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Studio Loyalty
I have a question for all the polers: students, instructors, and studio owners.
How do you feel about studio loyalty? Once you find a studio you love, do you stay there and only there? If you are an instructor, does it make you mad if your students go to several different studios? If you are an owner, does it bother you if your instructors works at different studios?
My personal situation is that I’m an instructor that takes classes at different studios and has been offered to teach at different studios. I’m feeling torn and I LOVE my home studio that I’ve been at for three years and the people there but I want to experiment and grow as a dancer.
How do you all feel?
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31 Replies
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First off:
https://www.studioveena.com/forums/view/4e87e310-5fbc-4d16-961f-37b30ac37250
https://www.studioveena.com/forums/view/50168200-f8b4-4780-8886-65010ac37250
https://www.studioveena.com/forums/view/2629
I think it is really hard to grow as a student if you do not explore other studios or instructors, or even different types of movement. I can honestly say that I do not know a single poler who has not taken some other type of class, be it yoga, pilates, gymnastics, aerial, etc. Would you view that as being disloyal?
As for being an instructor, this depends on the agreement that you have with the studio. Some make you sign contracts, others you are an independent and they have no say whatsoever as to where you can teach. This is more of an employee/contractor difference than anything else.
I personally have gone to many studios and try to visit ones when I travel. I still have one that I consider my "home" studio, but I am good friends with the owners and instructors at another studio and have been involved in workshops and showcases there. Luckily the majority of studios by me play nice together.
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So, like always, I start a new thread when there are already a million on the same topic in SV.
I guess mine is just a little different because I am looking at being an instructor of two studios and a student of a third different studio. All the studio owners are okay with my situation but I do feel pressure to pick a ‘home studio.’ The pressure is even greater now that I have begun competing and the program and announcer usually mentions what studio you hail from.
The bottom line is: I want my students and I to get better as a dancers…But I don’t want to break up a pole family
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Sorry my phone freaked out! Thus the earlier empty post. Now I'm on a real computer haha:
I personally like just going to one studio all the time for everything. It feels more like a family to me and less like a hobby so maybe that's why. If you're at the level of being an instructor, I imagine this next statement doesn't really apply but here are my thoughts: I don't love when people (I'm specifically referring to students here) who hop studios come to my studio because they walk in and jump right into an Iron X. First off, I'm obviously jealous because I can't do one! haha but secondly, it makes me nervous because that's not how I was taught/my studio teaches. My teacher is really into warming up and building/dancing into things, not just cold jumping into advanced tricks.
That being said, I think as an instructor it might be a personal preference thing. But maybe just being conscious of the tone of each studio.
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Noelle: My phone can be crazy go nuts too!
Hate that mess….
Anyway, yea, that’s kind of my point too. Different studios have different types of students that have different expectations. I want to grow and learn but I also don’t want to compromise how I teach a class.
Ps- i could start entire new thread on my love hate relationship with iron x. I’m the mean teacher that shuns twisted grip and forces you to do the much harder cupped (Chinese) grip until you’ve built the muscles to keep you from injuring your shoulder. So I can see how a student might just switch to a different studio so they can jump/kick into tg lift/iron x cold. -
I go to studios when I travel, and I’m thinking about only sticking to the studio here in phoenix (but it’s hard when there aren’t any intermediate/adv classes) and Poletential (I go for open pole and it’s AMAZING people are SO helpful!) in the bay area when I go vacationing. The last studio I visited in phx was so rude to me it was unbelievable. The teacher refused to call me anything but a beginner student (because you know, beginners have a strong aerial invert and reverse iguana mount) and asked me to buy her beginner series before moving to intermediate. There are only one or two intermediate moves I can’t do (excluding knee holds) due to not be super flexy. Even her website makes her come off as a word I don’t use often. And she’s trained all of her instructors to talk smack about the two other studios in the area. Oh, and one of her instructors came into my workplace and called me a slut for being an exotic dancer over just teaching pole and doing it for fitness in my basement like everyone else. I’ve been burned from studios losing workshop spaces and also rude business owners to even think about going to a new studio,.
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Point being (because my phone submits onl half of the message) go where you want, teach where you want. But remember that some places aren’t a “family” and are just a bunch of rude catty women trying to run a business for the money (I’ve seen series packages as expensive as $300 for beginner….)
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I struggle with this question too! My "home studio" way downsized and stopped giving regular classes about a year ago. I still go there to work out and am very close to the owners. I was *devastated* when they closed but it forced me to go to different studios and I've really grown as a pole, in part because I had to try different things. None of the other studios in town exactly fit my needs, although they are both great in their own ways, so I kind of go all around. I feel like a bit of a Studio Slut. I've found that the important things are to respect the teacher/class and recognize that there are diffent ways of doing things. Keep an open mind and don't be dogmatic about how you do or don't pole. Don't talk smack or be negative. When people see you are there to learn, I've found they are pretty open to teaching. 🙂
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Dang CapFeb!!! That sucks!
I had a student that moved to SF and she lives like poletential. I only heard amazing things. I also have a student that moved to Phoenix and I have only heard horrible things!!! I will never name a studio if it’s a negative comment but I do wonder if we are taking about the same place.At any rate. My ‘home studio’ in San Diego is definitely a family. I keep in touch with my students that moved away too (like the ones I mentioned in Phoenix and San Francisco). I don’t think every studio is a family…so that’s definitely something to consider when I’m trying to pick places to teach and to be a student at.
Ps- I feel like I just want to give you a hug because I totally think you aren’t a beginner, that you’ve worked hard, and it sounds like you just want to get more awesome!! Ayayaya, these judgemental places.
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I am not sure if you are friends with Aerial Amy but she was in this situation herself (not competing though). I think she may have chimed in on one of the threads I posted. I don't mean to come off rude when I do that, I just have a huge memory and there is lots of good info from people who may not be here any more and I just try to make it easier for people to find the info they are seeking.
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Cara: yea, I really wished I was almost forced to grow like in your situation with a studio closing. It’s so hard to make a leap. Really though, you need to be an instructor. You are really very good!!
Chem: thanks for the links! I read them all and the aerial amy blogs you posted in one of the threads. You are right…I gotta look through all that stuff because there are definitely people who have had to make these decisions in the past who might not be writing on this thread now.
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I would never want to stick with one studio. My goal in pole dance is to push myself to find out all of my body's capabilities. I want to pick up the best qualities of so many different dancers and each teacher has their specialties. I can't take the risk of missing out by being limited to one studio.
@Nadine I think you should go for those offers. It does not mean you don't love your home studio you are just broadening your pole horizons 🙂
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I feel as an instructor you should be able to teach where ever you want. Just like fitness instructors who make it their living. They teach class at several different health clubs and owners accept it as a common practice. Of course if they want exclusivity than they should offer you a contract and more money.
I think as a student you always want to grow and expand. I think it's beneficial to seek out other studios, teachers and classes. Everyone has a unique approach to pole, dance and there is always something new to learn. Of course you can have a home base but it's fun to go outside your box. I take hip hop, yoga, and silks consistently to enhance my pole dance and teaching skills.
Having said that, I teach for a studio, who's owner is very possesive and gets upset that some of us venture out to other studios for just taking class. WTH? She feels that her studio should be the only source for her instructors when it comes to pole and it sends the wrong message to students. Mind you our studio has one mirror in the corner with 9 poles, all stationery and no spinning. Her issues are her problem but I definitely feel I'm a way better teacher/dancer because I'm more open and well rounded. If it were me, I'd insist my instructors venture out there.
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As a student I have been to 4 studios since I began poling. None of my instructors have said anything. If they did I would stop going to them.
