[Tango-L] Feedback Requested on Free Tango Classes & Milongas

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

How about a fee that covers the entire semester instead of just an event?  So if they pay for a milonga, they are part of the club for the rest of the semester?  Maybe 2 different levels of club participation based on what they can afford.  If they see themselves as part of a club, rather than just a one-time customer, it may increase their involvement.

My experience has been mixed at universities.  Undergrads don't have as much discretionary income as grad students or non-students.  It's also a question of what you want students to pay for (e.g., classes versus workshops).  If you charge, there's nothing to stop you from offering scholarships to those with talent but no income (the instructor can ask the destitute student to help gender-balance).  With students, the initial attraction to attending milongas or classes is to meet other people.  So you'll always lose people no matter what you do.  

I've offered some classes for free and I've also charged.  Both had low rentention rates but those who still made it to the last class became excellent dancers, whether they paid or not.  The free class attracted more students.  Those in the paying class had more university staff.  A university situated in a college town will have a more captive audience than one in a big city, so may be able to charge something. 

Perhaps a compromise will be to offer free beginning classes but charge for a higher level class.  However, if you charge for a higher level class, there should also be an obvious reason for the charge to exist, such as professional-level instruction or the teachers going to workshops and teaching the material when they get back, funding a music library, etc.

Just a few thoughts.

Trini de Pittsburgh


--- On Thu, 9/4/08, Felix Delgado <felixydelgado at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Felix Delgado <felixydelgado at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [Tango-L] Feedback Requested on Free Tango Classes & Milongas
> To: tango-l at mit.edu
> Date: Thursday, September 4, 2008, 2:29 PM
> We have a student tango group at our university. This is the
> third year we are giving classes. The first year we gave
> classes and held milongas the events were free, because we
> wanted to attract people. Last year we charged a small fee
> for classes ($20 for a 6 week class) and the milongas were
> free for people taking classes, $5 for others. We hold the
> events in university space and we don't pay a rental
> fee. When we charged, the money went into a bank account to
> bring in visiting instructors, although we haven't done
> that yet. 
> 
> The first year, when events were free, we had more people
> in classes and mliongas, but there was more coming and
> going. There are only a few people who were regular. The
> second year, when we charged, we had fewer people in
> classes, but the milonga attendance was about the same.
> However, we tended to get the same people in the milongas
> each time. 
> 
> As we are starting our third year, I'm not sure what is
> best to suggest to our small club (20-25 people). We want to
> recruit more dancers, but we want them to come back. The
> ones who pay tend to come back. They also seem to be better
> dances, although it could be our teaching has improved and
> the level of dancing in our club has improved.
> 
> I'm wondering what experiences readers of Tango-L have
> had in a similar situation.
> 
> Felix
>  
>