the price tag in a shop.
They could discern then if they could afford lessons. They also
wanted to be able to budget their dancing into their life. They
indicated that they wanted to eliminate all the specials that are
prevalent in other studios. We decided to tell people up-front
how much lessons cost before they even attend their first
class. Our pricing structure is why we have students who take
lessons longer because they can easily budget them into their
lives. The average length of a student taking lessons is five
years which has had the added benefit of creating more
proficient dancers since they take more lessons then the usual
average of 6 months.
4. Are your teachers certified?
a: The short answer is yes. Every teacher has to pass the
owner's scrutiny before being allowed to teach. The owner used
to work as a teacher trainer for the Fred Astaire Studio where he worked. His standards are higher than Fred Astaire Dance Studios. His test for teachers is based on the written exam
he used to give prospective teachers at Fred Astaire Dance Studios. However, we always follow this question up with
another question. What does being certified mean? Just
because a teacher is certified does not guarantee the teacher
is competent. We have met certified teachers who could not
teach a kangaroo to hop. We have also seen uncertified
teachers that could teach a pig to fly if that is what the pig
wanted to do. The only thing a teacher needs to teach in the
state of Georgia is to convince someone to take lessons.
Certification is only as good as the certifying organization. For
example, you meet a person who boasts of a masters degree
from Columbia State University. You are impressed until you
discover that this degree is from Columbia State University in
Louisiana and not New York! Since the certification process
costs money, we have encountered teacher certification
programs that were the dance industry's equivalent of a
diploma mill. You pay them and they give you a certification.
Having certified teachers does not guarantee that a teacher or
school can actually teach. A better way is to look at their
students.
5. Why do you seem to say negative things about the
industry?
a: We do not see the things we say about the industry as negative. We only admit to things that are well-established facts. George Bernard Shaw once said that "the people who have the most to be ashamed of are the ones who present
themselves as the most respectable". We believe that people appreciate a school that admits to the truth and commits to their customers that they will never practice the negative
things listed.
Throughout history, ballroom dance instrutors have often
been portrayed as crooks. It is a case of art imitating real
life. Fred Astaire starred in a movie where he attends a
ballroom dance studio that attempts to take advantage of him
as he pretends to know nothing about dancing. There is an
episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies" where a crooked pair of
ballroom dance instructors attempt to take advantage of the
Clampett family. There is also an episode of "The Munsters"
where a crooked dance teacher played by Don Rickles
attempts to take advantage of Herman Munster by selling him
a lot of lessons he does not need.
In the mid 1990's, an edition of a television news magazine
show like "60 Minutes" featured a story about disreputable
ballroom dance studios in Atlanta. In Augusta Georgia about
the same time, two ballroom dance studio owners received
prison sentences for defrauding students. In the late 1980's,
every franchise owner of a national chain lost their licenses
for fraudulent practices in the state of Florida. Finally, in
1999, "Dancing USA", a magazine published a series of articles
on fraudulent disreputable business practices of ballroom
dance studios.
As a professional, there are three ways to deal with the problems in the industry.
1. You can hide your head in the metaphorical sand and
pretend these things do not happen.
2. You can criticize others who point out the problems and
accuse them of not being respectable.
3. You can publicly vow to never practice them
Interestingly, the "Dancing USA" magazine article received several complaints from dance studios that the magazine
was not being respectable and emphasizng the negative
over the positive. It was implicitly understood that the
studios who complained were the very ones who practiced
the things outlined. It was an example of the old southern
metaphor that "the hit dog hollers first." This metaphor
refers to the idea that if a person tosses a rock into a
pack of sleeping dogs, the first one that yelps was the
first one struck. This means that when a reformer speaks
out against abuses in any area of life, the first people who
complain about the negative aspect and lack of
respectability are the ones guilty of the very
things spoken against.
History is filled with similar situations. people criticized
Harriet Beecher Stowe and Upton Sinclair for being negative
about the industries and institutions they tried to change but
no one remembers those critics. They only remember the
good accomplished by these two writers.
FAQ's-Frequently Asked Questions continued
6. I heard you do not separate the young people from the older
students, is this true?
a: We do not believe in segregation of any kind. We beleive
that one of the problems with society today is the
segregation of people by age groups. In the early days
there was no segregation by age. Young people learned
how to be adults by watching and participating in adult
activities. We want dancing to carry over into all areas of a
young person's life. We think it is a shame that young
people do not have realistic role models and that it is better
for them to mingle with adult doctors, lawyers, and other
professionals instead of only mingling with other young
people or using athletes or music stars as role models.
We want our young people to network with adults that will
help them as they mature. They will have good references
for college or a future job not to mention a library of
experience to draw from. The ultimate goal of every young
person is to mature and grow-up. Mixing and mingling with
adults of all ages will help them later in life as they learn to
make friends of all ages. (One of my first adult friendships
was formed with a man in his 80's while I was still in my
20's) It will also help them make connections in the adult
world, which could lead to obtaining scholarships or better
jobs thereby making them better citizens in the adult world.
Those interested in segregating young people are thinking
only of the present whereas we are thinking of the future.
7. What is your style of dance and teaching?
a: We teach an "interrelated Scientific Social Style of
Ballroom Dancing". Now, what does these terms mean?
1. Interrelated- A person's feet will only twist in a small
number of ways so there are a limited amount of
variations for the footwork. As you progress
through the dance levels, the moves begin to
transpose from one dance to another. Dance
learning is like a pyramid. The base of the pyramid
is very broad but as you move closer to the top
than it becomes narrower and smaller so that when
you reach the top, it is pointed. When you first
start learning to dance, the material may seem
overwhelming, but as you progress to the
higher levels, it becomes more interrelated so that
by the time you reach the highest levels, you are
dancing every move in every dance.
2. Scientific - In order to dance effectively, the dancer
must conform to the Laws of Physics and the
Principles of Kinesiology. The study of Physics
involves understanding how things work in the world.
Kinesiology in the study of the way an organic body
moves. Understanding the mechanics of
the human walking gait will help the teacher adapt
these mechanical principles to each student's
dancing. Every person's body has differences in
height, weight,physical conditioning, and arm and leg
length. The teacher needs to understand these differences in order to adapt dance moves
to the individual student and not try to force the
student into a particular mould. As well as the
science of body movement, there is the science of
music. Music has a certian level of science in it.
The dancer attempts to duplicate with the body the
ebb and flow of the music. From understanding
the accent decay rate, the dancer learns generic
styling.
3. Social- We teach people to survive in a social
context where nothing is controlled. In a
competition, every aspect of your dance
performance is controlled. likewise, evey aspect of an
exhibition is controlled with the possible exception of
audience appeal. Unlike a competition, where the
only audience that really counts is the judges, the
exhibition may have people in the audience that
know little about dance but know what they like. On
the social level anything can happen, from poorly
trained dancers attempting manuevers for which
they are not physically ready to drunks staggering
onto the floor. We focus our training more on
partnership which is leading and reading the lead,
floorcraft which is maneuvering around obstacles,
and understnding the ebb and flow of the music
which generates authentic and not plastic styling.
These principles along with several other
philosophical tenets govern the way we teach and
ultimately results in dancers who as a rule are more
proficient in less time than the average.
8. Do you believe the man should not touch the lady
when you dance?
a: This has to be the strangest question I have ever
received. My first response was that there is
something really strange about a man who does not
want to touch a lady when he dances. Why learn to
dance if you cannot touch the lady? One of the
reasons I learned to dance was to touch a lady.
Where else can you hug another man's woman for
three minutes and not get punched in the face.
Seriously though, there is a possible explanation for
this. Dancing is like many other areas in life. It is
subject to fads and fashions. Some fads remain
but most do not. This teaching is a fad propagated
by competition dancers who feel that having
the lady memorize her part results in a better
presentation in a competition.
This teaching makes a couple of assumptions that
are not necessarily true. First, it assumes the lady
knows all the same moves as the man. The only
way this will occur is if the lady is the man's regular
partner and they have taken lessons together. It
does not help the single dancer who dances with a
variety of partners. It also assumes that the lady
is at the same level as the man. Socially, this is
rarely the case.
9. I've been to one of your classes and it was very
different from any other class I've ever attended,
why is this true?
a: The single word answer is perspective. It is the
way I see dance instruction. Unfortunately, many
teachers teach the way they were taught. They
never analyze why they teach the way they
do or if their way is effective or efficient. A lot of
teaching today involves the use of movement
technique that is inefficient and methodology that
is effective. If I determine that my technique
is inefficient or my methodology is ineffective
then I will not hesitate to change. The teaching
methodology that I currently employ is the most
efficient and most effective I can make it at
the present. This does not mean it will
not change. If anyone can show me a better
way, I will gladly listen and even conform
to it. However, my method has been derived
from a study of four hundred years of
pedagogic tradition in music and dance
teaching throughout history and that much history
is hard to debate against.
Also, teachers have a tendency to teach
deductively. This results in teaching figures or
steps one at a time. I teach inductively, which
means I teach in generalities. Instead of showing
the student 12 figures in the Foxtrot for instance, I show him or her a single formula that is used to
create those figures. In this way the student can
build his own figures. This method is based on the
reality that if a mechanic fixes your car for you,
then you are forever dependent on a mechanic
but if repair the car yourself then you are
independent. It is like the old adage,"iIf you give
a man a fish,he eats for a day; if you teach a
man to fish, he eats for a lifetime." If I teach
you to create your own dance moves, then you
can dance for a lifetime without becoming bored
or dependent of some teacher.
Finally, I believe that dancing is holistic. It
influences every aspect of a person's life. It
improves your outlook and helps you become
more popular since good dancers are admired
almost universally. I improves your
constitutional, which is your normal level of
fitness, Finally, it has been found to
hinder the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms.
10. Why is your studio different than others I've
attended?
a: When we decided to open our own school, (And
we say school instead of studio here since we
do not want to be associated with any negative
connotations that the word studio elicits.) we
searched for a suitable modelwe could use. We
found such a model with the USABDA
organization> USABDA (now called USADance
as a result of a class actio suit seeral years
ago) refers to the United States Amatuer
Ballroom Dance Association. We studied the
way the national organization recommends
organizing and adopted much of
their methodology for our school. Ironically,
when the local chapter was started here, we
were told that some of the early board
members complained that the new chapter was
trying to imitate our school, The truth was that
we were imitating them.
11. What is your biggest business influence?
a: The business model that influenced us the
most was Wal-mart. They offer their
customers quality products at discount prices.
It was one of our goals to do the same thing.
We desire to offer quality services at discount
rates.
12. I just saw an ad from one of your
competitors advertising nine lessons for $178
while you charge $220 for nine lessons. How
can you say you have a better price for
lessons?
a: You are comparing apples with oranges here.
If you read the ad, you will discover the nine
lessons consists of three private lessons,
three group lessons and three practice parties.
Our programs only count the private lessons.
Even when you factor in the differences in the
classification of private lessons, their lessons
are 60 minutes and ours are 30 minutes. You
still only get six private lessons with their
program. We do not charge for group lessons
and practice parties if you are taking
private lessons. If you factored in the group
lesson and the practice parties into our
program, there would be a total of thirteen
group lessons and at least four practice
dances making it a total of 26 lessons as
opposed to only 9 or 12. If you average their
price, it comes to $ 20.00 / lesson. If you
use the same math, our lessons average of $
8.50 / lesson, which is a 42% discount.
But there is another consideration here. What
if you only want private lessons? They will
not discount the program for you explaining
that it is a package deal and if you do not use
the group lessons and the practice parties
before you finish the private lessons, you will
lose them. Therefore the price is for the
private lessons only while the group lessons
and the practice parties are free. In essence,
it is the same plan we offer except we present
it in a less obfuscatory way.
13. Your corporate name is "Terpsichore
Enterprises Inc.", what does the word
terpsichore mean?
a: In ancient Greece there were a group of
demigods known as Muses. The name of
one of those musies was Terpsichore.
She was the muse who inspired dancers. In
english the word means anything that
relates to dance or dancing.
14. I was told by someone that your location
is kind of sketchy is this true?
a: I'm not sure what you mean by "sketchy"
but I think you mean it is kind of scary to
come here. The person who said this
must have come here late at night
because it is very dark around our building
but it is very safe. Our building we lease
is located on 15 acres in midtown
Savannah. We think of it as little
country in the city. The property is
owned by Kicklighter Resource Center, a
non-profit organization dedicated to the
care of people with developmental
disabilities. There are only five building
on our side of the road and onlly three
buildings on the other side with a lot of
open fields. Behind us is a Day-care
center and a business that hires
disabled people. There is also a
vocational training center for the same
people. Across the street is a church
and apartment building that provides
housing for the
developmentally disabled. Also across
the road is the Evironmental
Resource Education Center of Chatham
County. In our neighborhood is a
monastary, a post office, a military
school,the National Guard Amory, the
Army Reserve Center, the Health
Department, the Tag Office, the
Humane Society and the Driver
License Bureau. During the day, the area
is quite pretty especially in the spring
when the azaleas are blooming. However, after 6 pm we are the only
place that is open. There is plenty of
parking and the police keep a close
watch over the area because of the
apartments. The people who live there
are very quiet and work at
the business located behind us.