There are enough restrictions in life without someone trying to restrict my joy of learning pole 🙂
Plus I have evidence that other studios have helped me achieve by giving me slightly different pointers and expand through different teaching /expectations and standards. -
While im not an instructor, I can give you a story about loyality. I was very loyal to my studio for YEARS! I promoted them constantly and was always taking class. The owner knew who I was as well. Then, the top instructor left to open her own studio 30min away in a different city. I also supported that instructor in her new business venture as well and occasionally took class there too. Thats when I got burned from my 'home' studio. There was always a tift between the owner and I becuase I supported other studios and helped people find a studio close to their home. Then I became more and more reconizable (we all know why) and the owner and I were both at a public even in which she completely ignored me – never bothered to say Hi. That was the final burn, I wont go back there – I refuse to! I cant be around that nor promote someone who is like that.
I think as an instructor, you should go out and try new classes/studios. Being an instructor is like being a teacher – you never stop learning! Theres always new things to learn, new tip and tricks to teach your clients. Plus how often do you get a chance to pole for yourself??? As an owner, I would encourage it! I would want the best instructors and if that means they get time to themseleves to be better pole dancer to share with clients, then go for it!
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Minicoopergirl brings up a great point about instructors. When I was teaching I did NOTHING for myself. I stopped trying to learn new things. I stopped pushing. I always had a song or two of "play" at the end of class but if I worked on things for myself a lot of the time the girls would stop and watch me which to me was taking "their" time away from them. I know a few instructors arund here have the same issue which is why we have pole play once a week at a studio. It is nice to be able to get together with other people who have a higher ability and just play and maybe learn a thing or two.
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A question close to mine and a group of my friends hearts after we all got kicked out of our pole studio after approx 2 years cause our pole instructor said she didnt want to see pics of us on facebook poling at other places as it was detrimental to her business.
Non of us ever missed a class there as we were loyal.
We poled at other places IN ADDITION because our main studio didnt have spinning poles, only static, which is the ONLY reason we wanted to try other classes.
Also some of the girls were going to stretch classes as that was something they didnt offer at the time.It all turned very nasty in the end, they were being talked about all over facebook for kicking us out, they then rang the police and tried to get some done for slander, which couldnt happen cause all the students were doing was discussing true events.
The pole school now seemingly has issues with one of my blogs.
Its all such a bitter bitchy place its sad.Now I go to three different pole schools and they are all friends. They are happy for their students to go else where too. It seems the done thing. I think we all have one school we favour more than others though. The schools I now go to are even arranging a joing trip for all their students to the UKPPC. Its an awesome pole community.
Pole instructors should come together.
If you dont let your students go else where, you will just end up singled out of the pole community. -
I wouldn't say that I am suuuper loyal to my pole studio. I mean I went and signed up for classes and barely missed any of the classes and made great friends. Now that I've outgrown what my studio has to offer, I have and will learn from others who can offer me something to learn. Poling is all about growth, I would hate to know that my home pole studio wouldn't want me to better and challenge myself by taking classes from other studios etc. If they felt like I was "cheating" on them by taking classes at other studios, it would really show me that they're really in it for the money, and not for the overall health and personal growth of the student.
Lucky for me, my studio is extremely happy for me when I've learned a trick that they don't teach, or at a level they won't be teaching yet. I just think it's really sad that studios have this competitiveness and cattyness against other studios. I realize it's still a business, but if your students are off to another studio to learn, grow, advance, and challenge themselves, it isn't their fault! The reason why they've gone to another studio is because they have something that your studio doesn't! Either get over it or learn to incorporate that missing something into your program or else this is going to constantly happen.
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Every time you go take a class you are creating a job for both the instructor and the studio. If they get mad enough to kick you out of their studio simply by exploring other studios to help you along with YOUR pole journey then I feel really bad for them. They are not only jealous but they certainly don’t know how to run a business. They are basically saying they don’t want your money so I say go create a job for someone who wants to give you the best pole education ever.
