As part of our March Wedding Action Plan, My fiance and I went for our first dance lesson last night! It was actually a lot of fun!
Outside of a handful of occasions in both our lives (high school prom, as members of a wedding party, etc.), neither one of us has danced. And we have never danced together. Yet for some reason, I have these grand plans of doing some sort of fun choreographed first dance. So I figured we should learn some basics first. We booked a free introductory lesson at Arthur Murray Dance Studio, which for those of you in the DC area, always pops up tops in the search results for “dance lessons dc.” I was kind of skeptical. Their website doesn’t offer any pricing information and their dance lessons schedule looked super confusing. When I called them for more information, all I wanted to know were the prices for both group lessons and private lessons, but they just encouraged us to come in for our complimentary lesson. I felt like they were going to use some used car salesman tactics on us, but it was actually quite pleasant.
We had our 40 minute introductory private lesson, and the instructor taught us elements of both the FoxTrot and the Waltz. My fiance likes to be good at everything, and when he’s not good at something (there was an ice skating incident last year), he can get frustrated or mad, so I just asked him (er, told him) to go to the lessons with an open mind. I had no idea what to expect either because I’m a terrible dancer, but I suppose it’s better that we look like idiots now and only have to look like semi-idiots when we dance at our wedding. I also wanted to avoid the type of slow dancing where you basically just stand in place and put weight on different feet to give the illusion of dancing.
I am so proud to say that not only did he keep an open mind, he did exceptionally well! Although apparently I keep trying to lead. As our instructor said, “On the dance floor, gentlemen lead. When you leave the dance floor, ladies lead.” The instructor made it fun, and didn’t make us feel like doofuses when we messed up. All in all it was a success!
A few folks, including the instructor, asked us what our first song is, but we don’t know yet. (That’s on the schedule for next month). We figure it will be something modern-country though, since we’re both big country music fans. They said that the swing dance lessons and two step will be great for that type of music.
After the lesson, we talked with their “New Student Director” to hear their sales pitch. This is the part I was dreading, but it wasn’t used-salesman tactics-like at all. You know how when you go to a new gym and sign up for a membership they say they’re offering a “one day discount” or that they can give you “the manager’s special, but only if you book now!”? Well, let me just be clear. I hate that shit. Who do they think their fooling? We’ve been looking for new windows for our house too and salesman from windows companies are like that too. Anyway, I digress. But, thankfully, this place didn’t use any of those annoying tactics. Their program is a little confusing, which is why I guess they don’t post it to their website. But basically what you pay for are the private lessons, and then with those private lessons come one additional group lesson and one additional practice session for no additional charge. So for now, we’re going to book six private lessons and hopefully take advantage of the corresponding group lessons and practice sessions too.
I’m really excited! I hope that doesn’t wear off and that I don’t get discouraged as the moves get more complicated.
For just general “fun” dancing at the wedding, I was also thinking about buying Just Dance 2 or something similar. Does anyone recommend that? My primary goal for that would just to become more comfortable in normal types of dance moves, as opposed to formal, ballroom type dance moves.
Image: Foxtrot Steps. Source
