Thread: Teaching at the Y is not a bad thing! No more comments please!

Lately in several threads there have been comments made about the YMCA. People have said things like - who would possibly teach there? And people have implied that teaching there would be low point in their dance career or that only the most inexperienced people get hired there.
Please please stop!
It really makes me upset. I have taught at several YMCAs in my area for over 3 years and they have all been courteous and kind. Offering me health insurance and even hiring and paying me to dance at all their functions. They hold a twice a year hafla for my students and we have even had the local paper come in to do a story on the class. The head of my Y was a well known Lebanese drummer and he likes to participate and encourage us. All the instructors have to go through extensive training and get CPR certified every year. Plus I make almost my entire rent every month working there. My whole family is given a membership and I have gotten healthier because I take the other classes offered. As a belly dancer for almost 10 years with 6 years teaching experience I think this is great. Most of friends who teach can't pay bills on what they make. No studio has ever treated me as well and I never have to work to promote my classes. In fact they will give me as many classes as I want.
5 of my students are even contemplating a trip to egypt. They are all learning raks assaya and drum solos and can even tell you the difference between Raks Sharki, tribal and AmCab.
So please stop bagging on the YMCA. It is not a low point in anyone's career.
Based on all the horror stories of studios gone wrong and my own experiences in that world I wouldn't work anywhere else.

I think you're lucky to be teaching there!

I missed this somehow.

The YMCA is a place that is highly reguarded in my area of the woods. We have a brand new state of the art YMCA. It's where everyone goes to take classes. I'm very surprised to hear this.

It probably all varies from location to location. Back when I was teaching, I turned down a job with the Y only because it paid very little - it was less than $30/week. At the time, I wanted to get paid on a per-student basis.

Then again, being unemployed right now, I wouldn't mind having free access to all the fitness classes I want! That really is a wonderful perk. Plus, we all know how difficult it is to find studios that are amenable to helping you promote your classes. I can also appreciate any studio that assists me in my marketing efforts.

Sorry you're feeling flounce-ready! I'm sure more Bhuzzers will chime in with positive experiences.

Teach where you can...to whom you can! It's all good!

Thanks girls I am just pissy cause a few bhuzzers have made rude comments recently. I know studios can be difficult and that's why I prefer to teach at the Y. And if you are asked by a Y to teach something you don't know how to do for little or no money it's probably because they have no budget and need classes. They are non-profit. My whole purpose was just to remind everyone to be respectful of the choices each instructor makes. Unless it's in a porn shop I guess!

to those who feel it is beneath them...open your own studio...I dare you! ;-)

There's a new Y about two miles from where I live. I am definitely going to check it out after hearing such a wonderful praise for them!

YMCAs vary widely in quality of facilities and how they treat their staff. I know excellent and highly qualified instructors that teach at Ys.....unfortunately they also have a reputation for hiring those willing and with a pulse (I say that from personal experience)

Yours sounds like the best possible scenario but in my opinion the YMCA is YMMV.

~~Kimahri

Originally Posted by eshtabellydance

My whole purpose was just to remind everyone to be respectful of the choices each instructor makes.

If people could just respect each other as the individual that they are. . . and the individual choices that they make. . .

Originally Posted by Kimahri

Yours sounds like the best possible scenario but in my opinion the YMCA is YMMV.

~~Kimahri

I gotta ask, what is YMMV? .w.:

Originally Posted by eshtabellydance

Thanks girls I am just pissy cause a few bhuzzers have made rude comments recently. I know studios can be difficult and that's why I prefer to teach at the Y. And if you are asked by a Y to teach something you don't know how to do for little or no money it's probably because they have no budget and need classes. They are non-profit. My whole purpose was just to remind everyone to be respectful of the choices each instructor makes. Unless it's in a porn shop I guess!

With all due respect, having a budget and needing classes is not a good enough reason for a facility to hire someone completely unqualified. They have a responsibility to their members for their safety.

