stupid cost of living

[juldea]

So back in Oklahoma, dropping in on one advanced class of the Desert Fire bellydance troupe (winner of the Zaghareet Magazine 2000 Troupe of the Year award) (Zaghareet is a nationally-known bellydance mag) cost $10.

I'm on the bellydanceMA yahoo email group, and recently someone advertised her dance classes.

$40 for a drop-in?!?!?!

That's like - ungodly. Unheard of. WTF, in other words. Not even that, though - even if I wanted to dive into 10 weeks of classes with this person without ever seeing her dance or knowing how she teaches, I can buy those 10 weeks for the low, low price of $20/class. Although if I want to let her know in advance that I'll miss a class (or two or three - but no more!) she'll refund a whole $15. Right. Because I should pay for classes I don't attend.

This is total bullshit.

Maybe, maybe if I had heard of this person as a big name. I would pay that much for Morocco (who taught the BEST CONVENTION CLASS I've ever been to) - and if you look at her class costs, they're LESS! $15 at most! Sigh.

I guess I should brush this person off as overcharging and not worth worrying about, but it's the clearest, "I teach classes here at this time and for this much," message I've gotten from anyone in the area so far. *sigh*

I just want to dance without going broke. Is that too much to ask?

Comments

[tpau]

ask ailisdeliria (or whatever it is, she is on my friends list) where she goes in cambridge and how much lessons are. she is nto exactly rich, so they can't be that much... and htey are i think somewhere in central sq.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Email sent. Thanks.

[snarkyman.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see you've found classes run by the Wellesley recreation department. Everything in Wellesley is more expensive. That said, I looked through the course catalog (pdf) and it looks this class is more expensive than others in its section. Jazz Aerobics is $80 for 12 classes and Cardio Kickboxing is $130 for 9 classes.

You're probably better off finding a class elsewhere.

Good Luck!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the research assistance. The thing is, I'm not even interested in the classes in Wellesley - it's the ones in Boston I'd attend. Oh well.

[siderea]

Probably at The Dance Complex (Belly Dance on Tuesday and Thursday eves).

Also check out the Boston Center for Adult Ed which has got Belly Dance on Weds. and Thurs. eves).

You might want to periodically check the Cambridge Center for Adult Ed and Springstep (in Medford) but neither seem to have any ME dance right now.

And then there's the big list (some with prices) here, which I found by googling "Middle Eastern Dance Classes Boston".

[ex-krink990.livejournal.com]

$10 per in philly.. i should consider myself lucky!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I had not known about the Dance Complex, and I recognize the name of the instructor there (although I'm not sure from where), so that's probably my best bet.

I am admittedly a bellydance snob and I don't think that classes held at a Center for Adult Education are going to be what I want to do.

I have had the big list bookmarked for a while now, hidden in folder, so thanks for reminding me of it. ;) I hadn't used it originally because I wanted to wait and listen for a while to hear who the good instructors are...

Thanks for the help. Hope it was a reasonable distraction for a few minutes. ;)

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Lucky you!