I think my teacher is really really bad...?

Mosaic

Super Moderator
Are you learning tribal? Your costume pic is what one would wear for a tribal style performance, but having said that it still wouldn't cost NZ$500 for a skirt & tie top Just found similar on ebay made in China, AUD$36 which is NZ$48 a tie top would cost about $20 - $25. Just saw some tie front tops made in china for USD$3.98 about NZ$6
?SALE?New tribal fusion Belly Dance Bra Top choli 7clrs (eBay item 320604993904 end time 16-Jan-11 14:14:22 AEDST) : Clothing, Shoes Accessories

The most expensive tiered 25yd skirt I saw on ebay was USD$130 from an expensive US seller, who has her skirts made in India so you girls are paying through the nose bigtime for the costumes. That is very, very unfair of the teacher.
~Mosaic

 

nigma

New member
I am on board with everyone else here, you are being ripped off!! she is in it for the $$$$
You are savvy enough to recognise a good teacher versus your teacher.
Spend your money on quality dvd's or go to the other teacher.
I have lived in a rural setting where we had to get a teacher to visit us on a fortnightly basis as long as we had enough students to make it worth her while which was usually half a dozen or so. She had set rates so the less people who showed up the more we paid but that was ok too as it was much like a semi-private lesson.
It's worth looking into talking to the other students who are unsatisfied, even directing them to this thread.
 

teela

New member
You could ask the other teachers in your area about what it would take to start a beginners class. A friend of mine wanted to begin lessons but the teacher had full classes so she told my friend that if she got 8 people together, she would start a new class. My friend did and we both started bellydancing and its been about 10 years since then. Otherwise, you can use DVD's interspersed with lessons from teacher in another town that you go take maybe once or twice a month depending on where you are and how close the other teacher is.
 

LadyLoba

New member
I agree with the responses here..

I too would start looking for someone else. Just from what you told us in your first post, it sounds like this woman doesn't really want a class...just a group of women to be in her background while SHE performs. That is not fair to people who have paid for LESSONS.

If she wants to be a teacher, she needs to teach. If she wants to be the featured dancer in her own troupe, then she needs to start her own troupe with the understanding that she is the star.

As for the money for all these costumes, I would not go for that either. I'm always suspicious when huge extra costs are added on to lessons and classes.....and this sounds like a ridiculous amount.
 

Mosaic

Super Moderator
Animallover, I understand right now you are in a difficult situation as you have a performance coming up in a few days and it is the end of the term. I suggest you just do your best and try to enjoy the performance, but seriously begin to look for other options before the new year starts. I'd contact the other teacher and ask her if she has any options for you or look a little further away and see if you can organise another teacher to come to teach you, also ask your class colleagues if they would join you, if those options fail then the DVD route maybe the best way to go, as it sounds like this current teacher's teaching skills could be doing more damage than good.

Also I would point out to your fellow students the cost of costumes from China.

I don't know whereabouts you live in NZ, but maybe contact Kashmir who is a member here she may have some contacts around your area, and be able to advise you. Kashmir has a website with lots of info, that may help as well. Raqs - Middle Eastern Dance - with Kashmir
Good luck with your performance and finding a better teacher
~Mosaic
 
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Daimona

Moderator
I'm sure the teacher has another view of of the concerns presented in the OP, but as long as she isn't here to defend herself we will not know her point of views and intentions of having her students buy a couple of new costumes (whatever price) for the performance.

Animallover:
The way you have presented your teacher, she is clearly not the right teacher for you.
If you want to continue to learn this dance, you must find new sources of knowledge such as a new teacher (classes or private lessons) or using videos/DVDs until you can move up to the next level and join the other teacher's classes.
 

Animallover

New member
The thing bugging me right now is she won't show us where the costumes are coming from. She says she found them online and I asked to see because I wanted to see the range of colours she mentioned, but she just refused to tell me and told me that indigo would suit my skin tone, so that's what I was having.
In a few months I'm moving towns to go to university and are going to find a new teacher there, but for the next few months I just wont go to classes. Our last lesson was a couple of days ago, and she said I should do the first term of next year before I leave, but I'll just use DVDs until i move.
I'm so frustrated because I spent hours learning the second dance, and she was just like "well if you're not buying the second costume, you're not doing the dance". Most people are so excited about performing that they're just buying it even though they can't afford it. What i'm concerned about is how she's so flaky that I'm afraid I'll never see a costume if I give her the money. I'm still waiting for change from paying my dance fees.
She has this troupe thing that she performs with at hens parties, but the odd thing is, she is paid to perform there, yet none of the other girls ever get any money because they were her students are now just dance with her at these events and see it as a performance, while my teacher takes all the money. I've always thought that was odd, but now that I type it all out, It's finally hit what she's actually doing, which is trying to get as much money as possible. There's this Welcome to Bellydance pack that you get when you join her class, and it's just a homemade CD and a hipscarf. It costs $80. I didn't buy one, I got my hipscarf off TradeMe and made the CD myself with music from itunes. The total cost of that was only $30, $20 for the hipscarf and $10 for making the CD from a cheap bulk pack of CDs and music from Itunes.
I'm looking for a teacher in my new town for when I move, but I'm struggling to find one. Why does bellydance seem to be so obscure in New Zealand:rolleyes:
 

Yame

New member
Oh, wonderful. So this "teacher" can't teach, makes commitments and doesn't show up, charges students $1000 for cheap costumes that are worth less than $100, forces that cost upon the students if they want to perform, changes her mind about what song to perform to at the last minute, takes paid gigs with her students but keeps all the money to herself, and makes a profit by illegally trading music.