~~Kimahri

Originally Posted by Fotia

I gotta ask, what is YMMV? .w.:

Sorry, it's Your Mileage May Vary

Originally Posted by Kimahri

YMCAs vary widely in quality of facilities and how they treat their staff. I know excellent and highly qualified instructors that teach at Ys.....unfortunately they also have a reputation for hiring those willing and with a pulse (I say that from personal experience)

Yours sounds like the best possible scenario but in my opinion the YMCA is YMMV.

~~Kimahri

Agreed. My experience with the Y was not good, but that doesn't mean everyone else's will be bad.

Originally Posted by Kimahri

With all due respect, having a budget and needing classes is not a good enough reason for a facility to hire someone completely unqualified. They have a responsibility to their members for their safety.

~~Kimahri

Agree 100%. Being a non-profit is no excuse to hire a warm body with no experience.

Originally Posted by Kimahri

With all due respect, having a budget and needing classes is not a good enough reason for a facility to hire someone completely unqualified. They have a responsibility to their members for their safety.

~~Kimahri

Exactly! This cannot be stressed enough IMHO.

The first class I took was at the Y. Clean facility with hard wood floors, full length mirrors running the width of the room, great sound system & a wonderful instructor, it was a fabulous experience.

I've learned to take the things I read on Bhuz with a grain of salt. Sometimes there are uninformed opinions being expressed by people who may not know as much about things as they think they do. The great thing about Bhuz is that it is worldwide, so you can get different perspectives on every issue. Rudeness has been a problem from time to time but generally Bhuz is a pretty civilized place, for which I am very grateful. I wouldn't hang out here if the comments were as nasty and stupid as those I see on YouTube or Craig's List, for example. Bhuz is definitely a cut above!

I wish our local YMCA was like the one described by eshtabellydance, that sounds wonderful. Ours is great but not so great for dance classes (at least in the past, maybe I should check it out again, this thread is making me think about it.)

I think teaching kids is GREAT!

Teaching at the YMCA does not prove anything about the worth of the teacher. There are good teachers in YMCA classes and bad ones, just as there are good and bad teachers at community colleges, recreation centers, and private dance studios.

However, some of the reputation of "classes at the Y" is legitimate. In most areas, the YMCA does not have a large enough program to offer more than beginning and intermediate classes, and often, only mixed-level classes with a constant influx of new students every eight weeks. A student may get a very respectable foundation in the movement basics, but she or he is not going to get the opportunity to learn much advanced material in a situation like that.

Also, I think YMCAs can attract a less focused student body. Middle Eastern Dance at the YMCA is usually offered from a course guide along with aerobics, mat Pilates, yoga, basic ballroom dance, ballet for adults, and country line dancing. It is presented as part of a sampler of physical-activity-based hobbies, not as a serious artistic discipline. If you really wanted to become a performing ballroom dancer, you might start with the class at the YMCA, but you would quickly move on to a less dilettante-friendly program of study somewhere else. The same thing is true with our dance. Some of our best dancers have started out in modest, garden-variety classes in unassuming locations, but they moved on to studios that were able to offer a more challenging curriculum focused on preparing for performance. There's nothing wrong with taking classes from a qualified teacher at the YMCA at the beginning of your dance career, but most serious students find they outgrow what the YMCA has to offer fairly quickly.

Originally Posted by dunyah

I've learned to take the things I read on Bhuz with a grain of salt. Sometimes there are uninformed opinions being expressed by people who may not know as much about things as they think they do.

This is very, very true...it's easy for folks to set themselves up as experts on an online forum among people they are rarely likely to meet. I often find myself silently praying that students who read this board are astute enough to have the salt-shaker handy.

Rudeness has been a problem from time to time but generally Bhuz is a pretty civilized place, for which I am very grateful. I wouldn't hang out here if the comments were as nasty and stupid as those I see on YouTube or Craig's List, for example. Bhuz is definitely a cut above!

Or OD! Good lord, even the cattiest throwdowns here have nothing on OD.

