Your Wedding Dance

You want to get ready for your first dance, but there’s a whole night of dancing too!

If you’ve got time – do both! Private lessons will prepare you for your first dance, whereas group lessons will prepare you for the rest of the reception. Combine the two and you’ll be unstoppable! If you’re working on a tight budget or timeline, and can only do one or the other, stick with the private lessons.

How long will it take you to be ready? Depending on your level of experience, and your expectations of your first dance, it should take you between 4 and 15 private lessons to get ready.

When you’re booking your lessons, consider adding one or two tentative “emergency” lessons close to your wedding. If you don’t need them, you can cancel them (if you are not at Chicago Dance, check with your studio to find out the cancellation policy). However, there’s nothing worse than wanting to book another “brush up” lesson, only to find that your instructor is booked solid!

You are probably very busy. The more you practice between lessons, the more you will remember for your Wedding Day. If you are like many – probably most – of our students, your schedules don’t leave a lot of time to practice, then we recommend that you plan on doing more lessons. We will make sure you get enough repetition to feel confident during your First Dance.

What can you expect? In your Wedding Dance lessons, your instructor will help you identify the style(s) of dance most appropriate to the song you’ve chosen, teach you the basic steps of that dance, choreograph a unique beginning and end to the dance, and teach you a handful of neat moves that you can use throughout.

For most couples, we recommend that, rather than memorizing choreography for a 3-minute song, you’re better off with a rehearsed beginning and ending, and stick to “lead and follow” for the music in between. This reduces the pressure of having to memorize, and gives you flexibility to deal with the size of the dance floor at the hall, photo-ops, etc. If you want to do a more comprehensive choreographed routine, make sure to budget enough time and money for extra lessons.

How late is too late to start before the wedding? In an ideal world, you’d start your dance research when you start planning the wedding, and start lessons as soon as possible to take the stress out of learning how to dance. However, there’s no need to panic if you don’t have much time – it’s never too late to take dance lessons. In fact, Chicago Dance specializes in emergency wedding preparation lessons!

There’s always time for lessons. If you’re willing to come in for lessons 2-3 times per week, you can take enough private lessons in a month to get you through your first dance with style and confidence. However, remember that the shorter your timeline, the more flexible you may have to be in terms of lesson days and times.

The time that you’ll need will depend on what your goals are. It’s always best, of course, to give yourselves as much time as possible to minimize stress before the wedding.

What many couples often forget is that their first dance is only the beginning of your dancing that evening. In order to be able to feel confident on the dance floor for the rest of the reception, we recommend adding group classes to your schedule.

There are two major considerations when picking the song for your first dance: that it be a song that is meaningful to the two of you, and that it be something that you can dance to.

The style of dance appropriate for a piece of music is determined by the song’s rhythm. Some rhythms are easy to pick out (like the 1, 2, 3 of a waltz), while others are more difficult for the untrained ear to recognize. If you’re having difficulty deciding between a few songs, consider bringing all of them with you to your first lesson. That way, your instructor can show you which styles of dance are best suited to each song. There may be a style of dance that you really love, or one that you really would like to avoid, and knowing which style of dance works with which song may help you make your final decision. If there’s a specific style of dance that you love, and you’re looking for songs that will work, your instructor should be able to help you with that too.

You can also splice two or more songs together and dance multiple styles. Many couples like to start with a slower more romantic song and then bust out into something lively and upbeat.

When you’re considering what to wear to your dance lessons, keep in mind both your clothing and your shoes.

When it comes to footwear, both the bride and the groom should wear shoes similar to the ones you’ll be wearing at the reception, if not the actual pair.

Dress for the temperature. For your first class, you might want to layer with a jacket or a sweater you can remove if you become too warm. Dances with a faster tempo are more likely to make you warm up quickly.

For the bride, please remember that dancing in a pair of jeans and dancing in your wedding dress are two completely different experiences. You might be more comfortable taking your first few lessons in regular clothes, but you should spend at least one lesson in a skirt with structure and hemline similar to your wedding dress.

The groom has it easier in the wardrobe department. Unless you are like my dad and wear a kilt for your wedding, the only thing you might want to consider is practicing your dance in a suit jacket at least once. And yes, as the Best Man, I was in a kilt too!

Here’s what you’ll need to bring with you:

1. Your fiancé or fiancée
2. Your song(s) on some device with a headphone jack or at least the name of the song so we can find it on Spotify or YouTube.
3. Any specific questions or requests you may have
4. The dimensions of the dance floor at the reception venue
5. Appropriate shoes
6. A skirt and/or jacket to practice in (optional)
7. Pen and notebook if you want to take notes
8. Patience and a sense of humour

In some cases, we’ve had entire wedding parties (couple, families on both sides, bridesmaids, and attendants) sign up for group lessons or semi-private lessons to prepare for the reception. Knowing how to dance is always valuable, and adds a boost of confidence that keeps people on the dance floor all night long. Often, people will have so much fun learning how to dance, that they’ll continue to take lessons after the wedding is over!

Absolutely! A dance lesson adds a fun “edu-tainment experience” to a rehearsal dinner, and is a great gift for those who are supporting you on your special day. In one lesson, you’re best off to focus on one style of dance (hustle, salsa, swing, foxtrot), so choose a style of music that your DJ or band will be sure to play often throughout the reception.

A surprise dance lesson at the reception is a great way to get people out onto the dance floor. Often, instructors will be able to do a demonstration (a short showcase of one to three dances), and then invite people up onto the dance floor for the lesson.

Make sure that you book your special lesson at least two to three months in advance to avoid disappointment.

Likely, we’ve got the answers. Give us a call at 312-337-9503