here you are - google is a great help!

James and Ola dance lesson
http://www.jamesandola.com/shop.php

Ian Waite
http://www.ian-waite.com/shopianwaite/the-gift-of-dance

Robin Windsor - nothing on his site to say he does lessons but might be worth an email
http://www.robinwindsor.com/

Pasha Kovalov - again, nothing about dance lessons on his site
http://www.pashakovalev.co.uk/

Kevin Clifton
http://www.kevinandkarendance.com/

Brendan Cole
http://www.brendancole.com/about-me/

Anton De Beke
http://www.antondubeke.tv/#events

I am assuming as its for your mum you only want male pro dance lessons.........

Blackpool Tower website - any tea dances coming up should be on there
https://www.theblackpooltower.com/

You may also wish to try the Winter Gardens
http://www.wintergardensblackpool.co.uk/

Donaheys do "dance weekends" which many of the strictly pros attend and do lessons but they are group lessons
http://www.donaheys.co.uk/

The cost of £300 for an actual dance lesson is exorbitant.

Paying £300 for the chance of spending 45 minutes with "your favourite TV personality," if yours are either Ola or James Jordan, one to one and taking up the invitation of bringing a couple of friends who could no doubt record it on a phone, is actually cheap if you consider the thousands of pounds other TV personalities charge for a public speaking engagement to anything between fifty and a couple of hundred people, or whatever.

Actual ballroom dance instruction should be no more than that charged by professional musicians for a music lesson. That should be no more than £50.

Tristan:

Setantadance@gmail.com

Or you can probably send him a message on Facebook (ditto for the other pros who don't have websites listed above):

https://www.facebook.com/tristan.manus?fref=ts

Matthew Cutler - http://www.maticodancestudio.co.uk/teachers

All our teachers are also available for private lessons, please inquire via the " contact" form.
Last edited by Elan : 03-12-2015 at 17:52

Some of the Strictly pro dancers coach, but because of other commitments are rarely available 52 wks of the yr., and some of them don't even live in UK once Strictly has finished. Fame on Strictly does tend to make them charge more - you'd need to contact them to ask.

However, whether any of them would be prepared to take someone for a single lesson, just for the fun of it (I don't mean that rudely) is debateable. Most top coaches have full books. The other thing is, few would accept someone without a partner. But no harm in asking.

Some have mentioned the pro's travel expenses regarding lessons - usually coaches are based in one place, so the travel expenses are down to the student who has to go to them.

As for helpers at the Tower tea dances. I've never seen any, but that doesn't mean they are never available.

Digressing slightly.
I've just had a "cookie clearing session" to get rid a few unwanted ones as I do almost every day and I found every website of the pro dancers listed earlier, will have placed a cookie on your computer.

Hi Nikki, whereabouts roughly does your mum live? North or South? It would be much easier to arrange if in London area. Personally I would choose someone like Matt Cutler who teaches all levels and is very nice. I've also heard Darren Bennett is very sweet and polite http://www.darrenandlilia.com/booking.php#

Despite the fact that James Jordan charges a lot I would imagine he would also be lovely to your mum.

The current pros seem to be less available for booking.

I think it's become something of a new thing - there's Ian and the Jordans advertising it - and it's quite common in America, that the celebrity pros give one-off private one-on-one lessons to fans who are willing to pay premium prices for it - usually £150 to £400 for 45-minutes.

In the USA, some of the DWTS pros even travel around the country in the off-season and work at various studios for a couple days, giving the locals a chance for both group and individual lessons with a "star" (Tony, Tristan, Lacey, Emma and Sasha Farber have all done that in northern Florida near where I live, which is 2000 miles away from L.A.)

Has anyone by any chance got any other contact details for Matthew Cutler as he is local to us and I have sent a couple of emails to the address on the website but got no replies and there is no phone number. He was one of mums strictly favourites so would be perfect if only I could reach him and time is ticking away towards Xmas now.

