Email headmistress@schoolofburlesque.com .

All classes require registration with payment in advance, to prevent overcrowding. If you prepay and we have to cancel the class for ANY reason you will receive a full refund.

By paying for or reserving a slot in the class, you are agreeing to our policies regarding refund and transfers.

We require 60 hours notice before the start time of the class or we will not be able to offer you a refund, transfer to another date, or class credit. We will not refund for classes you cancel the day before or the day of the class. However, you can transfer your registration to someone else as long as you notify us at headmistress@schoolofburlesque.com.

This is a common standard for fitness and dance class in all industries.

We stand by this policy to preserve our existence.

Here's what would happen if we allowed you cancel or transfer a class without some days' notice:
We can't fill your slot. That means that we lose the entire amount of what you paid, whether you cancel or transfer. We lose 100% of that money, and we are a small business that can't afford it. Also, if the class was sold out, someone who wanted to attend didn't get to attend. Some people seem to struggle with understanding this, but look at it this way: if it was a car and you rented it and it just sat in your driveway, it's still the case that no one else could drive it even if you didn't rent it. If you rent a hotel room and don't sleep in it, it's still the case that no one else could rent that hotel room. Also, transfers create extra paperwork, for which someone gets and hourly wage. We are a small business, community based, without 6-figure revenue.

If you insist on a refund, or

When we rent dance studio space, we are liable for the entire amount of the rental if we cancel less than 48 hours in advance.

If you're still thinking about asking us for a refund for a time when you are sick or have other issues beyond your control, please continue to read below.

Other payment options We want you to attend our classes! We want to be able to continue to support a global community of burlesque performers and instructors. We are so grateful to be able to do this, and we love it. However, it is not a low-maintenance endeavor and it is certainly not making us rich. For that reason we are oversharing here. If you choose not to pay via paypal, you may choose to pay cash directly to the instructor. However, you must have permission to do so; you MAY NOT simply drop in and do so. To register for cash, send an email to paycash@schoolofburlesque.com including your request and the date, time, and webpage address of the class for which you are registering. We will send you an acknowledgement that you are registered, unless the class is sold out. If you say you are going and we reserve a slot for you and then you don’t show up and don’t pay, we will hound you till the ends of the earth to get you to pay, including on social media, because you owe us money. Fact is, we originally ran the school on a cash basis. However, people would request to register and then not show up. We limit class size to ensure the quality of classes, so we would think classes were sold out and stop selling registration after the maximum number of people said they would come. Therefore such no-shows cheated us of a payment we could have received from someone who would have actually shown up and paid. It also created tons of extra accounting work that PayPal does for us. (PayPal has also supported us legally when people tried to cancel a class in a way that would unfairly cost us money, and we have good reasons for using PayPal even though it is as problematic as most huge corporations.) Even our friends did this to us. It was awful. We nearly went out of business. It wasn’t worth it at all. We do not use additional online payment sources at this time because that would mean managing multiple accounts, and administration also costs money. So if you want to attend a class and pay cash for whatever reason, please consider registering this way to be a financial commitment, because we are trying to keep a small grassroots arts education organization afloat in a world that has demonstrably little financial support for teachers and artists.

If you don't make a class, we can't refund it, unless there is a refund policy stated in the class listing. A postponement or date switch costs us the same as if you don't show up at all. We are a small business, a collective of teachers, not a corporation, and it is difficult for us to refund. We may have already paid the teacher. We also have to pay for the studio rental space even if we don't use it.

We are not like the airlines who will overbook a flight. When you purchase a slot in one of our classes, you really own it, and no one else can have it whether you show up or not. If you were to transfer that credit to another class it would cost us the price of your attendance to let you make that transfer and fill a slot someone else might have paid for (most of our classes sell out and have waiting lists), so we can't do it. It's as if you'd rented a hotel room--no one else can stay in it whether or not you sleep there. If you cancel right before a class or series, we can't give you a refund or credit because it would cost us every penny of what you paid, since there isn't time for us to offer someone else the slot. Even if we keep your deposit we still lose out on the balance someone would have paid (for this reason we can also NOT offer partial series attendance). If you can't make a class during a series, we can't offer you a substitute class, because we can't refill a slot in a series. It's as if you rented a car and didn't drive it--it's still the case that no one else could drive it during the day you had it rented. You may, however, offer it to a friend and have them pay you, as long as you let us know someone else will be attending in your place. But we will not be responsible for collecting from them--they must pay YOU.