I belong to a Y, and the they only have fitness classes, which is why I joined, besides being within my budget. I've found all the instructors to be highly qualified and helpful. They do not offer belly dances classes, but several other locations do, and the dance instructors are also highly qualified to teach bellydance, they didn't just "pick them off the street."

Thanks, Eshta. I have felt that way too, about community centers.

I teach at a Y. It doesn't pay much, but as Eshta points out, you get a lot of other benefits. It's a great facility and the people are wonderful--I love it there.

I'd also like to add that I took my first belly dance class at a Y. If it weren't for that class, I probably would never have become a belly dancer. So kudos to Ys! They're awesome!

I would imagine that individual Ys vary as widely as individual health clubs or dance studios, as someone said above.

My local Y pays very little ($10 per class, I think) and has very low standards (when their yoga instructor left, a student from the class was asked to take over. She's been teaching there for years now, never got a lick of teacher training.) But I don't assume that's true everywhere.

I took my very first BD class at the YMCA, and continued lessons there for two years. The teacher, Romnea, has been dancing since 1973 and needless to say is extremely experienced. Those classes gave me a wonderful foundation, and I would never sneer and anyone who teaches or takes classes at the Y.

I was approached to teach at a different YMCA a couple of years ago, but they would not do a per-student split and the pay was only going to be $13/hr. So I passed.

It absolutely varies by location. I used to have series of classes at a YMCA where I had to interview, have a class/teaching evaluation, and show current certifications. I was also paid $38 per hour for up to 10 students plus unlimited access to the facility. Above 10 students per class, I received an extra $3 per student/hour. Each sessions was an actual dance class and I was required to file a syllabus for each one, complete with lesson plans.

Exactly my point. Every place you teach will be different. As long as you are teaching in a safe place and giving your students quality instruction than it doesn't matter. No studio, Y, or community center is necessarily better than the other. I just would like to see less snarky comments about where people teach. And it just seemed that some people were attacking the Y recently.
Which brings me to the hypocrisy of wanting desperately to make snarky comments about teaching in a porn shop.
So sorry for that. ..g.:

Originally Posted by mahsati

It absolutely varies by location. I used to have series of classes at a YMCA where I had to interview, have a class/teaching evaluation, and show current certifications. I was also paid $38 per hour for up to 10 students plus unlimited access to the facility. Above 10 students per class, I received an extra $3 per student/hour. Each sessions was an actual dance class and I was required to file a syllabus for each one, complete with lesson plans.

Ya know, when my mom started teaching BD back in about 1968/1969, the first places she taught were YM/WCAs. (Except for sports leagues, I don't even know if cities offered "recreation programs" and such at that time.) As at most venues, she had some students who stayed with her for awhile, but most of them came to one, maybe two, sessions and then disappeared. And it wasn't like these disappearing students were going somewhere else -- nobody else taught BD in that area for several years -- they just got what they wanted from their exploration of something new and different and moved on . . . just like today.

My only beef with the Y is that so many of them seem to pay very poorly. I have a friend who teaches two separate levels of classes at a Y in the Long Beach, Calif. area (about 20 miles south of Los Angeles) and the amount she makes is an absolute pittance; the Y should be embarrassed to pay so little! She has very well-attended classes and really enjoys it, as do her students, so she continues; but I must admit that I was shocked at the low amount she is paid.

And don't get me started on non-profits having "no money." The national director of the YMCA is paid in the 6 figures, at least, so I'm not crying anybody a river. I have worked for non-profits and am aware of the constant need for fundraising for most of them, but when the Y makes more than the teacher of a class, there's something wrong with that, in my not-so-humble opinion.

I have no specific beef with the YM/WCA and would consider joining the organization or taking non-member-fee'd classes. It's really the pay issue that gets my goat, regardless of who owns the venue.

Deborah

yes you really have to be firm about the pay. I was very clear with them about getting paid. And each Y pays differently also so if anyone out there is considering teaching at one don't let them try to talk you into a low rate.