Student Attrition

[Shanazel]

I have a little different philosophy about dance- I want everyone to dance to the best of their ability and for the good of their soul, whether they choose belly dance or hiphop. One of the reasons I really enjoy teaching beginning students is the joy I get from seeing people who have never dreamed they could dance finally "get it." It changes a person forever to feel like a dancer, whether she ever goes much further than beginning class or not. I live for those moments when one of my students completes her first baby dance and looks at me with eyes that shine with sheer happiness. It makes me feel like I've had a part in a special kind of rebirth.

Just for the record, I get paid the same hourly rate whether I have thirty students or ten students. I do understand your feelings, though, Sstacy, and don't find them ugly.

 

[Yasmine Bint Al Nubia]

I have a little different philosophy about dance- I want everyone to dance to the best of their ability and for the good of their soul, whether they choose belly dance or hiphop. One of the reasons I really enjoy teaching beginning students is the joy I get from seeing people who have never dreamed they could dance finally "get it." It changes a person forever to feel like a dancer, whether she ever goes much further than beginning class or not. I live for those moments when one of my students completes her first baby dance and looks at me with eyes that shine with sheer happiness. It makes me feel like I've had a part in a special kind of rebirth.

Just for the record, I get paid the same hourly rate whether I have thirty students or ten students. I do understand your feelings, though, Sstacy, and don't find them ugly.

Thanks for your responses Shanazel and I wholeheartedly agree. Most of my students don't have a clear cut goals when they signed up for their first lesson. But then again neither did I, I never expected to be at this point with a new semi-professional carreer. Because dance is such a creative endeavor, I love to unlock someone's dormant potential into themselves.
As for the students who responded, I certainly understand the social dynamics that come into play when one is new to a class. We have a welcome circle for the first few classes for the students to get to know one another. But ultimately it's up to the students to reach out and form new bonds of friendship, hell I'm still learning names until the 5th week!
Stacy, you did bring up a good point about the financial aspects. There are too many people/teachers that may be great dancers but poor teachers. It's usually these individuals that teach for extra money on the side and don't really care for being honest to the dance or finding performance opportunites for their students. In other words it's all about them. No doubt getting paid for expertise is not an ugly thing but in some cases the sole means of support. For example, my Teacher rents two rooms. This is her business, she does nothing else but teach bellydance. So in her case, she has to pay the rent, pay the utilities, decorate, market,maintain the website, pay her staff and still feed and clothe her family. So yeah money is important, but there are other ways to get rich. Visions of the Nile Bellydance Homepage
Yasmine

 

[da Sage]

Other reasons for quitting:

Signed up together with a buddy, but the buddy quit.
Commute is hard (especially for those without a car, or who share a car with other family members)

 

[Kharmine]

I was the oldest person in my beginning class, after the teacher, and looked nothing like the many willowy young things who wore fancy costumes just to practice in.

But I had years of practice in yoga and previous dance experience so I was able to do at least as well as any of the youngsters. And even then, I bought a few private lessons in order to ask the many questions I didn't want to hold up the rest of the class with.

Without these factors, I'm not sure I would have continued. Every other student about my age or older who ever came in dropped out sooner or later.
But then a lot of younger students dropped out, too. It felt as if I was forever introducing myself to new people, and it was hard to feel any kind of camaraderie.

Even so, after several months, I was frustrated by my lack of progress and finally asked about taking a second class during the week. My teacher suggested I try her intermediate class and that has really made the difference for me. The second class has a couple of women my age who have been doing this longer than I have, which is a comforting feeling, and there are actually fewer fancy costumes. And they're all regulars, so I'm starting to feel like I've joined a real community. (I've even started to wear dressier practice clothes!)

And when some of the more advanced students turn up in the beginning class for some extra practice time, we recognize each other, which is nice. It helps balance out the the turnover among the newer faces.

I'm glad I decided not to mind being "different" from the rest of the class when I started, and that I pursued individual attention and more classes. Other novices who stand out in the group for one reason or another may not be so lucky, and it may take a little more effort on the teacher's part to help them feel less self-conscious.

For sure, having a feeling of community is key, and I realize that's harder to achieve with a group of rank beginners to start with. It helps that my teacher encourages the veterans and beginners to mix classes when practical, because the more familiar and friendly faces one sees in class, the more likely one will continue.

She also encourages her students to help each other with stretching, "spotting" on difficult moves and other kinds of interaction. And that definitely helps to break the ice.