If all those things don't ring a bell to you, at least one of them should. If this is all true you should not give this woman another cent and I am glad to hear you won't be going back. Is it even worth feeling frustrated that you won't get to perform with her? Geez... you should be glad it's all over.
 

Greek Bonfire

Well-known member
I'm sure the teacher has another view of of the concerns presented in the OP, but as long as she isn't here to defend herself we will not know her point of views and intentions of having her students buy a couple of new costumes (whatever price) for the performance.

True - I would really love to hear how she would defend all of this, especially the outrageous prices for new students. I've been around and with a lot of teachers and have never come across one yet who insisted a student spend that exhorbitant amount of money for beginner performances.
 
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Jane

New member
This is a con artist and not a teacher. There is a good teacher out there waiting for you to be her student- don't give up!
 

LadyLoba

New member
Don't be discouraged though...if there are belly dance teachers where you live, you WILL find a decent teacher. I signed up for two different rip off dance classes, once when I was a teenager and once as an adult.

They were sold to me as ballet classes. When I was a teenager, I arrived to the class to find it was not ballet, but just a pre-teen/early teen popular dances type class...we learned to do a couple little dances to Janet Jackson and that type of music to show our parents...cute...but not ballet by any stretch of the imagination.

The second one...a different teacher...was nothing more than a women's aerobics class with a dance warmup.

Both of these teachers got away with it in that THEY had studied ballet and showed us a few warmup moves from their ballet classes...so they felt justified is slapping the word "ballet" on to their classes. But they were both rip offs.

However, if I had remained interested in ballet...I know that I would have eventually found a real professional studio with a real ballet class....and you will do the same with belly dance.
 

Farasha Hanem

New member
:shok: Wait...did you say you live in New Zealand, Animallover? I thought at first that you lived in Australia. How far are you from Christchurch? Will you be moving close to that area? We have a forum member who lives in Christchurch that might be able to help you.

Is Kashmir from Australia or New Zealand? :think: I think I'm suffering from another one of those senior moments! :confused: :lol:
 

Mosaic

Super Moderator
:shok: Wait...did you say you live in New Zealand, Animallover? I thought at first that you lived in Australia. How far are you from Christchurch? Will you be moving close to that area? We have a forum member who lives in Christchurch that might be able to help you.

Is Kashmir from Australia or New Zealand? :think: I think I'm suffering from another one of those senior moments! :confused: :lol:
Kashmir is a Kiwi:D I don't think I have read exactly where Animallover lives in NZ - but from what I have gathered it is a small town at the moment, maybe semi-rural but she is moving in a couple of months to attend University, which will be a larger place probably a city and she will be looking for a new teacher then.
~Mosaic
~
 

LuLu

New member
I almost bought that top for cheap I have a site i go to only problem is no size for a 36D :(
 

Kashmir

New member
I don't know whereabouts you live in NZ, but maybe contact Kashmir who is a member here she may have some contacts around your area, and be able to advise you. Kashmir has a website with lots of info, that may help as well. Raqs - Middle Eastern Dance - with Kashmir
I'm in Christchurch - if you are in town - feel free to contact me. I also ran the New Zealand Teachers' Register & Newsletter for MEDANZ for many years - so may be able to give you off the record advice on alternative teachers. These days I am managing Attar's Teachers List - New Zealand Belly Dance which not only lists teachers but in many cases gives an indication of their style, focus, influences and training.

By the by, my own students either make their own costumes (for way under NZD100) or buy them from eBay for under a couple of hundred. My own pro costumes didn't cost NZD1000!!! Including an Eman Zaki which was hand designed and made for me!
 

Belly Love

New member
Eww, what kind of teacher would demand a beginner dancer to pay that much for a costume? I can see a teacher making a few dollars off of sales from practice scarves or whatever that she keeps in stock for students if they need to buy something, but this is totally innapropriate. I personally think you should do the following:

1. Quit the class asap. Yeah, you've been practicing a dance, but in the long run, you will be happier that you didn't invest anymore time/money into this greedy "teacher".

2. Practice and learn on your own until you work your way up to intermediate- maybe you can even find a buddy from an intermediate class that is willing to help you.

3. Print up this thread with all of the comments and mail it to your teacher (hopefully ex-teacher.) She needs to be aware that others are aware of what she is doing and it's not okay. She should be thankful that you didn't post her name and info on here.

Stand up for yourself- don't be scared! No one has the right to take advantage of you.
 

jenc

New member
I left one class just before shelling out for the costumes. If you haven't yet paid out - now is the time to jump ship
 
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