How big of an area are you dealing with? A large city? A mid-sized city? A town?

Are you planning on teaching classes across town from the other teacher? Or right in the same neighborhood?

Are you offering the same style as the other teacher, or is it a different spin (tribal vs. cabaret vs. folkloric? Or Turkish vs. Egyptian? or some other difference?)

If you're essentially offering the same service as her (for instance, if you're both offering Egyptian cabaret style) and if you're both going to be within a couple of miles of each other, I say that it wouldn't hurt to let her know that you plan to be teaching in the area and give her a run-down of your ethics (that you will be attempting to reach a different student base and not steal hers, that you do not plan to undercut, etc).

I would make sure not to phrase it as if you are looking for her permission, but more that you are communicating with her (professional to professional) to let her know that you think that there is plenty of student-base to go around. I personally wouldn't think that you owe her an explanation of your credentials. That smacks too much like an interview. And you don't need her permission to set up shop.

The Mom-n-Pop restaurant that crops up in a town doesn't need to go to McDonald's to present their credentials. In the US, there is and always should be the possibility of competition. That's part of capitalism.

Now, if you are offering something different (say you've gotten into ATS or ITS and she's only doing American Cabaret), then it wouldn't hurt to get with her and explain that you'll be offering somehting different. And then you can propose a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" situation in which you can tell her that as you get students, if you have any who would rather learn cabaret (or learn cabaret in addition to tribal) that you'll feed them her way. In return, if she has any students who express an interest in tribal style that she will recommend your studio to them.

If she's not amenable to that, then that's ok.

It's tough, esp. when you're used to being the only game in town to get used to the idea of competition.

In the area where I live (large city with a large surrounding suburb area), there are quite a few bellydance studios in the area. Most are in town or west of town. For the most part, my studiio is southeast of town and draws from the people southeast of town.

We also have tried to get the restaurants in the area to bring us in as dancers (because within 10 miles of our studio, there are at least 8 Middle Eastern or Greek restaurants. Most of the restaurants are not interested in actually paying dancers...so we're not terribly interested in dancing there. We do occasional free student shows to allow our students some exposure and some practice dancing in public at a couple of the restaurants...but not often.

Anyway, since we've mostly had a monopoly on our side of town, it took me by surprise when I found out that some of the in town dancers were coming down and getting dance gigs at some of the restaurants near us and that a couple of the in town dancers were also teaching classes in the same area as us.

At first, it bothered me...but then I reminded myself that there is no rule that we need to be the only game in our section of town. It's a tough thing to remember...and I think that had any of them just dropped us an email letting us know that they would be in the area, that I would have appreciated it.

I know this is long-winded, but here's the short of it:

If you want to contact her and let her know what you plan, go for it. Don't let it turn into an interview or a request for permission. You don't work for her.

If you don't want to contact her, you really don't have to. It's nice to make the contact, but especially if you're trying to pull from a different student base, it's not required.