Ballroom Dancing for Wedding Couples

Thanks to the movie "Shall We Dance" and the popular television series "Dancing With The Stars," it has become cool to ballroom dance. In dance studios around the world, ballroom dancing, which has been around since the 1500s, is enjoying a booming revival. This growth in popularity is especially noticeable among wedding couples who want to incorporate the graceful and elegant moves of social ballroom dance into their first dance together as husband and wife.

"We are seeing a growing number of wedding couples and entire wedding parties coming in for social ballroom dance lessons before the wedding," says Bobbi Wood, a certified dance instructor, professional ballroom dancer and owner of Bobbi Wood Social Ballroom Dance Studio in Smithfield, R.I. "At first they're a bit tentative because they have little or no dance experience. But that's the wonderful thing about social ballroom dancing. You can learn the basic steps of a dance and then put your own personal style into it."

With weddings, the couple generally picks the songs and works together with a dance instructor to create special ballroom dances that match their musical likes and wedding theme. Newly married Kileen and Craig Urian made a commitment to each other when they became engaged to learn how to ballroom dance for their wedding. "I've been to so many weddings where couples for their first dance just did the boring turnaround dance. I wanted something more fun and special and luckily Craig was agreeable," says Kileen.

The Massachusetts couple took 10 lessons prior to their wedding at a social ballroom dance studio that also worked with them to choreograph their dance. "We wanted our first wedding dance as a married couple to reflect our personalities," notes Kileen. "So we selected something fun and exciting, an upbeat East Coast Swing that we danced to Natalie Cole's "An Everlasting Love."

They also wanted a dance that didn't look fully choreographed. "We learned the basic swing steps and worked with our instructor to choreograph the beginning and the end, but we pretty much freestyle danced the rest so we wouldn't be nervous if we missed a move," explains Kileen.

The memorable dance included a finger-snapping, toe-tapping beginning and a special ending where Craig led Kileen through a 'Swivel Walk' to a spin with Kileen ending up sitting on his knee.

The couple also worked on dances for their Father and Daughter and Mother and Son time on the dance floor. For her dance with Dad, Kileen said she didn't want the sad "my little girl song." Since she and her father had dance experience, they took two dance lessons to learn the Cha Cha. They danced it to Paul Simon's "Father and Daughter."

The dance for Craig and his Mom was a little more challenging since she lived out of town. "My mother knew how to swing dance, so Kileen learned the steps and showed them to my mom when she came into town," says Craig. He danced with his Mom to the song "You Raised My Up To Walk On Mountains" by Josh Groban.

"Now when we look back at our wedding video, we're glad that we decided to do the ballroom dances. Everybody at our wedding loved the dances. They were a lot of fun and it really made our wedding special," says Kileen.

Among the popular social ballroom dances are the upbeat tempo Foxtrot; the graceful Waltz; the sultry Tango; the Latin dances, like the romantic Rumba, the exciting Cha Cha with its upbeat Cuban motion, the thrilling Mambo, and the easy-to-learn Merengue; and the Rhythm dances, like the bouncy Swing and Hustle.

"There really is a buzz about ballroom dancing. There's so many more people experiencing it, talking about it and enjoying it," notes Bobbi.

Your experience in learning social ballroom dancing depends greatly on your instructor and studio accommodations. Here are some tips in selecting a social ballroom dance instructor:

* Look for instructors or studios that specialize in private wedding preparation dance classes.
* Inquire about the studio's hours of operation. Be sure they can accommodate your work schedule.

* Be sure the instructor teaches in a professional dance studio, rather than a rented hall.

* Talk with instructors to see how much flexibility you will have in choosing your songs and dances.

* Once you've narrowed your studio selections, if time allows, start out with a group class to determine if you like the facility, the instructors and method of teaching.

* You're going to need at least five weeks of instruction, so it might be best to have the songs that you would like to dance to selected beforehand.

* Have fun! Don't stress out if you get caught up on a step. A good instructor will help you manage through it.