what to look for in an adult dancing studio?

Answer 1

That really depends on what your goals are. In general, I'd say - look for a steep learning curve, i.e. find out how fast the students are learning.

Are you talking about ballroom? It also depens if you want to learn competitive or social. For social, look for a good gender balance and flexibility in teaching (i.e. they won't force you to learn dances in particular order) For competitive, look for instructors who train other competitive dancers. If the studio forces you to take lessons with the teacher of their choice rather then let you take lessons with any teacher that have openings in their schedule - that's a bad sign. Whatever you do - stay away from chains like Arthur Murray and Fred Astire studios. There you are likely to be paying restaurant price for a fast food menue. Find a privately owned studio.

Answer 2

If you're talking about ballroom dancing, look for an even balance of men and women to start with. It's important to learn to dance with multiple partners, but you're not going to do as well if every other dance you have to switch roles.

After that, look for a studio where the instructor can demonstrate that they know how to dance and you like what they look like when dancing. If they do a lot of fancy "stage moves" you might want to keep looking. Dancing like Fred and Ginger is exciting and impressive, but when you're out with your date at a ballroom, you're not going to be using moves like that. The only exception to this rule is swing. There are swing clubs where the focus is not so much on enjoying yourself with your partner as it is on exhibition moves, doing aerials, floor spins and other such. If that's your style, you're going to need to find a studio that specifically offers lessons in very advanced and acrobatic jump swing, lindy and east coast.

Good luck and have fun.