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I think you must messure you decision in sections and decide from there. For example:
1. How long have you been with your home studio?
The time messured in one studio may define how important an instructor you are to that studio in particular and what may be expected of you (whether those expectations are ethically warrented or not has no barring on how the owner and/or members view you and your loyalty to them.
2. How much business have you brought in for them with your skills and talents, and was the kick-back from that time and effort compensated and appreciated?
If you've shead blood (not literally, or literally if you truly have), sweat, and tears for your studio over time and you have not felt as though you were rightfully recognized or rewarded (whether by payroll, comission, or simply kind words of encouragement) then the decision should be much easier than you're making it on yourself. Never short change yourself as a dancer and instructor. You do what you do because you earned your place doing it, so if you feel less than the best you are, re-evaluate yourself and circumstances and move on to bigger and better things, because believe me you're worth it.
3. This is more of an obvious statement than a questions, but, weigh your overall currency.
If you find other studios that are willing you pay you more than you're currently getting paid and your home studio isn't willing to budge on what they are paying you then you need to do what is financially best for you. If others can recognize that you are a find and are willing to up the anti to lock you in I'd say your decision is made right there. Your only problem/question then becomes who's willing to pay you more for your awesomeness? I know that sounds very greedy, when in reality, you need to think about feeding, clothing, and homing yourself before anything else.
4. As an instructor, do you feel as though you've reached a plateau at your home studio and you think you have much more to learn, develope, and ultimately offer to others?
FIrst of all I don't think that going to other studios to learn more than you already know is wrong. How else will you learn anything new to teach others? It's the same as going online to youtube.com or any other sites that offer lessions or examples to try out on your own time. How are you expected to teach anything new if you don't branch out and learn new things on your own? Any business owner, instructor, even just a studio member should appreciate and understand the importance of this concept. If they don't and act overly offended by what you've done, that proves right there how petty they are. They should be happy for you wanting to better yourself and they should be supporting you every step of the way. The only time that it's not cool for you to be going around to other places is if you're being sneaky about it and if you are teaching things to people improperly regardless of what you learned along the way. Questioning your own methods and not following proper steps can lead to serious injuries and if you're not willing to perfect or improve what you've learned to properly teach others safely then that because your own moral dilemma and you should feel bad in that respect.
Look, in the end you need to decide what is best for you, not worry about how others around you will feel if you take a chance and decide you want to expand your horizons. That may sound thoughtless and harsh but if you don't start taking care of you and respecting your own needs first, how will you ever expect to gain that much from those you're teaching? I leave you with that to think about. Let us all know how things turn out and good luck!
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my two cents 🙂
To me, the studios wanting you to claim a studio that you represent for marketing/publicity's sake, are being a bit high handed. If you really have taught and learned multiple places, then you aren't simply a product of their studio. Especially if, for example, you teach in the 'home studio' but learn choreography or big tricks in another place. I totally understand that though, they see something good! To me, it seems like you value your personal pole journey, as it should be, and compromising that may in turn compromise how much you enjoy poling/teaching. I feel in a situation like this, you need to look out for yourself. Sounds like in matters other than publicity, the studios are all good with each other. Which is awesome. That doesn't always happen. I suppose one way of not dealing with representing one studio would be to represent them all? or none? Shrug https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif no idea there. Have never liked the concept of studios taking ownership of students/teachers' talent. Its not like we all started with them when we were 5 and they gave us our entire movement vocabulary. But that is neither here nor there. 🙂
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Loyalty goes 2 ways. What is your home studio doing/done for you? Do they promote you? Did they teach you everything (most) things you know? Would you be teaching THEIR material at another studio?
I've been on both sides of this and seen both sides with other friends. I kind of get a bit hurt when a long time student goes elsewhere – just being honest. I wonder what they need that I can't give them. Women are emotional creatures, I'm learning to embrace that and also let it go and realize that I can't be EVERYTHING. Even *I* train with different people so why should someone JUST train with me? I'm learning to say "you will like so&so, she does ______ really well." It's still hard.
