Celebrity DJ Company Interviews The Wedding Dance Specialists

Yeah We Think We Can Dance - by Dave Armon of Scratch Weddings (Image courtesy of FOX)

When it comes to the first dance that couples share with one another on their wedding night, the Waltz immediately comes to mind for bridal purists. But two popular TV shows have stoked interest in far more challenging dance floor moves.

ABC’s Dancing With the Stars and FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance?, have led to far more lofty aspirations among couples planning to demonstrate their fancy footwork. The result: a booming business for professional dance instructors who specialize in weddings.

Deborah Joy Block, an industry pioneer whose team trains close to 1,000 engaged couples annually, credits the dancing reality shows for convincing couples that an investment of time and energy can make a wedding reception more memorable. Although The Wedding Dance Specialists’ claim to fame is working a miracle in ONE lesson by providing a basic but complete routine, she cautions against procrastinating.

“Realistically, a lot of couples tend to delay taking lesson until a month or two before the wedding day. And they don’t leave themselves enough time or budget to allow for an elaborate routine and a lot of lessons,” said Block, who operates multiple The Wedding Dance Specialists studios in the Washington, D.C., area.

The musical preferences among couples learning dance from The Wedding Dance Specialists match up closely with Scratch Weddings clients. A recent review of first dance song selections reveals 70% opt for slow songs – mainly Top 40 slow love ballads. Examples range from At Last by Etta James to Sade’s By Your Side, to You Are The Best Thing by Ray Lamontagne.

For the 30% of couples who want their music – and their feet – to move a bit faster, we’ve seen plenty of merengue, salsa and swing, along with memorable rock tracks like Modern English’s Melt With You, and The Zombies’ This Will Be Our Year.

For those who just want to survive their moment in the spotlight regardless of the song’s tempo, the experts offer these words of reassurance.

“If you have a really good instructor who understands the unique needs of engaged couples, you should be able to look natural, elegant and relaxed in a very short period of time and still impress everybody even without an elaborate routine,” Block said, adding, “If a studio tells you need 10 lessons when your goal is just to avoid the ‘high school prom sway’– that’s excessive.”

One real-life example of how a working with a professional can make a novice into a respectable dancer involves Los Angeles Times business reporter Dawn Chmielewski, who prepared in just two weeks for a one-time guest appearance on Dancing With The Stars in 2009. She wrote a page one column about the experience
Granted Chmielewski’s partner was professional dancer Jonathan Roberts, not a groom with two left feet. To compensate for that, we’d recommend an extra week of lessons.

Celebrity DJ company and training academy Scratch Weddings was founded by Grammy Winner Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, trains thousands of DJs nationally and internationally, won numerous wedding industry awards, executed events for top national corporate brands, Their DJ training software Scratch DJ Academy MIX software is sold at Best Buy and the video game DJ Hero 2 features their curriculum. The original post of this article can be found on the Scratch Weddings Blog at http://www.scratchweddings.com/yeah-we-think-we-can-dance/

Here are a few Scratch Weddings DJ's DC bios. They include high-res photos, video interviews and demos, and mixes:

n DJ As-One http://www.scratchweddings.com/dj-biomix.php?r=REoxMDAyMQ==&e=MTMx

n DJ Bounce http://www.scratchweddings.com/dj-biomix.php?r=REoxMDAyMw==&e=MTMx

n DJ Premonition http://www.scratchweddings.com/dj-biomix.php?r=REoxMDAzOA==&e=MTMx

Wedding Dance Blooper

Wedding Dance Blooper of the Week: The High School Prom Sway

This is the infamous high school prom sway that everyone (including the guests) dread. For those who want to skip dance lessons and get by with this, try videotaping yourselves and see how long you can stand watching then divide that in half (your audience's attention span). The couple just hangs on each other and sways like zombies for 4 long minutes with all eyes and cameras spotlighting them... Do you have a picture or video of the "prom sway" to share? Post it here or on our Facebook Fan Page

Determining How Many Dance Lessons You Need

Determine what your dancing goals are first. This will affect when you start and how many lessons you choose. Don't worry too much about time constraints when considering quantity because we can offer double sessions. Once you have determined your goals, we can better advise you as to how many lessons we recommend for your individual needs. Consider the following:

• Do you want to learn enough just to "survive" the wedding dance?

• Do you want to have an interesting variety of moves for the wedding dance?

• Are you participating in additional Honors Dances?

• Do you plan on fast dancing during the general reception?

• Do you want to learn to dance in general at future social events?

• Do you want to enjoy a dinner/dancing date night with your fiance(e) during the wedding planning process?

• Do you want to share dancing as a hobby even after the wedding?

Feedback from our students Julie and Jason!

Julie and Jason are a lovely couple and so easy to work with! Julie was so supportive and encouraging of Jason and Jason had such a mellow and sunny disposition. Both had the perfect attitude going into the challenge of learning something new under time pressure constraints. I guess Jason is not flustered by pressure easily as he risks his life on a daily basis as a police officer! Thank you for choosing our services!