dance instructor

administrative assistant

customer service representative

front desk receptionist

receptionist

ARTHUR MURRAY DANCE STUDIO

I like you thought this was a dream job when I stumbled upon the catchy job description. I worked here for more than a year and this is honestly how it is. 
In your contract you agree to be terminated without excuses and they don’t offer severance pay. You have to be careful of what you post on social media cause they’ll be watching that as well. After you’re  done working here you can get sued if you want to teach on your own around the same area. You’re obligated to work some weekends. You only get raises if you certify, but in order to obtain this you got to invest your own time because from 1-10pm you have to teach. So realistically you’ll be getting raises every 8 months to 1 year because you’ll be too busy lesson planning, booking more lessons, teaching or “coaching” (working with another teacher). The raises are measly 2.50 is the most every certification. Even the highest earner isn’t getting more than 70k a year, mind you that’s about 10years of investment in the company. 
It’s also physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting. Imagine standing and moving for more than 8 consecutive hours. That’s just not light movements you’re full on dancing because you’re a “professional”dancer now. You’re also constantly worrying about filling up you’re schedule or else you’ll get paid minimum wage or you’ll get scolded by your managers and you’ll be put on blast infront of the company on the weekly meetings for the amount of lessons you taught. If you’re new you’ll deal with pressure of being a newbie that’s just learning how to dance that has to teach how to dance. Most of the people you teach are also older retired folks that can actually afford taking lessons there. They’re not going to have the same stamina or physical abilities as you. Cause if you get hired here, it’s because you look young or you’re charismatic or both. The lessons are scheduled back to back so you’re going to constantly have to adapt to different personalities fast. Sometimes you’re a therapist as well (emotionally exhausting). Sometimes you’ll get students who try to hit on you and that’s the only reason they’ll buy but because they want to get to know you, but once they find out about the fraternization policy there out and you’ll loose a client. You’ll get blame for loosing clients, they don’t believe the fact that a $150 lesson (40min) can’t have something to do with it. Students will also leave because you’ll be bad at teaching something that you just learned so you’ll frustrate them and get frustrated as well. Students will leave because the studio will use pushy sales tactics, they/you ask them to enroll on a large amount of lesson usually over 5 and they can go up to over 100 (do the math if a lesson is $150). Men have to wear a office look (dress shirt, tie the whole shabang) that’s ridiculous! For dancing? It’s veeery uncomfortable. Women NEED to wear makeup and professional cloths. They will NOT pay you for your cloths or shoes (shoes go up to $250). You’ll want to invest in good shoes since you’ll be on your feet all day. I now have back and knee pain and know of a lot of teachers who in injured themselves. Benefits are bad. The 401k isn’t that bad I guess. 
In conclusion, I learned a lot about my limits, interpersonal skills and what I really wanted in life thru this job. Loved teaching someone how to dance buuuut didn’t think it was a good long term investment. How am I suppose to have a house and a family with the demand of time and the return of $$. 

Hope this was helpful.  

Working at Arthur Murray Dance Studios was a unique and fulfilling experience. Here's my take on various aspects of the job:

Typical Day at Work: A typical day at Arthur Murray Dance Studios was anything but ordinary. It involved dancing, networking, lesson planning, scheduling, and event planning/advertising. Each day brought a blend of creativity, physical activity, and interpersonal connections.

What I Learned: The most valuable lessons I learned were how to teach simply and adapt to students' unique learning styles. Dancing can be complex, but breaking it down into understandable steps and tailoring instruction to individual preferences is key. Additionally, I gained a solid foundation in in-person sales and creating value within 30-minute introductory lessons, which was crucial for converting potential students into long-term clients.

Management: Management styles can vary in franchise settings, and I experienced different approaches in different studios. My first boss prioritized the success and well-being of her employees, fostering a supportive atmosphere. In contrast, my second boss seemed primarily focused on catering to high-paying students, which could create different dynamics within the studio.

Workplace Culture: The workplace culture at Arthur Murray Dance Studios was truly amazing. It fostered a sense of community and camaraderie among instructors and students. Frequent training weekends and seminars offered opportunities for growth and skill enhancement, creating a tight-knit network of passionate dancers.

Hardest Part of the Job: Undoubtedly, the most challenging aspect was sales. The cost of dance lessons was relatively high, and it was tough knowing that not everyone could afford them. The target demographic often leaned toward the upper class, which could be a hurdle in a sales-oriented role.

Most Enjoyable Part of the Job: Dancing, without a doubt, was the most enjoyable part of the job. The opportunity to share the joy of dance with students and witness their progress was immensely rewarding. Additionally, the job came with exciting travel opportunities, including competitions in exotic locations like Italy, Rome, and Australia, making it a truly unforgettable experience.

Overall, working at Arthur Murray Dance Studios provided a unique blend of professional and personal growth, with dancing at its heart. It was a dynamic and fulfilling role that allowed for creativity, personal connections, and unforgettable experiences on the dance floor and beyond.

