ASEDA: Atlanta's Swing Dance Community

I was born and raised in Austria, where I also learned ballroom dancing. In Austria, dancing is a rite of passage for many teens, and virtually everybody I know/knew is familiar with the basic steps of most standard and Latin dances.

I already know that this is not the case in the US. However, the thing that always shocks me is the price of lessons in this country! In Austria and Germany, I was a member of a Tanzclub (literally translated, a dance club) for about 200 Euros per person per year. There was a minimal fee of 3 Euros for lessons and free access to the floor space. The level of instruction was excellent, and it was fun. We were mostly social dancers, but there were some competitive couples as well.

Do you know of similar institutions (outside of universities) in the US? I find the prices of dance studios utterly ridiculous. My husband and I are not interested in competition dancing, but enjoy high level social dancing. We are not really interested in courses for the general community as they tend to focus on ballroom basics...Ideally, what we are looking for is something like my former dance club in Vienna

Any ideas or suggestions? Thank you in advance.

Ballroom Studios (i.e, Fred Astaire) are big businesses. You will never find what you are looking for in private businesses. In Atlanta our main swing dance instruction force comes from Down South Swing and even though they are not as low as in Austria, their prices are very reasonable.

Down South Swing is at http://downsouthswing.com/index.htm.