FAQ

There are several factors that make up the Helsinki Dance Central pricing structure:

1. When you are taking a course with HDC you are getting instruction from two professional dance instructors (Freddy & Andressa). This is important in social dancing as both instructors give professional feedback to both leaders and followers. In many dance courses you will find one main instructor (for instance a Leader) who uses a student during a class as the dance partner. Thus, he focuses more on teaching the Leaders the movements and figures with not so much inputs for the followers. In HDC classes leaders and followers get equal attention.

2. Many dance schools employ non-professional dance instructors(amateurs/hobbyist). Freddy & Andressa are internationally renowned Zouk performers and two of the top Brazilian Zouk Dance teachers in the world (as there are very few qualified Brazilian Zouk teaching couples worldwide).

You can review their CVs here:

Freddy Marinho
Andressa Castelhano

3. Helsinki Dance Central courses are progressive in nature – so each lesson builds on the previous one, thus reinforcing what has been learned. A large majority of courses are either drop-in classes or just teach random figures without much care put into the course design. Freddy & Andressa have developed a very comprehensive dance curriculum that results in excellence.

4. The tax structure in Finland is one of the most expensive in the world. Helsinki Dance Central is a Finnish company that pays all required social security, VAT.  At the end, the instructors receives about 40% of the charged price, after accounting expenses, studio rental and taxes. What this works out to is around 10 Euros per hour – divided by two instructors (each earning 5 Euros per hour).

5. Many dance instructors do not work legally – they don’t pay the required VAT and personal income taxes on earned income from dance instruction. So everything goes straight to their pocket. This has created an artificially low price for dance instruction in Finland.