Short notice cancellations and class substitutions cost us money and harm this small independent business. Our refund policies are lenient compared to standard university policies, but we do not offer refunds casually. We can't afford to.

If several people have the same problem with a class (for instance, if three or four people say they thought the class was at a different time), we will assume that it is our fault. Otherwise, however, we will assume that we have made all the appropriate effort to present the information you need and have provided the class as we said we would.

If you have a gift certificate someone bought for you, you can use it in any class which is not held as a charity or benefit, but you must still register ahead of time and are still subject to class space availability and refund and payment policies. The size of a scheduled class is based on sightlines, space, number of props available, etc., and is not arbitrary or negotiable.

If your class (that is any scheduled class or series) or event (such as a bachelorette, birthday, or other private party) allows a deposit (not all classes do), that deposit is fully refundable up to ten days before the event, and 50% refundable up to a week before the event. After that it is nonrefundable and nontransferable.

Parties or private lessons or events booked less than a week in advance must be paid in full in advance. If you have to cancel we will refund all but your $100 deposit. Change of date is the same for us as a cancellation because we still had to reserve your time slot and turn down other people who might have been interested.

For parties, you may not consider your reservation confirmed until we have received a deposit. If we don't hear from you for awhile and don't receive a deposit, we will assume you have changed your plans.

We repeat, if we cancel for ANY reason--bad weather, accident, sudden death--we will refund your payment as quickly as we can, even if it is difficult for us to repay you, even if it costs us additional money. Keeping in mind that we respect you so much, and want your respect so much, that we consider it our duty and our responsibility to do so, now understand how you may respect us. We are not a chain or franchise but an independently owned and operated neighborhood business with decent but limited means.

We are not like the airlines who will overbook a flight. When you purchase a slot in one of our classes, you really own it, and no one else can have it whether you show up or not. If you were to transfer that credit to another class it would cost us the price of your attendance to let you make that transfer and fill a slot someone else might have paid for (most of our classes sell out and have waiting lists), so we can't do it. It's as if you'd rented a hotel room--not one else can stay in it whether or not you sleep there. If you cancel right before a class or series, we can't give you a refund or credit because it would cost us every penny of what you paid, since there isn't time for us to offer someone else the slot. Even if we keep your deposit we still lose out on the balance someone who really wanted to attend would have paid (for this reason we can also NOT offer partial series attendance). If you can't make a class during a series, we can't offer you a substitute class, because we can't refill a slot in a series. It's as if you rented a car and didn't drive it--it's still the case that no one else could drive it during the day you had it rented. You may, however, offer it to a friend and have them pay you, as long as you let us know someone else will be attending in your place. But we will not be responsible for collecting from them--they must pay YOU.

Repeat, if you pay a deposit, your deposit is fully refundable up till 10 days before the class. From 10-7 days, it is 50% refundable. From 7-1 days, it is not refundable. Sorry for the tough love, it's the only way we can survive!

If you have paid a deposit on a series, you will be invoiced for the balance 10-7 days before the class series begins, and must pay it within three days or you will lose both your slot in the class and your deposit. We won't have time to fill your slot with a paying student!

We've had to start requiring deposits because we were believing that classes were full due to the number of reservations made, turning away people who wanted to make reservations because the classes were full, then having a 50% no-show in some classes. If this were to continue, it would put us out of business. If you look at the refund policies of other schools, you'll find ours is quite lenient.

If you cancel without sufficient notice you cost the school money. All classes are limited re number of students in order to ensure the quality of the class experience. If the class is sold out, there is usually a waiting list. If you cancel with too short of notice we do not have time to contact any of those on the list. The School is an independent, local business, not a corporation that can absorb unreasonable costs.

Be very clear about which email address you want to use to communicate with you if it is not the same as your paypal email address.

If these policies change, the policy that will be in place will be the one that was stated at the time you made your reservation.

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