Arthur Murray Dance Studio

From LoveToKnow Dance

Professionalism and passion for dance are two features that you're sure to find each time you enter an Arthur Murray dance studio. Founded in 1912, the Arthur Murray foundation has been teaching people how to dance for almost 100 years.

Empty dance studio

It was Arthur Murray who began the chain of studios himself, and when he began the corporation, there was no chain of studios, but a single studio and he and his wife were the teachers. Over the years, they expanded their group of students locally and nationally; not only did they recruit more and more students to come into their studio for lessons, they also frequently taught dancing through the television. Their television show was so popular that it stayed on TV for 12 years, and sent Americans flocking to the local Arthur Murray dance studio in order to follow the lessons in person that they had become so fond of watching on TV.

Worldwide Arthur Murray Dance Studio Franchises

The Arthur Murray studios began in the US, but have since expanded not only to Canada and Mexico, but to all over the world. You can learn from Arthur Murray instructors in Germany, Italy, the U.K., Latvia, Israel, Jordan, Brazil, Egypt, South Africa, China, Australia and Japan. It's because of the success and longevity of the Arthur Murray concept that the studio has become successful all over the world.

The studios originally began teaching ballroom dance steps to couples, and expanded to also include Latin dances such as salsa, samba and tango as early as the 1950's. The Arthur Murray studios were one of the first organizations in the US to recognize that Latin dance could become extremely popular in America. Recognizing this possibility, Murray sent scores of his instructors to Cuba to become fully trained in teaching Latin dances.

Whether you wanted to learn how to waltz or you were just looking for a fun, social activity, Murray marketed his dance classes to you. He was able to draw people to the activity of social dancing through clever advertising, and his teachers made learning dance so fun that just about everyone who came to the studios once stayed in lessons for years.

Course Offerings

The dance studios offer many different levels of instruction and types of dance. In all cases, the focus is on learning a particular social dance, or on learning a selection of social dances. Not only should you choose a type or a genre of dances to learn at the Arthur Murray studios, but you also have to choose how quickly and to what level you would like to master this dance or family of dances. Since everyone's goals for learning dance and everyone's schedule commitments are different, the dance studios offer programs of different intensities so that each student can choose the right program for them. This chance to customize one's dance program is one of the concepts that makes the studio so successful.

Introductory Program

This program is designed to introduce students to social dancing. If you enjoy it, the logical next step is the Basic Program (which can also be started without first doing the Introductory Program).

Basic Program

A Basic Program introduces all of the basic aspects of the social dances, such as the steps, and the rhythm and timing of each dance. These basics are built upon in the two Bronze Programs.

Associate Bronze Program

A more basic, less intensive version of the full Bronze Program, where dancers learn to turn the steps that they learned in the Basic Program into real dancing.

Bronze Program

More intensive and more fulfilling, this version (instead of the Associate version) will allow the students in the program to really fully become dancers in the styles of dance that they've chosen to learn. Lots of fun comes in at this level because the students have mastered everything and are free to really dance.

Silver Program

This program, for serious hobbyists, gives dancers the style they need to become top social dancers. The graduates of this program will be able to turn heads wherever they dance.

Gold Program

One step beyond Silver, graduates of this program will not only turn heads on dance floors, but also turn judges' heads when dancing on a dance floor in a competition. This is the top level that the Arthur Murray studios offer.

All of these different levels make it such that every type of social dancer, regardless of how far they want to take their dancing skills, will find the right course for him/herself at one of the many franchised Arthur Murray establishments.

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Comments

Hi Dan, Thanks for sharing your experience with the other readers. It's indeed a shame that you didn't know about the administration fee, and perhaps your comment will help spread the word. Our site provides information for interested parties about the Arthur Miller Dance Studios, as such, your experience is helpful to our readers as well.

-- Contributed by: Rachel Hanson

Hi thought I would comment on the studio. My girlfriend and I took the introductery course and were encouraged to take the $660 course . It was explained to us that if we decided to cancel before we took the next set of lessons we would get our money back. We decided to cancel and they charged us a $100 administrative fee. A real rip off . We failed to see it in the contract but the instructer never told us . We will never go back to Arthur Murray and will tell all our friends about our experience also. Not very impressed with the organization Dan Bartley

-- Contributed by: Dan Bartley

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