Hi,

Could anyone recommend a teacher in ballroom dancing (close to Wollerau or Wädenswil). I would like to have a couple of private lessons. I took a course 10 years ago, but have forgotten almost everything. We are going to a ball in February and it would be great if we could learn the basic steps.

Many thanks.

which dances do you want to learn?

Don't know if this helps but Tanzschule Kaiser in Zürich is very good and they do private lessons. Frau Kaiser speaks good English.

Thanks Phil-MCR and Amogles for your replies. I would like to learn the standard ballroom dances, e.g. Waltz, Chachacha etc.

I took dance classes by Madeleine and Nicole at Panama dance school a few years ago. They are good but I don't know if they also teach in English. http://www.tanz-panama.ch/seite_3.html

since there are 10 dances, you might want to narrow this down a bit as learning all 10 by february might be a bit challenging. also, you might be able to find out what dances will be played.

i doubt that they will be playing a paso doble, so that's one you can potentially knock off the list.

Right! And from what I`ve seen of dancing in Switzerland about the only "ballroom" dance they do here is the Viennese Waltz (the quick Waltz) and sometimes the Slow Waltz (the classic beautiful one).

The Quick Step and Fox Trot are useful to know too.

Cha-cha is "Latin American", same as Rhumba (the Dirty Dancing dance), and Samba ........... but one only ever hears music for either Cha-cha or Bachata.

Salsa is very popular here, with the Bachata being an impressive dance to do with your partner.

Good luck with finding a sympathetic and good dance teacher!

In agree. Unless it's a special kind of ball you can expect the music/dances to be predominantly based around fox-trot/disco fox with some Vienese waltzes and the occasional jive, cha-cha, slow waltz, samba or tango thrown in for good measure here and there. If the crowd is younger and the orchestra is up to it you might get some some salsa, merengue etc in addition. If you prioritize the learning of the dances in that order you can't really go wrong.

Thanks for your useful information about the dances. I've once asked the Tanz-Panama about their private lessons. I think they told me they charge over CHF 100 (forgot the exact amount) per hour. It's a lot, considering that we would, most probably, need more than one hour of instruction.

I love Salsa, but I don't consider it as a ballroom dance. Also, I don't think "our" Ball will play salsa music, since it's an old traditional Zurich Ball. Maybe it has changed though - I haven't been to a ball for a long time.

Sounds quite fair to me. I've had private lessons for 160 an hour before. That's why it makes much more sense to attend a regular course with the crowd if you can.

You know what? .... Why don`t you look up uTube for some beginner lessons?

There are some very nice easy to follow instructions for all the dances. In that way you get to practice whenever you want to, and learn what you like.

Unfortunately, a regular course is not an ideal option at the moment, since we have a baby at home. However, I think ballroom dance instructions at Youtube is such a good idea!! I will take a look at it. Thankyou guys for all your suggestions.

Two of the best places in Switzerland for standard are in Zurich - one in Oerlikon and one in Wallisellen. Send me a PM if you would like contact details of the teachers. If you're interested in Latin, I believe you can get private lessons in Oerlikon as well, but since I quite competing in Latin a looong time ago, I unfortunately don't have the contact details.

A friend of mine went to the Wallisellen one. He was satisfied.

I went to the Oerlikon one (mind you, this was many many years ago when it was still called ATZ, and things could have changed since) and although the lessons were okay I was less impressed with the management. The course was over-booked and for some reason I wasn't on the list although I had registered and had a confirmation to prove it. When I tried to complain to the teacher, he said the office should sort it out and when I went to the office they said it was the teacher's problem. I also found out some of the other people in the course never payed their fees and yet they were on the list, and I had payed and wasn't. Somehow nobody seemed to care. It was all a bit surreal. That's why I quit there and went to Kaiser instead. I think ATZ finally went bust and if they were always that badly organised I can understand why. Then somebody else took it over but I don't know if they are any better.

OP is looking for private lessons. As such, the teach in Oerlikon is very good and not associated with any dance school. In fact, there is no group lessons taught from him there. He only uses the space provided (floor fee) and teaches privates only. I am not recommending any studio in Oerlikon, just the teacher. And in fact, this is why I didn't mention the name in my previous post - I would've needed to do so if I was recommending a studio as there are quite a few ballroom dance studio in the Oerlikon areas (can think of at least 3 in my head right now ).