This may have been asked before - if so I apologise in advance! Just thought this is the best place to ask this: a friend of mine has started doing ballroom and would like to take some private lessons. He is learning all ten dances at the moment but is more keen to concentrate on ballroom. His current teacher is more of a latin speicalist. Just wondering if anyone can:

- recommend any ballroom teachers in London who do regular private lessons?
- let me know how much they charge?
- give an estimate how much he should prepare to pay generally?

My friend has some dance experience, though not properly trained, is 33, physically fit, does not want to do competitions (a bit too late now, anyhow), lives in London and is currently paying £40 per hour (including studio hire).

Thanks a million! Any suggestion is most welcome!

My teacher, John Byrnes and his wife Jane Lyttelton teach ballroom in Beckenham. They are ten dance champions and specialise in both styles. They charge #45 for 45 mins or #60 an hour. They do medal teaching and competition teaching, or whatever you want. That fee includes studio hire cost.
Anyone more famous like Ian, Brendan, etc charge a lot more. The Studio where they teach, South Kensington, has other teachers there who teach all the time and are not so expensive, there is a website for it dont have the link to hand but google South Kensington Dance Studios will find it. John and Jane are still working on setting up a website but can be emailed <JohnJaneDance@compuserve.com> or tel 0797952215.
Hope this helps, google London Dance Schools will produce a mine of information as well.
EJ

I think this might be a link to the studio in South Kensington:

http://www.kensingtondancestudio.com/

Thanks elizabethjo and Force Ten - I will pass the info onto my friend!

Catcha in the forum!

Just had a thought Frodora, surely there will be someone teaching private ballroom at Expressions where Anton teaches his classes?

Ask at reception, worth a try.

Hi elizabethjo - yes there is someone else also teaches ballroom but he is also a latin specialist - not really what my friend is looking for. But thanks for the suggestion!

Have you tried looking on the internet for dance schools in London? There seem to be dozens of them, there must be Ballroom Specialists somewhere among them.

At the moment Jane Byrnes is a bit occupied as her twins are due within a few weeks and she is reducing the amount of teaching she does. John is picking up the slack but that might not be much use if your friend is a guy. She intends to return as soon as possible but to be realistic it will be a few weeks at least.

Matthew Cutler and Andrew Cuerdew are 2 of the best teachers. They push you hard and get good results everytime.

Andrew Cuerdon is a Latin dancer. If you read the original post you will see that it was a ballroom specialist that was wanted. Matt is 10 dance so he would be ok though expensive I imagine. I was trying to be practical which was why I suggested Jane Lyttelton Byrnes. Better to have a female to teach a male then you get to dance together. Also Jane and John are reasonable when it comes to cost.

Only posting here for information, but Matthew Cutler is running group courses in Alton, Hampshire. If you look on Matthew's thread, I'm pretty sure that the contact details for the workshop at Alton are the same as for the course.

Thank you everyone for your help! Will pass on all the info!

Andrew cuerden maybe a latin dancer, but he's also a fantastic ballroom teacher too. He charges £45 per hour and Matthew Cutler (who's also one of the best) charges £60 per hour. Very cheap if you want a world champ to teach you.

I can vouch that Andrew is a great teacher

At my very first class last January ( 2006) at Karen's class he was lending a hand and I had the pleasure of him partnering me for a large amount of the evening.

For someone who hadn't danced in 35 years ( since I was a child) he was patience itself

He took a class there at a later date and that was hugely successful too