I would like to someday be one, and I intend to, but from what I am told repeatedly is that it's:
1) exhausting, and
2) not lucrative.
These are the main statements I get from studio owners past and present. And not even just pole studios but dance studios of many kinds.
As an instructor though, I do know the effort and time and soul that I put into my classes and privates and that's why I am hurt when people are so shocked when they find out how much classes and private lessons cost and act like it's absurd.
Don't get me wrong, I understand it seems like a lot for an hour. I can't even afford a latte without feeling like a guilty spender I am so broke at the moment,
but I also know how much goes into those "only one-hour?" classes and privates.
Since I started teaching I have had the same drive to give each and every student the most I possibly can in that one hour.
As my knowledge has grown, I try to educate and help each student even MORE than ever!
For each class I take the time and focus in my own personal life how to find new warm-up routines, new stretches, new patterns of stretching, strength techniques, etc so that each student can get the most out of it.
As for classes, I try my best to find challenging yet attainable goals and tricks or at least building blocks of tricks that still make students feel successful.
All of these are not easy when there are so many varying levels of body awareness, strength, flexibility, personal goals, etc.
I work hard to make sure everyone can get something out of everything though because I know that $20 a class is a lot of money to each person.
As for privates,
a lot of people think that privates are WAY over priced, and yes they are expensive,
but the effort that goes into teaching privates is quite intense.
After private lessons I am often too tired to train myself, or at least as much as I would like to.
Private lessons are not just watching a student do a trick you showed them once,
but it takes a lot of time to find diction the student understands, learn their flexibility, their pole knowledge, go through each step of each trick, do the trick yourself again and again so they can see it, and try and do it as clean and as perfect as possible because if they are going to pay you, they wanna see it done the best!
It's mentally exhausting trying to say it the best way each time as well.
I think many think "wow $60 for an hour private is a lot," but I like to compare it to therapists and body workers. They often make around $80 at least an hour for a session for listening and talking or doing their body-work practice, and we accept these prices because they went to school for this knowledge.
My reality is that I went to a 4-year university and plan on going back to grad school to be a therapist and I am telling you, in the two years of pole dancing I have learned and put more time into that than anything else.
The time training, the injuries, the classes I paid to learn, the money I spent traveling to learn from people in other countries, the money for workshops, the money it cost me to pay for my poles - all of this to me is school that I don't get a paper degree for.
All of this and more is why a private is expensive. I did go to school and I did learn all of this and I did earn the ability to teach and that's why it costs a certain amount more than we might like for private lessons.
I also always tell my students that taking a private is like taking three classes in one hour since it's so condensed because you are my only focus.
Unfortunately I have been a part of private lessons where I didn't feel I got my money's worth, but sometimes I definitely did and I would keep giving my business to that person.
I trained with Tristan Brinkkotter from Australia and she told me that she doesn't even give a price to students, she simply tells them to pay her what they feel the private was worth. I thought that was pretty BA :)
Don't misunderstand,
I LOVE teaching and I LOVE private lessons,
If I could that's all I would do for the rest of my life alongside my own training,
and I just want everyone to understand that as pole instructors, we LOVE you, we WANT you to get all of your goals, we want you to be fit, and healthy, and happy, and proud, and confident, and safe, and all of that takes effort on our part as well as yours :)
<3 <3 <3
