Moving Image Dance Academy

I haven’t been there yet and just spoke with Ken about pricing, scheduling and basic information about the studio: he was kind, articulate and honest about what I could expect about Moving Image Dance Academy’s services. His willingness to speak with me for nearly 30 minutes, answering all of my questions with a sincere and earnest attitude, is an illustration of the service they provide! I look forward to taking lessons with them in the very near future!

What a rude man.
Prior to my first lesson I called to confirm and inquire about proper clothing for the lesson. When I asked if slacks are ok for my partner his response was, «what else would he wear a skirt?». Other comments included «I already told you the rates» and «there is no way you have a 6pm appointment, our times lots are at 6:15.»
Beyond unprofessional, bring your money somewhere else like Ballroom Philadelphia.

I just called to find out an estimate of how much it would cost for wedding dance instruction. I realize it’s hard to give a definite amount of lessons needed because there are many unknown factors: the level of skills we have coming in, the level of complexity we want our dance to be, etc. I was hoping to get an idea of about 8 lessons since that’s what I got as a minimum from another dance place. This guy talked for over 20 min, starting out his conversation with a snippy remark about the «way I phrased my question,» then went on for a good 5 minutes about how I need to phrase it better. Most of his monologue was talking about how «terrible dance instruction was in the past» and the sales tactics of other dance studios and how his is better.
This place is «pay as you go» private dance lessons so (like I read below) he wouldn’t even give me an estimate for a «basic» dance instruction. After the first 5 min of my time, I spent the rest of the 20 or so minutes with the receiver on my desk, didn’t even listen. Really ridiculous.

Just stay away. My wife and I took lessons from Ken and it is not worth it. We have been married for 20 years and have taken lessons from various instructors over the years when we lived in New York and Denver and Delaware. Compared to other dance teachers, Ken is pushy and inconsiderate. Not worth your time or money.

So, my lovah and I decided to start taking dance lessons several months ago, as we have a large event coming up, and we didn’t want to 1. Grind on each other in front of my grandmother (she collects knives), 2. Look like were being electrocuted, 3. Resort to using my go-​to dance moves (it looks like the hokey pokey mixed with the robot, but not nearly as sexy as either of those dances) 4. Dance only to the electric slide or cha cha slide 5. Do the prom dance shuffle.
All those sound awful right? Anyway, I began a search for ballroom dancing lessons and after a thorough browsing of reviews, speaking to several companies, I met Ken Kalowy (owner of Moving Images) (also, I may spell his name wrong. Every single time I write him a check. It’s pronounced Callaway! Like the golf people. We had a long discussion about how the spelling of his name confused me and he should do something about it).
We are learning several types of dances (you know, cause these events generally play more than one type of song). We’ve been going once or twice a week for several months now! It’s $ 90 per private lesson — AND WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!
He’s incredibly patient with us, funny, doesn’t mind touching me while dancing even though I get a little sweaty. Ew. What a champ. My paramour, who I thought would be awesome because he’s generally never afraid to get in the middle of a dance circle and make his butt clap, has been having a little more trouble, but it’s because he wants to do it right! He’s a perfectionist. Anyway, Ken is always patient with him. He has an amazing eye — catching things we do incorrectly and nipping that bullsh*t in the bud before they become a habit. At first we started off just marching/​walking/​moving to the beat (like for 5 minutes when we were first learning how to salsa), but as we’ve continued, we’ve realized how important it is to get the timing perfect, and how even though it looks easy — every little motion is taken into account in order to make the dance (and you) look good. And that is how it has gone for each type of dance he’s introduced to us — he breaks it down to the basics, provides constructive criticism, and even let’s my sweet SO lead him (but that’s only when sweet SO is doing something really wrong).
The pacing of his lessons is perfect. At first I was worried we were going too slow, but after our first lesson, I realized just how much we learned! He teaches us 1 – 3 new things at every lesson — depending on how well we’re doing each move. Lessons are 45 minutes — pretty standard for all the dance companies I spoke to.
He does have a policy where he asks you to cancel 24 hours in advance, because he pays to rent the room he uses for private lessons (it’s separate from his studio). We once had to cancel the day of because I was sick, but he let us off the hook :) Otherwise, you have to pay a cancellation fee. But honestly — canceling at least 24 hours in advance should be common courtesy for any business/​person you are working with. Anyway, we unwisely rescheduled for right after I got better and I was clearly off my normal «only kind of bad» game. The next lesson, he spent asking me if I needed water, if I was ok, and generally keeping an eye on me to make sure I wouldn’t pass out on him. It really meant a lot to me.
Honestly, I’m just sorry we didn’t start taking lessons earlier. Anyway, because we love it so much, Sweet SO and I have decided to continue taking lessons after the big event (a wedding)! It gives us an excuse to take a break, go to beautiful Center City, dance, followed by a dinner date :) Ken gives private lessons in a building on Rittenhouse Square — perfect for a date night!
At our last lesson (we just left it) he told us that his company got an award — Best Of Philadelphia 2011!!! Congrats and you totally deserve it :) I’ve never had so much fun exercising!

BEWARE! Ken from Moving Image Dance begins by explaining why he is the best in town and has the best prices. My fiancé and I began lessons with him. I should have known something was up after the first lesson. He spent the entire time criticizing my fiancé and not in a helpful constructive manner.
The second lesson was a bit better, we did learn a dance step. For the third lesson my fiancé came down with a brutal cold and could barely go outside without coughing up tons of phlegm so we cancelled the lesson.
We re-​scheduled a week later where at this lesson he spent almost the entire lesson making my fiancé and I practice walking back and forth across the floor. He criticized myself and my fiancé the entire time, and once again not in a constructive manner. We would ask questions to try to understand what we were doing wrong and he would simply say to just trust him. Then if we did something wrong he would reprimand us for not asking questions. 90 bucks to practice walking and get yelled at for an hour.
At the end of the lesson we explained that the following week we would not be able to come at our usual time and asked for alternative times. He said perhaps over the following weekend and would let us know. He did not let us know that Sunday would be acceptable until that Friday. At that point my fiancé and I decided to stop lessons with him due to our disappointment with his professionalism and our financial struggles.
I’d now like to mention that his policy is to pay one lesson ahead. Thus every week we would be paying for the following weeks lesson. When we cancelled lessons with him I requested he rip up the check for the next lesson. He agreed. I have recently been notified from my bank that he cashed the check. He did not return any of my voice mails or emails until I finally tried calling him from a different number.
When I finally got him on the phone his explanation was that he cashed it because we had cancelled the lesson the week my fiancé was sick. He never told us there would be a fee for canceling the lesson, especially not a 100% fee. I mentioned I could understand a small fee for the inconvenience had it been agreed upon prior, but not the entire payment. I also mentioned that when we did see him again the check we gave him was acknowledged on all fronts to cover the next weeks lesson, not to cover the prior weeks cancellation. I asked him if he was refusing to refund my money and he said there was nothing to refund. He continued arguing with me bring up many invalid points until he hung up on me.
PLEASE BEWARE OF THIS «DANCE STUDIO»!
It is not worth his fees to practice walking nor is it worth it to be stollen from. I suppose I should have put a stop on the check however I mistakenly believed he would not steal from us. I have learned my lesson. Do no make the same mistake.