 

[Zumarrad]

In my experience, people stop coming to classes for the following reasons (some already mentioned)

1. They decide it's just not for them.
2. Life, in the form of illness, injury, work, kids, partners and other commitments, gets in the way
3. Transport or money issues.
4. They reach a level where they no longer feel your particular classes are stimulating them in the way they want to be stimulated.

A few pages back, somebody mentioned their distaste at a student having to "pass" the choreography to move into a higher level class. I can understand how frustrating that might be to someone who doesn't like to perform, but have an idea there is a decent reason behind it. If your teacher just decides when you are ready to move up, there is unfortunately room for students to cry prejudice if they don't get chosen. That is why our school has an evaluation system. It means that if a student wants to move up, and doesn't, you can clearly point to the evaluation sheet and say it's because they haven't yet got the hang of Move X and Y.

 

[sstacy123]

I wonder

I don't want anyone to get me wrong, even though I say I don't mind if people drop out I am still encouraging people to try it...I've got a bunch of coworkers talking about doing it with me when we start back up in January. My thought is that if people stop classes because life just got in the way would they not at some point in their life return if they were truly interested in the art?

 

[chryssanthi sahar]

I don't want anyone to get me wrong, even though I say I don't mind if people drop out I am still encouraging people to try it...I've got a bunch of coworkers talking about doing it with me when we start back up in January. My thought is that if people stop classes because life just got in the way would they not at some point in their life return if they were truly interested in the art?

I make again and again the experience, that they do return, when the situation that made them stop, changes. I've had some students who stopped because of pregnancy and came back after their children were born and got old enough, that they didn't have to do breast feeding anymore. I also had students who went abroad for a while (3-12 months) and came back to my lessons as soon as they returned to Heidelberg to live here again. I also had students who stopped dancing because they had university or school exams, but returned to the classes after the exams were over. So I think that this factor (life gets in the way) is the least crucial for students to completely quit on the lessons (except if something very heavy happened to them, like bad sickness, accident etc.). Also the factor money is not so decisive. If people really want to do something, they would quit on other, less important things, in order to be able to do the thing that is major important to them. I consider the other factors that had been mentioned here lot more decisive.

 

[da Sage]

My thought is that if people stop classes because life just got in the way would they not at some point in their life return if they were truly interested in the art?

Very likely. I came back. I think a lot of people drop in and out of their hobbies.

There's people who find most sorts of art interesting, but they don't connect with all of them on a personal level. I love to hear a good pianist, but I doubt I'll start playing again, myself.

I think that just because someone enjoys something, they aren't necessarily drawn to continue classes indefinitely. Or maybe they get involved another activity that has more value for them.

There are some women who have always wanted to do bellydance, and they sign up for a course with high hopes. Then there are women who often take courses or try new activities, and this time they chose bellydance. After six weeks, or six months, if they haven't got "the fever", they move on.

 

[da Sage]

Another reason students quit: zilling makes their wrists hurt.

 

[Viv]

I track my attendance for classes by drop in and registered students for each class. What I've noticed is that November through January pretty much suck for regular attendance. Between holidays/family/cold and flu season most students will make maybe half a session.
Normally out of a 30 student beginners class I will have around 15 to 20 who make all but one or two classes. Another 1 to 5 will drop because it isn't what they expected or harder than they thought. Usually there are another 3 or 4 who will quit due to work/school/babysitter issues. Then there are my favorite ones, the 1 to 7 who pay for the class and never show up. I know we only charge a pittance for the class but come on, to pay for the class and never go?? The city doesn't give refunds unless the class is cancelled.
I also take drop in students on a per class basis depending on how many registered gals show up for class. I've noticed that the gals who pay as drop ins around the holidays will actually show up more frequently as a whole than those who paid for the session. Again, makes no sense to me as it costs them more by the class than for the session.
You might want to try tracking attendance for a few sessions of classes and see if you can find patterns happening. It helps not only with seeing if maybe there is a steady decline/increase in attendance but over time it gives you an idea of what you may expect in future sessions at certain times of the year which can help you plan. For example, out here we get a big upswing in registrations for the summer with beginner classes filling up weeks before they start. Then we have a large chunk of those gals quit soon into the session due to "it's harder than I thought" or "I thought I would loose weight/tone up instantly".

 

[Amanda (was Aziyade)]

I've quit or cut back on many things in my life, and not necessarily because I didn't like them. But you reach a point where you're spread so thin that you just can't afford to spend the time needed on everything. So you cut back to a few things and really focus on them. That's why I've dropped out of some of my former activities, so I can understand when my students drop out because they want to do something else.