With teaching I think as long as you are communicating everything up front you will avoid a lot of drama. Talk to you home studio and tell them what's going on. It might hurt both of you but at least you know you were honest and upfront. Sometimes thesen things make people angry and that's ok – hopefully if goes to an angry place you can resolve the conflict.
So I guess my advice is to communicate, that will help you make your decision. I know that finding out later a student has been "stepping out on me" is worse than hearing it before.
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First off, I wanted to say that I actually had the privilege of watching you compete at CPDC and my hats off to you for your great performance. Now to your topic. I have a very strong opinion about studio hopping because I am a hopper myself. After getting to a certain level in pole you either hit a plateau at your current studio, find yourself in a creative rut, or simply just want to up your game. I had all occur at what I would call my home studio. As I watched girls perform and dance and I noticed we all had very similar movement and trick combos. Why?? Because we all learned from the same group of teachers. So I decided early on that I would not be like the most of the girls at my home studio and I would seek training at other studios from other teachers. I found that not only did I progress at a faster rate but I also was able to experiment with what kind of poler I really wanted to be. I could find my own style, get ideas from other students and teachers and basically become more well rounded. I had a teacher tell me she didn't want me to teach "her" movement to other people but what she doesn't realize is that she didn't invent the wheel. We have so much available to us via you tube and pole forums that guess what…it's already out there. Most of what we learn is already being done and posted somewhere. The industry is growing and changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. Someone is always up-ing the bar. So your challenge as a teacher is to keep up with the industry and how do you do that at one place. It's impossible to grow when you are in the same box. We in the pole community should support one other's growth. What we do is already considered out of the norm. How often do you tell someone that you are a pole dancer and get the same deer in the headlights reaction with the "ohhhh". As a community (and as women) we should encourage growth amongst each other and if that growth comes from learning and sharing from others then we should support it. Teachers, don't take it personal. It's not about YOU it's about continuing to grow. A simple analogy would be to look at parenthood. As a mother of 3 children I still can learn from other mothers out there even though I have done the same thing 3 times over if I closed my eyes and ears to outside advice and knowledge then I couldn't be the best mom I could be. How would I have survived the toddler years ; 0 Someone out there is trying the same thing but may have a better solution or way of doing it that you didn't think of. It's more of a big picture thing. I have seen one too many teachers get bound to contracts that make them "exclusive" to one studio and it's so sad to see. I truly believe with the pole industry/community growing as fast as it is we should always consider ourselves students. When you stop learning, you stop growing.
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Hi Nadine,
Here's my input as a local studio owner.
As a student (and especially as a competitor!) you should be learning from as many instructors as possible. I encourage my students to take classes from different instructors and different studios to maximize their skills and learning experience. I even forward along and recommend specific classes/workshops/instructors/studios I think might be benificial. I don't personally take classes at other studios (due to time and location), but I do take workshops whenever my schedule allows. However you like to learn, do it. This will make you a better dancer and a better instructor. Just be sure to let the studio you're visiting know that you teach elsewhere as a common courtesy, and of course DO NOT promote while you are there.
Getting upset that a student takes classes from multiple studios is selfish. That should not be taken personally. Just becuase they take a class somewhere else doesn't mean they love your classes any less. Your relationship with them is about THEM, not our own ego. The more we remember that, the better instructors we are.
As an instructor you need to ask yourself a few questons. Are you an independent contractor? Did you sign a noncompete clause at your current studio? Does your studio offer you enough work? If you are teaching as a hobby then this might not matter, but if this is your livelihood then you want to keep yourself open to multiple opportunites as any fitness professional would (most yoga instructors, trainers, etc work at multiple businesses).
I know you love your home studio so communicate openly with your studio owner before you start teaching elsewhere. She should be open to you growing as a dancer and instructor, which will benefit her classes! But she's going to be hurt if she hears you're teaching outside of her studio after the fact, so make sure to be upfront.
Hope this helps pretty lady.
Xo ~ t
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Great response Pole Mommy!
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