Arthur Murray/ An unforgettable Memory, Sooseon Kim“Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance.”Hi. This is Susan Kim. I’m from Seoul, Korea. I want to share a very special experience I had during last summer. I was so lucky to join the ballroom dance classes for 2 weeks at Arthur Murray (Franchised Dance Centers), located in Highland Park, NJAfter the first free lesson and consultation with the instructor, Ben, I instantly decided to register Arthur Murray and spend my time & energy on Ballroom dancing. Ben recommended me to choose ‘Starter Program Package’. At that time, I only had two weeks left before going back to Korea. He explained to me, “It would be great to experience as many as possible in various ways. Starter Program consists of Individual Lesson, Group Lesson and Practice Session.How was it?It was an absolutely awesome experience. All the teachers and staff were kind, friendly and gorgeous. Also, the atmosphere of the studio was very comfortable and convenient for the sake of students. Needless to say, Ben was a very gentle, professional and confident teacher. I instantly figured out how extremely well-qualified he was. I was amazed by not only his elaborate teaching skills but also his endless patience with his students.^^Actually, I never expected that there was a decent dance studio near my place, New Brunswick. I only searched several dance centers in Manhattan and gave up easily due to an inconvenient location. That’s why I was so excited to find out Arthur Murray in Highland Park.“Exposure & Repetition” these two key words that Ben emphasized to me every time. Those two words are still kept in my mind.

We have loved our classes at Arthur Murray! My husband and I have always wanted to be able to dance at weddings and now we can and do! We enjoyed our beginners program so much that we signed up for the next level as a 30th anniversary present to ourselves. The teachers are all wonderful and so are our fellow students. Highly recommend!

After searching through many websites for a place to continue my dance education and dance with my partner, I came across the Groupon for Arthur Murray! It had been a while since our last class, but we werent too out of practice and really wanted to get back into salsa.This Groupon sounded perfect: three private + three group lessons. We thought we would get back on track and challenge ourselves with the private and then practice in the group classes. My dad warned us not to go there after his experience, but I thought surely it couldnt be that bad!Once we took the first class, however, it became clear that I was wrong.The teachers all follow a strict curriculum, defined in little boxes on a sheet of paper. When I told them Salsa what they heard was All the latin-style dances and proceeded to teach me the very very most basic steps for many different dances, making no progress on any single one of them. It didnt make any difference that I had a lot of dance experience; they still followed the same order and would not stray from that. So really, despite paying for private lessons, we had no say in what would actually be learning, nor was it tailored to our skill level.All lessons also take place in the same room, at the same time. You are more likely to be learning salsa to swing or tango music than to actual salsa. How on earth can one learn salsa to the wrong music!?They also cut the private classes short. In the Groupon it offers 3 30-minute private classes, but at the studio they said they would only be 25 minutes long.However, despite all of these disappointments, the group classes were by far the worst experience. They stuck us in their fundamentals class, which doesnt specify which dances you will learn. We ended up doing 10 minutes of swing, 10 minutes of foxtrot, and 10 minutes of another dance. The last 7 minutes of class, we spent boosting each others morale by sharing our take-aways from the class and encouraging each other that we are all winners! What a waste of time. I just wanted to dance.It seems clear that their strategy is to keep people at a basic level for as long as possible - they even repeated MULTIPLE times that Practice makes progress in the context of keep taking the fundamentals class, because you can never practice fundamentals enough.I can only be thankful that I paid for the Groupon, and not for their $500+ beginner package. Please dont go here. If you want to learn how to dance, go literally anywhere else.

Great place, awesome people.. You will love it there..!