Topic of the Quarter
CWCJC’s Dance Lessons
by Crazy Sue, President — Chicago’s Windy City Jitterbug Club
When we started CWCJC 16 years ago, we established our mission statement to include “the promotion and preservation of Jitterbug dancing as well as the music we grown up with.”
We took this very seriously as we wanted to be a “top-notch” club. At the time we were the first club to be established in the Chicagoland area. We started by “hiring out” local dance teachers from studios in the area just to get the ball rolling. After a while we decided that if we were going to be successful monetarily we would have to start teaching our own classes, but our goal was to be as professional as possible.
The people of St. Louis Imperial (who helped us get the club started) were contacted, and we looked for teachers who had come up through the ranks of “street dancing” as well as formal lessons.
Marie Cook and Mary Kay Lauck flew into Chicago on a Friday night and spent the next two days teaching us how to teach. We had picked a crew of 10 trainees who the club felt not only had the ability to be taught as well as the ability to teach and had the best interest of our club at heart. That was 12 years ago. I’m happy to say that over 1/2 of that group is still teaching today.
In answer to your questions, I will respond in kind:
Our lesson are held on Tuesday night, starting in mid-August through the following May. We teach 2 classes per night. The first is the Jitterbug 1, 2, or 3. (7:30-8:30 pm). Each class lasts one hour and is six weeks long.
The next hour (8:45-9:45pm) we offer one-hour workshops which could consist of Jitterbug patterns (giving the people who have just finished our entire session [J1-J3] an opportunity to further their repertoire). We discourage any new dancer who is taking the basics from entering the workshops because the changing of beats and counts could confuse them.
The entire session ends just before holidays and we are ready to start the New Year with a new group for the basic classes, although we do not repeat workshops. We are always offering something new for the experienced dancers.
The workshops are usually taught by our own instructors but we do occasionally bring in guest instructors to keep the sessions fresh and the keep us aware of what is being taught outside the club. What is taught in the workshops could vary from advanced Jitterbug to Hustle, Latin, or West Coast.
We DO have a sophistiocated format, but we may vary the moves that we teach due to some people repeating classes and to accommodate the teachers who may be filling in for an absent instructor. Whether we are teaching a class or not, we make every effort to attend all classes. Having the non-working teachers in the rotation with the beginners provides individual instruction at no added cost.
We do pay for our instructors. Regular class instructors are paid $20.00 per class and $35.00 per workshop. Guest instructors would be negotiated.
All of our regular instructors are club members
We have a price break for members of $10.00 per session,i.e., $40.00 for members, $50.00 for non-members for a 6 week session. This encourages non-members to join the club, keeping a continuous flow of new members.
Because of our entire instruction group being present at all classes, we do not limit the size of the classes. Our average class is between 40-45 every session, whether it’s basics or workshops.
I hope that this sheds light on the art of developing a dance program. It may not work for some areas, but it has been the backbone of our club.