Q: How many lessons will we need to prepare for our wedding?

A: That depends upon your desired result:

A very simple, basic, first dance can be accomplished in as little as 4 lessons. 

A more robust first dance, and maybe some moves to help carry you through the reception?  In as little as 10 lessons. 

Leaning more towards “Rock the Reception”, a “Surprise Dance” or  “Dancing with the Stars”?  As little as 20 lessons.  

Q: When should we begin our lessons?

A: We can do amazing things with very small amounts of time, but dancing is still an art, so the more time you give yourselves, and us, the better, and more confident you will be!

Whichever path you choose, ideally you should be taking at least 1 lesson per week, of your chosen number of lessons, until right up to the wedding.  So, a 4 lesson course should start about a month out.  A 10 lesson course, 10 weeks out and so on.  But, we have crammed 4 lessons into the week before a wedding, 10 lessons into 5 weeks etc., so there are ways to juggle time where needed.

Q: We have crazy schedules and can’t stick to one, weekly time-slot.

A:  No problem!  We work with people with busy schedules all the time!  We offer lessons first thing in the morning, in the middle of the day or as late as 10pm at night.  We can do 1 hour, 1.5 hour, even 2 hour lessons if needed. 

Q: We are starting REALLY late!  Can you still help us? 

A: Every little bit can help.  But, if you can fit in as little as two, 2-hour sessions, we can put together a nice first dance for you.  Again, we can offer some pretty creative scheduling that will make your first dance possible.  

Q: We just want the basics, can’t we just take 1 or 2 lessons?

A: We wish we could offer you this option.  Busy wedding couples everywhere would be grateful, and we would become very successful selling 1 or 2 hour wedding dance courses!   BUT, alas, we have determined that 4 hours is the absolute minimum amount of time needed to establish a basic first dance you can be confident in. 

Q: “We are getting married in six months and we are going to be really busy. Can we take your crash course now, and get our lessons out of the way?”

A: We wish we could offer you this option too!  But there’s just no way to take 4 hours of instruction (or 10, 20, or 30 for that matter), take months off from training and, still be able to step out onto a dance floor and perform.  You wouldn’t study for a test and then stop weeks, or months in advance of the exam and expect to do well on the test right?  The same applies here. 

Even if you practice, you only have the frame of reference of the hours you did study with us.  Things tend to get “creatively misremembered” when too much time passes between lessons.  So, whatever path you choose, you still have to take lessons right up to your wedding.  If another studio tells you differently, they are just too happy to take your money. 

Q: We see you have wedding packages, can we just pay for lessons as we go? 

A: If you are starting your lesson as little as 4 months ahead of your wedding, and plan to study up to the wedding itself, then you are welcome to pay as you go.  Anyone with less than 4 months left until their wedding must purchase one of our prepaid packages.  This helps to insure that you make at least the minimum commitment needed to produce a wedding dance you will be happy with.  We want you to be thrilled with the result and we want you to be happy to tell everyone who taught you!

Q: What type of dance should we do?

A: That depends upon a number of factors:

1. 1)The Song.  What dance you do is dictated by the rhythm of the song you are dancing to.  For instance: Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me to the Moon” is a Foxtrot.  Lifehouse, “ You and Me” is a Waltz, Van Morrison, “Brown Eyed Girl” can be a Swing or a Rumba. 
   

2. 2)The time you put in.  Some dances just take more time to learn.  Foxtrot and Rumba are fine for simple first dances.  Waltz , Cha cha Swing or Tango take more to create the proper look of the dance even on a basic level. 
   

3. 3)The dress. Wedding dresses are rarely designed or chosen for dancing.  To help you avoid your own “wardrobe malfunction” you have to decide which comes first: The Dress, or the Dance?  For instance, most of the wedding dresses we have encountered are heavier weight and floor length.  This is fine for Foxtrot, Rumba, or Waltz (more traditional, formal dances) but not for Swing, which requires greater range of movement or Tango, which requires visible body lines (form fitting dress, dual slits for motion).  One alternative, is to buy whatever dress you want, but buy a second dress just for the dance (not a wedding dress, maybe just a nice evening dress) and prepare for a costume change for the first dance.
   

Q:  We haven’t picked our song yet. Is that a problem? 

A:  Not at all.  We can even help you pick one if you like.  It’s actually better, from a dancers point of view, to select a dance you like and then pick a song that goes with it, rather than the other way around.  Most “popular” wedding songs are really not well suited for dancing.  They can be too slow, too fast, or require a dance that is technically too advanced to pull together in a shorter period of time. That’s not to say that you can’t search for a song that is meaningful, but we can help you do it, with your dance in mind, so you can get the most out of the experience.

Q: If we didn’t see our question here, can we contact you?

A:  Sure!  Our office number is 410-323-3262 and our email address is dance@beginningballroom.com .  Feel free to call or email anytime and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.