I have worked in the ballroom dance industry for over 15 years and have worked at Arthur Murray studios as well as independent studios. I have been an instructor, executive/studio manager and have trained many other professionals. 

Anyone considering a career as a ballroom dance instructor, especially those professionals with experience, should know this:

I started teaching at Arthur Murray and taught the  first half of my career at a couple different AM schools. When I finally left AM, I went to work at an independent studio where the cost of lessons were half the price for lessons at AM and I made nearly twice the pay at the independent school.  It is widely known that AM is a good place to start without any experience. As a studio manager, I held a daily meeting covering customer service, sales, upcoming events, etc. as well as a daily dance session for instructors. There are many opportunities for training events, like joins sessions between schools in the same area and regional weekend long training camps. All of this being said, it does not guarantee your instructor will have a great deal of knowledge and experience. It takes a long time and a lot of dedication to develop your dancing as well as your teaching ability. There is a high turnover rate among instructors which means your very likely to get a green instructor for your outrageously expensive tuition. 

Sure. There are benefits:
Dancing everyday
Sharing the joy of dancing with others
Exciting, fast paced social environment 
Opportunity for advancement 
Fun coworkers 
Fun events-parties, shows, competitions 

All of the above benefits can be achieved at any well run independent studio. But with AM, your life becomes another spoke in their wheel and they will try to push your square peg self into a round hole. I have seen AM insist a teacher change her name to avoid confusion with the veteran teacher of the same name. I’ve seen studio owners exploit employees countless times. 

One last thing, if you don’t like sales, you will not enjoy working at AM. The sales tactics are non stop. Many students complain the sales pressure is too much. Regardless of how many paid lessons a student has on the books (try $10,000 worth of lessons prepaid) the sales tactics never stop. Not to mention, not everyone can afford a $20,000 weekend away competing.  

This is simply my honest opinion. These were deal breakers to me and encouraged me to seek out other studios. Many people love working for AM, and I did too initially. I was young and drank the AM koolaid. Ultimately, AM just didn’t align with my true north.

This job is a scam that basically forces you to become a salesperson and shove lessons down people’s throats. 

The only enjoyable part of the job is getting to know and work with the student body and slowly building a clientele of your own. There are truly some great people who take lessons at the studio, and it’s a pleasure to work with them each week. 

You will receive some 1:1 dance training if you are lucky enough that they like you, otherwise you are basically forced to train yourself and reprimanded if you don’t. 80% of all training done is sales based. 

100% of training happening outside of your home studio is UNPAID, outside of regular work hours, and not mandatory but “strongly encouraged.” You will work a full 40 hr week, go home on a Friday night at nearly 11 pm, get less than 6 hrs of sleep, and report back to the studio at 6 am on a Saturday to drive to another state for a weekend full of two UNPAID 8+ hour training days, drive back home on Sunday, and be expected to show up to work again on Monday bright eyed and ready to work another full 40 hours with NO REST. The ONLY way they get away with this is by making these trainings “optional” yet “strongly encouraged.” 

The atmosphere is basically a cult of body-image-obsessed, rude and entitled twenty something’s who act like the kids who thought they were better than you in high school. There is absolutely a social hierarchy at this job - and you are at the bottom and will be treated accordingly. The only way you will be accepted into their little clique is to work an extra 10+ hours a week UNPAID by showing up early or staying after hours to do work that you should be given time to do during your paid hours.

 I think the cherry on top is that one of the trainers who will come in to teach you how to become a better salesperson (and basically nothing about dance) will often tell you that you are nothing and you deserve nothing; especially if you start to question anything about the “Arthur Murray ways” once you realize you deserve to be treated with any basic human decency. 

Do yourself a favor and find a better job. 

Deep down in my heart, I really love working at Arthur Murray because your coworkers are really supportive and everyone just makes it fun. Even the students are great!!  I’m super passionate about dancing which is why I’ve stayed as long as I have. However, there are some negatives that really drive me crazy sometimes. First the pay is awful.. you can’t expect someone to dress and act like a professional and only pay them 10 dollars an hour especially since I literally have a bachelors degree in dance!!! They claim you have to work your way up the latter for better pay (ie get your level certifications) which.. ok I get it.. but I feel they make it impossible for me to climb the latter. It takes you years and years to make a reasonable living wage and I work hard everyday. 2 dollars more for the next certification?? It just doesn’t make sense especially when they are charging the customer an astronomical amount for dance lessons. Also we should not be teaching students who are higher than us in certification. They try to prep you beforehand but it’s so rushed and last minute. Next, I really don’t like trying to be a sales person. They make an attempt to train you to make it sound not so salesy and to focus more on feeling but honestly in the end people see right through that. This is just my personal preference though..some people are good at it which is great. I’m there to teach dance, be an inspiration for others, and share my knowledge not to have the expectation that someone will pay thousands of dollars for a package of lessons. Not in today’s world atleast with the current state of the country. If they want to dance they will.. if they don’t they don’t.. and it shouldn’t fall back on the teacher as long as we are giving great customer service and they are learning. 