Thank you for all your suggestions and help, it's much appreciated.

Hi,
My husband bid for some dancing lesson whilst drunk...... I won't say how much he paid because he wouldn't tell me.
He bid for lessons with with Hanna haarala who was in strictly in 2003 I think....... Well I was really mad at my hubby especially as he presented his folly as my special birthday present.

I must admit that they were worth every penny for fun and laughter. Hanna was a wonderful teacher and the time and lessons flew by. My husbands posture was corrected and she helped us with the quickstep and cha cha cha. Hanna has a dancing school in Kent now, we had our lessons in South Kensington.

As you would need a male pro for your mum I think £300 is a so what price if you have a great time and your Mum is delighted. The feeling of pure joy when a man leads properly in a dance cannot be underestimated. Trust me, my toes get squashed at our dancing classes regularly.

I hope you can sort out a special dance date for your Mum...what a kind and lovely daughter......

Are you looking on Matico Dance Studio site ?

Otherwise try mdcutler@mac.com
mobile: 07549 523250

Hope this helps

I pay £100-150 for a one hour private lesson with dance professionals currently at the top in my chosen dance. The range is more due to currency conversion than anything else (i.e. the French teachers work out cheaper than the Swedish ones). For that, I get both dancers in the partnership, although you can have one of the dancers for about a third of the price (because one teacher or two teachers still need to pay the same fro studio hire, and they usually are traveling together, so one is either twiddling their thumbs or using a second hired studio space at the same time).

Personally, I think it' worth having two because then you can dance with one while the other teacher observes, and they can demo what they want to see together.
I also take music lesson (at a lower level than dance) but I can't see any value in having more than one music teacher at a time, not at this stage, anyway.
My music teacher stacks his students classes closer together than my dance teacher, because teaching dance is more physically demanding, they need more breaks. This means the dancers see less students in a day, so have to charge more per class to have a similar income as a music teacher.

Jennifer F, thank you so much for the contact details. I have sent Matt an email yesterday so just hoping I hear back from him soon. Thank you everyone for your help with this, really hoping I can make it work for mum as she would be absolutely delighted.

Awesome, I know lots of people like Matthew Cutler so thought he might be a good one, hope it works out for you, let us know how it goes and if he gets back to you. Good luck.

I am keeping my fingers crossed but nothing from him yet. The trouble is time is slipping past and getting ever closer to Xmas so I am going to have to make a decision soon. Really hope I can make it work but can't seem to get any replies from the dancers.

why not just ring the number that has been posted? if he isn't responding to an email

or have you done that already?

as time is short and you are needing an answer to whether he can help you out with a lesson, surely the easiest thing to do is ring the mobile number.......

EDIT: there is a different mobile number for Matt on his Facebook page

07949 606397

I was just going to suggest Matt C and then saw Jennifer's post. He was quite expensive after he left the show and I remember someone posting a while ago about Matt being abroad a lot with teaching commitments (he does a lot of one to one), so fingers crossed for you Nikki and your Mum. It's a lovely thoughtful gift.

I hope I'm not the bearer of bad news, but not only do many of the Pro's teach and judge overseas, many stay for months. Some of my teachers have stayed in Japan for 3 months at a time to teach. Also most Pro's are really booked up most of the time, I usually book lessons for months in advance, sometimes up to a year in advance as there are many dancers that want them for lessons. It may be an idea to consider this for next year and plan in advance, perhaps do something slightly different this year. But you may be lucky though, you never know !

May I just say what a wonderful idea this is - your Mum is a lucky woman!

Have you seen this?

https://www.theblackpooltower.com/misc/help-wizard.aspx

One of these dance events might be the best option for getting your Mum on that famous floor!

Lordy! I thought paying Miss Jenny £18 for younger daughter's weekly private lesson was pushing it. What did I know?

PROUD PARENTING ALERT - It must be said, the youngster loves the lessons and is starting to win quite a few medals - END ALERT