The pro-am versus amateur couple debate will go on forever. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. It's good for you to know that finding an amateur partner and competing with him is an option and is cheaper. But the choice is yours (and often depends on circumstances; I get a bit riled up when men blithely say "find a parner"! There are many more women than men looking for partners, at least in the U.S., so that's easy for a man to say!)

That said, typical costs paid to an instructor for competing pro-am include:

--a per-dance "floor fee" for each heat you enter. This is sometimes buried in the entry fee the studio quotes you, for example, the comp charges the studio $25 per entry and the studio charges you $40. The more dances you enter, the more expensive the comp will be.

--the instructor's registration and daily entry fees.

--the instructor's travel expenses (transportation, hotel, sometimes meals)--if the instructor brings more than one student to a comp, this cost is usually split among the students.

--a "pro fee" or "studio fee"--a set amount to compensate for the income lost while the instructor is away from the studio and can't teach other students and for the fact that the instructor is sacrificing time off, personal obligations, etc. to go to the comp.

Each of these costs can vary in many ways, so I'd be surprised if any two students at a comp were paying the exact same amount!

Competitions are a major money-maker within the ballroom industry. The comp organizers are looking to make a profit, and so are the instructors and studios who take students to the comp.

If you can afford it, competing can be a lot of fun, but you do need to go into it with your eyes open.

"There are many more women than men looking for partners, at least in the U.S., so that's easy for a man to say!)"

Overall perhaps, but when you look at those with comparable skill levels, the numbers are fairly balanced - largely because without a partner to practice with, it is very hard to build real partner dance skills.

Pro-am might be a way to buy a chance to build those skills. But often those who have done it become highly dependent on their teacher, to a point where they will not be able to find an amateur partner at all. They don't have the skills to dance with a man advanced enough to give them what they are used to from their teacher, but they no longer have any interest in working with a man who is only in the process of developing his skills.

In the end, neither leader or follows advance consistently without the aid of the other.

As I said, the debate will go on forever. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Though, I must say, it is usually the amateur dancers who feel the need to put down pro-am competitors, which makes me wonder.

Not all amatuars feel a need to put down pro-am. I am an amatuar dancer of ten years and I certainly can appreciate the work the "am" part puts into the pro-am partnership.

It really however is a very different expereince to dance and train as am amatuar. The training is in the partnership as a unit, not as a single dancer. I do think it is harder to advance as an amatuar because there is time spent fixing habits. Because you are not dancing that much with the pro he/she cannot always pick up what you are doing wrong and then it becomes habit. Then you have to un-do it. Half the time it looks right, but is not.

An then there is this.... As an amatuar often I feel on the outside of the pro-am expereince. The pro-ams have something in common. They understand the joys and I am sure fustrations of the partnership, that I do not know. And often they do not know what to make of my expereince. As an amataur it is sometimes hard to develop relationships with pro-ams, just increasing the debate you talk about.

"you are not dancing that much with the pro he/she cannot always pick up what you are doing wrong and then it becomes habit. Then you have to un-do it. Half the time it looks right, but is not."

That's one of the advantages of pro-am. I don't get stuck in bad habits and I don't have to develop bad habits to compensate for my partner's flaws (or he for mine). But before anyone gets all huffy, I've also done some dancing with an amateur partner and I realize there is a different (not necessarily better) satisfaction to working with a peer, especially when you two have together mastered soemthing new and difficult or solved a problem on your own. At the risk of being a broken record, there are advantages and disadvantages to both.

It would be a serious mistake to think that pro am is any protection from bad habits. Simply look at the dancing - intermediate students performing advanced material, and the risk of bad habits in trying to achieve a superficial result is quite obivous. But not just a risk, look closer, or dance with the student, and you realize how much the teacher is covering up.

I''m not sure that's fair comparison. There's a difference between being able to dance one's best with a pro and not being able to do as well with someone who doesn't lead as well. And anyone who dances almost exclusively with one partner, pro or am, is going to have gotten so used to that particular body that someone else will feel odd to dance with at first.

I'm not saying it never happens that a student will be indulged by a pro to dance at a level she can't really handle. I don't really blame the pro; it's usually the student who insists on advancing too quickly and the pro does have to pay the rent. The real problem is when that gets rewarded at comps. But don't get me started on that, since "flash and trash" is sometimes rewarded at all levels.

I've also seen am couples indulged by their teachers, either with routines that are clearly too hard for them, or by having lessons for years without ever really improving. But the whole field of either pro-am or am should not be judged by the worst examples of either.

What no one has explained is why the ams seem to need to insult the pro-ams. I rarely see the reverse.

"I''m not sure that's fair comparison. There's a difference between being able to dance one's best with a pro and not being able to do as well with someone who doesn't lead as well. And anyone who dances almost exclusively with one partner, pro or am, is going to have gotten so used to that particular body that someone else will feel odd to dance with at first."

No, it has nothing to do with those factors, but with the shortcut technique of dancing often taught, or at least not sufficiently corrected.

1) Many pro am students are encouraged to dance with their hips pressed firmly against their partner. With disparate ability levels, this gives the man an expanded ability to directly control his partner's body. But it impedes there free movement together, and prevents her from learning how to interpret and act upon more ordinary leads as a professional or advanced amateur dancer would.

2) Many students create all of their shape by compressing the rib cage. Instead of the topline reflecting inclination of the hips, usually driven by the position of the feet, it's all created in the ribs. Again, a strong partner holding her in close hold can create an imitation of shape this way, but free and fluent dancing is not possible, because her body is essentially broken with its upper and lower parts disconnected at the center.

Well, all I can say is that neither of those problems occur in my pro's teaching. I don't know on what basis you generalize your statement to all or most pros who teach pro-am students. Nor does being an amateur couple preclude the lady from pressing her hips against her partner or creating shape incorrectly. Why would it? After all, except for the very top coaches who only coach couples (my pro and I take periodic coaching from such a person), it's usually the same pros coaching the am couple that also teach pro-ams.

"Well, all I can say is that neither of those problems occur in my pro's teaching. I don't know on what basis you generalize your statement to all or most pros who teach pro-am students."

The statement was not a generally one, but was offered to refute your unfounded claim that dancing with a pro is somehow protection against developing bad habits. Dancing with a pro for exam purposes would be one thing - but toss in competition pressure (in a division where appearence is everything and technique often lax) and the pragmatic result may deviate far from focus on proper habits.

"Nor does being an amateur couple preclude the lady from pressing her hips against her partner or creating shape incorrectly. Why would it?"

The simple reason is that professional men have a reserve of strenght and ability to draw on in compensating for a student's bad habits, which few amateur men share. A pro-am partnership is not an equal one, but usually one optomized to make the most short term use of the stronger partner. Unless the student is not attempting competition but focused on improving her dancing as its own goal - that is the time when the alleged advantages of pro-am may be real.

"After all, except for the very top coaches who only coach couples (my pro and I take periodic coaching from such a person), it's usually the same pros coaching the am couple that also teach pro-ams."

Sit and watch for a few hours and you'll see how the two types of couples are getting very different coaching from the same teacher. The demands of competition are different, the assets the couples bring are different, and as a result the type of dancing that results is different. BTW, it's not uncommon to see amateur couples trying to dance with pro-am styling - usually they are trained in isolation from established amateur programs, and do not go far once they meet real competition.