CHAT ROOM

You should have got paid.

However communication was poor from both you and the promoter. It should have been established between the two of you what level you were teaching, what that level meant in his club and whether you should stick rigidly to that level or adjust dependent on those in your class.

I know it will seem harsh and hard on your integrity but it's not your place to tell someone else's students they are in the wrong level, don't get hung up on the terms beginner/ improver/ intermediate in other people's clubs. Think of the levels as top, middle & bottom classes; small promoters may well divide on different lines to spread pupils amongst teachers.

The conflict between teacher and promoter is that the promoter needs to retain people and to do that they may take decisions that are contra to good teaching practice.

The dilemma for the promoter is do you strictly enforce levels and there by make the transition from one level to another level feel like climbing a mountain and demotivating or do you simplify the levels so they can feel the sense of accomplishment of progressing a level by simply climbing a small hill.

As an example:-
1) When I learnt to dance I was in beginners for 8 lessons and taught perfectly and very technically. The retention rate for beginners after 6-8 weeks was about 10-20%.
2) When I teach beginners they move to improvers after 3 or 4 lessons. Consequently some things that are taught by others in beginners aren't taught in mine. Retention rate after 6-8 weeks is about 40-50%

So do you overteach people to dance technically perfect, suffer low retention and long term have a club hard to maintain OR do you teach people to dance socially, get large numbers because milestones are relatively easy to reach and have a sustainable club.

The promoter you worked for may well have very good business reasons to call his pupils intermediate to motivate them and maintain their interest. You announcing to a class that they aren't at intermediate level, unfortunately, can do nothing but demoralise them and potentially lose the promoter their custom.