HOW WE TRACK
PRICES.

What this dataset is

The DanceHow Price Index is a structured record of publicly-listed dance class prices, collected from studio websites across the US, UK and Canada. Each row represents a single recurring class offered at a specific studio, with its drop-in price, currency, and — where available — day, time, style, and level.

How we collect data

For each studio we track, we fetch the studio's homepage plus up to three additional pages likely to contain class data — typically pages named timetable, schedule, classes, or pricing. We pass the text of those pages to a language model with a strict extraction schema asking for class-level fields only, and explicitly instructing it to skip social nights, one-off workshops, parties, and trademarked branded programmes (Zumba, Pure Barre, etc.). Every extracted row is stored with a link back to the source page it came from.

What we include

The price shown is the median drop-in price for a single class session. We exclude:

• Term packages and multi-week courses — vary wildly and aren't comparable without normalisation.
• Class packs and memberships — harder to normalise into a per-class figure.
• Private lessons — a different product entirely.
• Entries under £2 / $2 — almost always extraction errors.

Update cadence

A nightly batch re-reads every studio whose data is more than seven days old. Each successful re-read replaces that studio's classes and prices, so rows that no longer appear on the studio's site drop out of the index. If a re-read comes back empty or badly broken, the previous rows are kept rather than wiped. Each row records when it was last seen on the studio's site.

Known limitations

• Some sites are hard to read. Heavily JavaScript-driven sites and booking widgets are rendered in a headless browser where possible, but some still produce empty or partial extractions.
• Coverage is incomplete. We cover ~15–20 studios per city. Smaller or newer studios are missing until added.
• Prices change. A median computed today is a snapshot. The "last updated" date is shown next to every figure.
• Studios, not cities, drive the average. If two tracked studios are high-end, the median skews. Sample size (n = X studios) is shown prominently.
• Language-model extractions are imperfect. Prices under £2 / $2 are discarded as likely errors, but other mistakes can slip through — check the studio's own site before booking.

Citing this dataset

If you're writing about dance class pricing, link back to the city page you're quoting. Suggested citation:

DanceHow Dance Class Price Index, 2026. Retrieved 19 October 2026. [URL of specific city page]

For raw dataset access or methodology questions: data@dancehow.com.

Changes to this methodology

If we change how the index is computed, the change is noted here and the "Last reviewed" date is updated. Historical snapshots are retained.