With dances being so popular at wedding receptions, many couples are choosing—right along with the rest of their wedding preparations—to learn to dance, so their first dance as bride and groom will be something far better than the dreaded "rocking back and forth" that would so clearly announce that they don't know how to dance. Whether you prefer the more traditional wedding-dance styles such as Waltz or Foxtrot, the newer styles such as Salsa, Cha-Cha, or Swing, or a Country style such as Nightclub Two-Step, Dancer Guy can teach the bride and groom, or the entire wedding party, before the wedding date. The guests will then be suitably impressed when the wedding party hits the dance floor and executes a smooth, graceful, knowledgeable series of moves.

Services Available

Dancer Guy offers several different wedding-related dance-instruction services:

• Teaching the engaged couple: As mentioned above, the bride and groom will want their first dance to be a very smooth and sharp-looking dance. In order to accomplish this, Dancer Guy recommends starting private lessons about four to five months before the wedding, or even earlier if either person is nervous about his/her rhythmical skills or has the proverbial "two left feet." This might be earlier than you'd expect, but as with most things in life, there is more to dancing than meets the eye. See the FAQs below for further detail.

• Teaching the wedding party: If your best man, maid of honor, groomsmen, bridesmaids, and/or parents live close enough, Dancer Guy can teach them all how to dance. This is beneficial if you suspect that the guests at the reception will feel hesitant to start dancing, because they don't know how to dance, and they don't want to feel like all eyes are on them. If the whole wedding party is dancing, there is more of a crowd, and your guests will feel more comfortable dancing even if their skill level isn't as high as they'd like. Or, you could just consider the dance training as a gift to the wedding party.

• Teaching the wedding guests: In order to get the dance portion of your wedding reception off to a good start, it helps for guests to know how to dance. If you suspect that a significant portion of your guests do not know how to dance but would be willing to learn, Dancer Guy can attend your reception and give an actual lesson for anyone who wants to learn some of the basic steps. Then when the open dancing starts, they'll be able to do something more exciting than rocking back and forth. After the official lesson is over, Dancer Guy will be happy to mingle with your guests, answering questions, giving pointers on a one-on-one basis, and dancing with whomever would like to dance.

  If you would like Dancer Guy to attend your reception and teach dance to your guests, please give Dave the name of your DJ so they can coordinate the music in order the maximize the effectiveness of the dance instruction. If you do not plan on having a DJ—for example, you are planning on having a live band for the dance—Dancer Guy can provide the sound system and the music for the instruction time so the band doesn't have to endure the start-stop-start-stop nature of the music during the lesson.

For any of the above teaching scenarios, Dancer Guy can do the teaching by himself, or he can have one of his co-instructors present to assist in demonstrating and instructing. The presence of a co-instructor during the open dancing portion is also useful for "priming the pump," so to speak: people are more open to getting out on the dance floor if there are people already out there—it can be unnerving to be the first couple on the floor.

Getting married is one of the most important days in a couple's life, and at the wedding reception, the bride and groom can be off to a much smoother start—on the dance floor and in life—if they have taken the time to prepare.

Wedding Dance FAQs

• How many lessons will it take? There is no simple answer for this, because it depends on how fast you pick up the skills, how much dance experience you come in with, how well you remember things from one lesson to the next, how long each lesson is, how often we get together, how much you practice between lessons (so we don't have to cover the same things repeatedly during consecutive lessons), how good you ultimately want to get, and so forth. Because the amount of time required can't be determined beforehand, Dancer Guy recommends starting early enough to make sure you'll have enough time: about four or five months before the wedding date. If you get to the desired skill level before you need it, it's easy to maintain it. But it's much better to get to your desired skill level before you need it rather than after you need it. And, it's better to start the dance lessons before the wedding preparations get too hectic, as they do in the final month or two. Then, when things do get hectic, most of your dance learning will already be done.

• Can't I just take the public classes instead of private lessons? Dancer Guy would not recommend it, because of the importance of your first wedding dance. Private lessons are customized specifically for the needs of the engaged couple, so they will learn more quickly and thoroughly than in large-group class. And, with a looming deadline—the wedding date—you don't want to waste time waiting for other students to catch up to you in a large-group class, and you do want to get problem areas resolved without making others in the large-group class wait for you. If you absolutely cannot afford private lessons, large-group classes are much better than nothing, but the content, emphasis, and goals of large-group classes make them much less appropriate than private lessons for an engaged couple preparing to dance at their wedding reception.

• But I have the world's worst rhythm! Do you really think I can do it? Dancer Guy has heard this statement many times, and it is never as bad as the students think. There are certain rhythmical things you'll have to learn, of course, but it's not mysterious or mystical; it's just a matter of training. Another statement that Dancer Guy has heard many times (usually shortly after the above statement) is, "Oh! Well, that's not so hard. . ."

• What dance style should we learn? This is up to you. The most common dance styles done at weddings are Foxtrot and Waltz. Both are relatively simple to learn, but also can look very elegant once you learn how to do them. Of these two, the Foxtrot is a more versatile dance, because it works well with music that has a 4/4 time signature (which most music does). A Waltz requires a 3/4 time signature, so fewer songs will lend themseves to Waltz than to Foxtrot.
  
  But what about other styles? There is nothing wrong with doing Swing, Salsa, Cha-Cha, or other styles at your wedding reception. The couple at the right had a retro look to their wedding, as you can tell by the groom's zoot suit. Swing dancing is very appropriate in such a situation. In July 2006, two of Dancer Guy's students did Salsa for their wedding dance—both for the first dance (bride and groom only) and for the second dance (bride and her father, and groom and his mother)—and they all looked very sharp. Later on, when dancing was open to everyone, the predominant styles were Salsa, Cha-Cha, and Waltz, with an occasional Swing thrown in. So the style you choose for your wedding dance is entirely up to you. Of course, if you have already selected a song, your dance style will have to be compatible with it.

Related Services

Below are some other services that you might need for your wedding. Dancer Guy knows these people personally, and can recommend their services:

• DJ/Emcee: Piano Man Music at (970) 581-1617,
  or Ron Michaels Weddings at (970) 225-3900 or 800-555-6580,
  or Solid Sound Entertainment at (970) 667-0646 or 800-830-0646.
• Florist: By Design Wedding Florals at (970) 416-1181.
• Photographer: Expression Photography at (970) 310-3775.
• White Doves: White Dove Release Company at (970) 980-6282.
• Limousine Service: AA Limos at (970) 587-9299.
• Wedding Planner: Greeley Wedding Guild at (970) 330-3439.