It’s normal to stress about your wedding dance – but you don’t have to. Just follow these tips.
Tip #1:
Don’t do a choreographed routine. Seriously.
Choreography is when every dance step is planned in advanced. This this is very difficult to pull off without you looking stodgy and robotic.
Professional dancers pull this off just because they’ve rehearsed the routine 1000s of times (plus – they’re pretty good at dancing). Are you prepared to practice your dance 1000s of times?
Oh, and it’s hard to recover from a mistake without looking un-coordinated..
Fear not – there’s a great alternative.
Learn lead and follow dancing. This gives you the flexibility to turn, dip, swirl gracefully when your man leads you. Leading and following is 10x easier than choreography and looks smooth and natural. Give it a try first before you decide.
Here’s a lead-follow routine. I’m sure it took 10x less work to learn than the choreographed routines you see on YouTube:
Tip #2:
Don’t chose the wrong song.
What’s a bad song? Well we had a couple that wanted to dance to Sam Smith – I’m Not The Only One. Listen to the lyrics.
Not everyone listens to lyrics, so we get it. But many people do listen, so watch out.
But seriously – how should you chose your song?
Maybe you have a song that has always reminded you of each other? If so, perfect! That’s your song.
But not everyone has ‘their song’. Don’t stress. You just need to pick a song that has appropriate lyrics that you both won’t get sick of.
Yep – that’s right. You’re going to hear it over and over again while practicing, and you don’t want to feel like this:
Go through Spotify / YouTube and choose 3 or 4 songs that you both like. That should be enough for your dance teacher to work with. This will make it clear what sort of sound and style you are looking for. They may get you dancing to all of your songs. This will make it much easier to decide which one you like. Dancing to a song gives it a completely different feel compared to just listening to it.
Here’s a Spotify / YouTube playlist of 10 wedding songs that are pretty popular in 2016.
Do you find these songs too generic – and want something unique? That’s cool with us – we helped a Nintendo-crazy couple do a routine to all the Nintendo sound effects. The crowd went crazy!
Tip #3:
Don’t dance while drunk!
Look. Hey. We get it. There’s a good chance that you’ll have plenty of booze at your wedding.
Actually, if there’s not any – please don’t invite me. Just kidding…
But there’s no reason to hold off the champagnes because you’re worried about your dance!
Here’s how… just do your dance when you arrive at the venue! I started recommending this about 6 years ago and it’s catching on. And everyone seems to be loving it. It has the added benefit of allowing your guests to get up on the dance floor early on.
See… I know a couple of things about wedding dances.
Tip #4:
Know your entrance and exit.
Remember how I said don’t corerograph anything? Sorry, I lied. Make sure you choreograph just your entrance and exit. Then practice it over and over again. Make it smooth and you’ll feel confident. A great entrance will set you up for a memorable dance. A great exit will always be remembered.
Tip #5:
Don’t start on the dance floor.
Make sure your D.J. (or your friend doing the music) starts playing your song before you actually hit the d-floor. Walk out onto the floor as the song is starting. This way you don’t have to stand in the middle of the floor nervously waiting for the music to start.
Tip #6:
Watch out for your dress!
Not all dresses are created equal… for dancing.
Just make sure your teacher is a wedding expert and show them a picture of your dress as this can affect what dance steps you learn. Most dressed can be bustled (ask your dress maker/seller).
Otherwise – change into another more flexible dress. I’ve started seeing this trend among people that have large dresses – you’ll also enjoy your night a lot more being able to walk around speaking to your guests.
Conclusion
Got any questions about your wedding dance? Or don’t know why Sam Smith – I’m Not The Only One is not a great wedding song?
Get in touch with us – we’d love to chat!
Talk to you soon!
