Membership & Pricing Changes
April 23, 2026 Edit: Tier 1 and Tier 2 Practicas reduced to 1 per week.
Dear Omni Community,
If we haven’t met, I’m Connie, the community-elected member of Omni’s Board of Directors. Today I am sharing with you that in order to maintain a sustainable dance program, Omni membership prices will be changing.
Before sharing details, if a price increase will be a barrier, you can request financial assistance through Omni Promise. I also request that you read this letter in full to understand our reasoning.
The Omni Board of Directors, along with extensive help from Jack Pacific, our amazing West Coast Swing Education Lead, have been performing a full-scale program analysis. We are still in the midst of this work, and more announcements will be coming down the line, but we have already been able to come to some important decisions.
Typical class/social prices in Oakland are around $20-30 for a class, $15-20 for a social, and $10-15 for 1:1 practica equivalents. Until now, Omni has provided memberships with access to all three of these things classes for significantly lower than that, but we have found that we are not currently offsetting our costs. Sadly, this reality wasn’t fully visible in past bookkeeping. As a result, we are raising membership prices in order to achieve sustainability.
We are taking special care to keep Tier 1 prices accessible while simultaneously minimizing the percentage increase across all tiers. In tandem, we are reducing costs wherever we can, while still maintaining consistent classes with the highest quality curriculum we can provide. Our prices will now be more comparable to other offerings in the market, while providing a unique combination of all 3 offerings: classes, socials, and 1:1 teaching at practicas.
We do not make this decision lightly, and I personally hope that we can work with you all through these uncomfortable changes as we explore options and develop a plan for a sustainable dance program. These changes are unfortunately overdue, but we are now working very hard to optimize our system to make it both accessible for students and fair to instructors.
We have found that it is necessary to make changes to our membership system as follows.
Increase in pricing across all Tiers, with a special focus on keeping Tier 1 as affordable as possible using a sliding scale model.
If we do not hear from you by April 30th and you are a Tier 1 member, we will assume you want the standard $35 / week membership.
Note that à la carte prices will remain at $25 per class, $40 if you add the practica.
If you wish to attend the social without purchasing a class or membership, you will not have access to facilitating instructor time.
The price of an à la carte module will be $140, previously $120.
Volunteer shifts during socials will only provide access to the social and not provide a membership discount. Volunteer shifts for classes are reduced to 4 shifts per evening.
5th week classes and socials are being added to the membership and are included in all tiers.
The guest pass system will no longer be in place.
The New Member Special will switch to being charged month-to-month with a 3-month commitment rather than up-front.
You may be wondering how pricing decisions are made, and what factors make prices lower or higher. First, almost half of our costs are for the spaces we use, and this would be a lot higher if Philip from the Oak Grove leadership wasn’t a fusion dancer who wanted to rent to Omni at a discount (thank you Philip!). Next, a bit less than half of our costs are for instructor time, for teaching as well as for organizing/planning work. The remainder goes towards administrative costs and advertising to attract new students. Finding interested students (invite your friends!) is a surprisingly important factor, because higher enrollment means that shared costs can be spread across more people. If you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out – I’ve been up to my ears in spreadsheets lately, so there’s a good chance I’ll have answers for you!
If these prices would result in you being unable to attend Omni, we strongly encourage you to use our new Omni Promise system to name your price for Tier 1 membership. Please let us know by April 30th.
Similarly, if these changes result in you wishing to change membership, the deadline has been pushed to April 30th.
This isn’t easy, but I want you all to know that we have your best interests at heart. There is so much work happening behind the scenes analyzing Omni from top to bottom, but throughout, everyone’s #1 priority has been to keep students dancing. We are all oriented towards that same North Star. Last but not least, I thank you for being a part of this community! We are engaging in the project of a top-quality dance school with and for you.
Please contact me with any concerns or questions you may have! Unfortunately I am out of town for work at the moment, but I’m available over text/message, I’d be happy to talk over the phone, and I’ll be back next week. Save me a dance and do not hesitate to reach out!
With love,
Connie Robinson
On behalf of the Omni Board of Directors