I loved working here however, I often felt stressed because I could never fully keep up with the work load. It was my choice to work through breaks of even at home or over hours but I felt if I didn’t, then I would be scolded for lack of efficiency. I was an office MANAGER, but that’s it, you manage the desk, there isn’t a level of authority that comes with it, which means the teachers may treat you like you don’t matter. You get the responsibility of a manager in the sense that you have work on the mind, even at home, but no authority.

You are not just an admin, you are an event planner, janitor, receptionist, customer service rep, assisted sales, social media person, it is A LOT and can be overwhelming. 

Unlike the rest of the staff, admins are not given an incentive to make more money which is disappointing because earning a raise can be difficult due to the many hats you wear.

I loved the vibe and feeling as if work was a party but it was an incredible load of work for only being paid 20 per hour😔. They were generous with family leave and adjusting the schedule, they also spread you across the board so you get more experience in many areas but it’s just too much.

The owners are so kind during the holidays and arrange gifts, surprise secret Santa’s and holiday parties, but if you cannot handle the stress of the workload, I don’t recommend.


Amazing to share dance with people, customers and co workers. Amazing to promote movement and expression for older folks especially. So needed. But didnt like the sales aspect and rigidness of the arthur murray style (contrasted with true salsa for example, free flowing in a latin  country) They should really relax more and let friends and family come into the studio to dance more for free to support the environment for students as true dance culture with celebration not just rigid dance memorization. Most jobs it is understood that you have your work and then you have your family and friends and things you want to save money for. Here I was the only one who ever wanted a family one day. It felt like no one had much to their life other than their work with Arthur Murray. Co-workers would ask to fill up my precious day off with practicing dancing and you are expected to be excited about unpaid trips to train more. You aren't making enough money for a long time to save for other things in life (until you've built up enough clientel.) Scraping by to dance all the time and errands and laundry on days off. I needed to try and sleep after work but couldn't because you're too wound up but before work I would be too exhausted to accomplish anything but also need to spend quite a while getting ready. 

My day begins anywhere between 11:00am and 12:30. Once a week executive meeting ; staff meetings everyday . We discuss the day's business and future events for our students. Sales training is a major portion of these meetings. Dance sessions are sometimes included with training from our studio owner. When the owner is not present, I am in charge of these meetings. Students begin to arrive at 2:15pm and lessons continue until 10:00pm.

I interact with students throughout the day (getting to know them and enrolling them for "blocks" of lessons) while also maintaining communication with teachers about their lessons. I am responsible for accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank reconciliations, payroll, etc
.
My co-workers are great!

The most enjoyable part of the job is getting to know so many different students and see them receive the many benefits of dancing. In my 20 years at the studio I have seen that we have changed the lives of many people for the better; it is extremely satisfying.

The hardest thing about my job is that the hours are long and with the many "events" that we have on many weekend days, I have difficulty maintaining a "life" outside the studio.

Each day starts off with an hour long meeting with the staff talking about students, good customer service, sales, problem solving situations and service and dance training. The rest of my day is spent making sales, continues staff training, phone calls with new clients, setting up appointments, scheduling and planning new events, taking payments, doing paperwork, taking daily inventory, and meeting with new clients. 
As a manager I have learned a lot about professionalism, what great customer service means and that sales is relating to your customer and giving them the personal benefits they need through the product we are providing. Growing a strong, happy and positive team, striving to make the customer happy, and keeping the work place running smoothly are also some of the most valuable things I have learned. 
The hardest part of the job was working towards exceeding the sales of the year prior and keeping the staff and customers happy, Though I was able to do so, it was stressful at times. The best part of the job was witnessing the growth of the staff and the studio and meeting so many wonderful people that made my day very enjoyable.

Before I get negative I want top preface this saying that A) I love teaching dance; you really can make an amazing impact on these adults' lives and the management I believe is genuinely passionate about that. I miss my students and think about them often. B) I learned a lot from this job and getting to be paid to dance is pretty fun, and C) I had and still have so much genuine love for many people of their employees; there a lot of wonderful people who have been there a long time. 

However, management (mostly the owners) genuinely manipulate people into giving their lives away to the company under the promise that they'll make a lot of money doing it. And the people that drink the most kool aid and have been there the longest do make a decent bit, but probably only around 50 or 60k and for eating breathing and sleeping arthur murray.. A few can get away with a good balance, but those are the lucky few.. They dont take good care of the trainees, you'll be stuck in training for months. If you don't need a lot of money rn an the kool aid seems delicious to you, go for it, but if not and it all seems too good to be true, it is. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Dance instructor 49 salaries reported	$45,224 per year
Administrative assistant 2 salaries reported	$22.75 per hour
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$20.50 per hour
Front desk receptionist 1 salary reported	$15.00 per hour
Receptionist 1 salary reported	$24.50 per hour

Working at ARTHUR MURRAY DANCE STUDIO: Company Overview and Reviews

ARTHUR MURRAY DANCE STUDIO

ARTHUR MURRAY DANCE STUDIO Ratings

Popular jobs at ARTHUR MURRAY DANCE STUDIO

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected