To help readers understand the extraordinary quality and value offered at Four on the Floor, I'm going to contrast it with my experience of a good quality commercial dance studio.
First, the facility. You're dancing at the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, which was built in 1931 with ballroom dancing in mind. There's a huge ballroom with a stage and two other rooms that are the right size for group classes. Parking is available in a nearby garage or on the street. The facility beats what you'll find in a strip-center dance studio hands down.
Quality of instruction: founders Laura Malloy-Auderer and Matt Jones are among the best teaches you'll find. They'd be top teachers anywhere. They're passionate about swing dance. They've been running FOTF for more than 20 years, and it's a real labor of love. Their other instructors compare favorably to full-time studio instructors.
Value: FOTF: $45/month for four 80-minute group lessons versus $50/month for four 40-minute lessons in a commercial studio. The length of FOTF group classes allows material to be more throughly mastered in group. At a studio, you'll probably feel that a lot of material is being thrown at you, and you'll be pushed into private lessons at $65 for a 40-minute lesson. That's part of the commercial dance studio strategy: group lessons as a loss leader. You cannot get the same level of instruction in a commercial studio as you can at FOTF without paying for a lot of private lessons.
More value: FOTF provides free 20-minute private coaching sessions to its Lindy level-two students. Combined with the longer group lessons allowing more mastery in group, I find a 20-minute coaching session a good substitute for expensive private lessons at a studio.
Even more value: after your lesson, you get to dance in the ballroom from 9:40 to 11 PM to a DJ or live band at no additional charge. Commercial studios don't offer opportunities to practice right after a group lesson unless you take a private lesson.
So why would you go to a commercial studio instead of Four on the Floor. Four on the Floor is just swing: basic, Lindy Hop, Balboa, and a bit of Collegiate Shag; it's only one night per week, and is closed in August and December. Commercial studios, teach a wide variety of dances (country, ballroom, salsa, swing), offer some good wedding packages, beginner specials, and, if you have a lot of free time, unlimited group packages. You'll find some great teachers at Austin's commercial studios, but do go in with your eyes open and understand that in order for these full-time instructors to make a decent living, they've got to push those private lessons and won't teach you everything you need to learn in group.
Austin has a vital swing-dance scene, and you can find a place to swing dance virtually any night of the week. (Listings are on Four on the Floor's web site.) The Austin Swing Syndicate's Thursday night dance at the Austin Women's Club is another great, low-cost opportunity to put what you learned at Four on the Floor out on the dance floor. read more