For a long time Jay and I had debated on whether it was worth it to invest in ballroom dance lessons. Then we remembered how boring it was to watch couples at other weddings we'd been to rock back and forth aimlessly during their first dances (no offense to those who are not big dancers :-)).
Our first stab at getting lessons ended poorly. We found an instructor on Craigslist who met us at a renowned studio in D.C. He had acted completely professional on the phone, but was confronted by the owner when we got to the studio, who just happened to be there (thank god!) about a couple he had stolen money from by accepting cash payments and never showing up for lessons. He was immediately out. The experience actually prompted me to write a story on how to avoid wedding scams on FoxBusiness.com. The ballroom offered to teach us, at the price of about $125 a lesson. Ouch.
Jay was on the mission to find a dance studio nearby that didn't necessarily specialize in choreographing wedding dances, but that was professional and creative. He reached out to Samantha at New Chicago Dance Studio in Greenbelt, MD. She was super sweet, was most interested in having fun, and the cost for five lessons was going to be the cost of one at the other Ballroom.
We had our second "official" lesson last night (the first was a tryout period) and we are almost finished with our choreographed dance (complete with lifts and spins and dips). It goes to a hybrid original Edith Piaf/Louis Armstrong version our band will play of our first song, La Vie en Rose. The song has lots of whimsical notes in it, but is VERY slow. So there is plenty of time to perfect our moves!
I, like many brides I assume, was pretty surprised at how into it my fiance was. He was always ready to practice and really wanted to do a great job! Since we had some extra time, our instructor warmed us up with some jitterbug steps (for our swing/jazz band at the beginning of the reception), and encouraged us to invite some friends and our parents next time to practice with us.
Can't wait until next week's lesson!
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