Stinky people in class, what to do?
Question By User rehabbinit
I try to be patient with people I mean if someone stinks 1 out of 30 class its something I could understand because they may didnt have the time or wasn’t conscious they have bad smell.
But lots of women in my class have terrible body odor and it is consistent from class to class. Its something that leaves a bad taste in my mouth about salsa classes because somewhere between 10–20% of the women are like that! Touching and being close some of those people makes want to cut my nose off.
So what would you do? Do you tell certain individuals that their hygiene should be improved or you try to make a post in the facebook group without names?
User HonkyMahFah
Ask the teacher to make an announcement.
User HonkyMahFah
Let me put it this way — a stinky student is a THREAT to the class. People will quit, the class will get bad word of mouth, and it will die. “Clean, fun, safe” is what students want in a public class. As the instructor, you have to be a firm professional when enforcing these standards. You have to address the issue, immediately, or you risk damaging the class.
User Bento-
Maybe ask your teacher if he could make an “salsa etiquette” post on social media or WA or whatever.
A teacher of us had a really long post from how to wash your cloth, over shower (at least in the morning before the training), to deo, to teeth (regular dentist checkups and cleaning before class), to dont eat stinky stuff, about smoking, about to bring a towel/second t-shirt if needed, …………….If that doesnt help the teacher can take people aside and talk to them. Most of them prefer to loose a stinky member over a nonstinky (who might quit because of that).
User Arshia42
If it were me I’d just take a different class honestly, hopefully that’s an available option for you. It’s one thing I genuinely can’t stand. There was a woman like that in one of my old classes and I would make every effort to be as far from her as possible which usually worked (it was a rueda class so I could just join different circles). But if there were multiple people like that? yeah I’m out.
User Arshia42
So what happened was that a few other people were really annoyed about it and brought it up with the teacher saying that there’s a particular individual who has really bad BO and maybe there should be an announcement on the facebook group to remember basic hygiene before class.
I don’t know if it worked because that’s around the same time I stopped going to rueda practices. My take on it is that, even though I agree with you that it probably won’t work because no one thinks they smell, it’s worth a try anyway.
One approach I’ve noticed is from another instructor who I sometimes help run classes with. He’s very well known in my area and a… controversial guy to say the least. He pretty much isn’t afraid to say what’s on his mind, so yeah either love him or hate him. But anyway, his approach seems to be that every time he is hosting an event, he actually puts on the description a list of things to do before going.
I’ll actually paste right here the exact text that he posts:
To make sure this workshop gives you the best experience, here are few important tips:
1- Hygiene:
— Showering 🛁🚿right before class helps decrease body odor to zero and applying some sort of deodorant helps keeping the body odor in check.
— Applying cologne or perfume is always appreciated as good smell makes people happier around you 🤗 but you don’t have to.
— Eating heavily (or lightly) spiced food before class is not recommended as it promotes involuntary bowl movement 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️ even if you’re used to it….it still does! That’s why they call it involuntary 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
— Bring a small towel to keep your sweat in check. Bring an extra shirt 👕👚or two if you sweat too much.
2- Attitude:
- Bring a smile 🙂 Don’t worry we will make it bigger 😀😁😄😃
- Reduce talking during class to the absolute minimum unless it’s a question for the instructor ONLY.
Please note that bad smell or attitude might impact your workshop experience….
Looking forward to dancing with you all 😊😊😊
Now, as to how well this approach works for this guy, I am not sure but in all the classes that I have helped him run (around 10), there wasn’t any case of stinky individuals.
