Arthur Murray Franchised Dance Studios Dance Ent

My husband and I love Arthur Murray Dance studio in Seattle. It’s a system that takes a bit of getting used to but once you do it’s worth your while. The price of each lesson includes both individual and group instruction and teaching parties. The staff is top notch and encouraging which I suppose could be mistaken for cheesy– a previous reviewer’s complaint.
We’ve been at it for a year and a half and are really happy with our progress. My husband says that if someone could teach him how to dance, they can teach anyone.
My only complaint is that they may put pressure on you to purchase packages and such but are responsive when you decline.
Overall it’s been a good and enjoyable experience.

Is there a reason there’s no reviews since 2013? I went to the Portland and Beaverton Studios and these teachers truly love what they do, and are extremely talented. It seems to be a company-​wide enthusiasm, but I agree with other Unilocalers, the sign up process is a killjoy. Comments are consistent– why wouldn’t they fix this?

Cheesier than the Beecher’s Factory at Pike Place Market and more high pressure sales tactics than I’ve ever experienced at a car dealership.
I would probably give this place two or three stars for the actual dance instruction, but apart from the dance lessons, the cheesy, over-​friendly attitudes and the high pressure sales tactics are really obnoxious.
Rather than the groupon that several other Unilocalers have purchased, I actually bought a gift certificate for a lesson package for my wife as a birthday present, so it was really embarrassing to walk in and find out that it was a setup for a high pressure sales pitch. We didn’t finish the gift certificate, like most people commenting here, because the horrible sales tactics ruined the (already cheesy) vibe of this place for us.
These people are really, really awful. Please, please, please don’t go to this place or you will regret it.

Like others, we went to an intro lesson as part of a groupon to learn a few steps. The lesson itself was fun and informative, our teacher Chad was great, seemed to know his stuff, very helpful. Then we get back to schedule the next classes and have to run a sales pitch worthy of a crappy used car lot. Kinda ruined the vibe. I’d be happy to sign up for a few lessons but not if I have to fight off aggressive sales pitches. We won’t even go back for the second free lesson.

Got a groupon here and didn’t even finish it. The sales pitches started before our first lesson and were so high pressure that they pretty much ruined it for us. Also, we wanted to focus on salsa but it took a lesson and a half before the instructor stopped bugging us to try to learn the bachata or tango. They would have several instructors teaching couples/​small groups wildly different styles of dance at the same time and kept changing around the music.
To their credit, the instructors were quite knowledgeable even though they said a few things that contradicted what I learned before. They had some good pointers, but the idea of shelling out $ 150 per 40 min or whatever their current rate is seems outlandish.

Maybe they’ve made some improvements lately, or maybe our instructor was just awesome — but we didn’t have any trouble with them trying to up-​sell us! I would have definitely been annoyed had they done that — so totally understand the negative reviews about it.
We went in for our first intro course (same deal most reviewers seem to have gotten here — $ 59 for two private, one group) and had a great time! Karie is an excellent teacher — very patient and absolutely adorable! I’ve never done partner dancing before but getting the hang of it comes easy when you have such a great guide!
We’ll be going back for the group and first private lesson next week… so I’ll update the review then if anything changes — but so far, so good!

I like Arthur Murray. Got the groupon w/​a friend, did the 2 private lessons, 1 group lesson + ‘dance party’ series. YES, they want you to sign up and buy tuition to continue and YES, it is extremely expensive, BUT, you have to understand this upfront. With this knowledge beforehand, you get a wonderful overview of latin, ballroom, classical dance steps and there’s no foundation of dance experience necessary. All you need is to have a good attitude and listen to the instructors. They are very good dancers and have an uncanny ability to break down the movements to a level that is understandable for the coordination-​impaired, but also for experienced ballroom/​latin dancers. Thanks to Andy and Carrie for a wonderful intro to the dressy-​fancy dances. I highly recommend the ‘dance parties’ where you get the opportunity to figure out the steps with a new partner every song, which is strangely endearing and silly and is a blast. Go check out Arthur Murray!

I LOVE Arthur Murray School of Dance! My fiancé and I signed up for lessons for our wedding, as well as for fun social dancing. Our instructor is AMAZING and the people are all so energetic and friendly. It’s a little expensive, but extremely worth the price for the learning you get out of it! We look forward to our lessons every week! I highly recommend Arthur Murray for any level dancer.

My fiancé and I just went their for their introductory offer for our wedding and it was tough not laughing at how hard they try to get you to sign up for additional lessons. It was painful how sales-​y the dance instructors were.