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| YOUR WEDDING DANCE | WEDDING PACKAGES | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | ||
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There are many details to consider when preparing for your first dance. Your instructor can help insure that all your bases are covered. Take a few moments to read through this list, and you'll be prepared to provide your instructor with the type of information that will help her serve you best. How often should we attend classes? It depends on your availability and your timetable. In general, once a week is sufficient. We recommend scheduling your lessons in advance to secure your preferred time slots. Where are you located? What makes your company unique? You can call us, email us or fill out the contact form with your schedule preferences to set up an appointment. The best times to call are between 10am and 4pm, Monday thru Friday. We will respond to you within 24 - 72 hours. The lessons are by appointment only and we cannot accept walk-ins. Once we have scheduled your appointments and secured your reservation with payment, you will receive a confirmation email detailing everyting you will need to know for your lesson including: the studio address and directions, list of items to bring to class, etc... Please bring the first page of the confirmation letter to class. If you do not recieve a confirmation letter within a couple of days of setting up your appointments please let us know immediately. Ideally you should time your lessons so that they end several weeks before your wedding day. So count back from there. This allows for unexpected scheduling conflicts which might arise and frees up your schedule during the last hectic weeks leading up to your big day! (However, if you've waited until the last minute, crash courses are available as long as you can be flexible too! ) Even a few lessons before the wedding will serve to help both bride and groom feel more relaxed and confident when they step out onto the dance floor. It's best to reserve your appointments as far in advance as possible to secure your preferred time slots. 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: The staff are assigned to permanent locations. You are placed with an instuctor based on the location you select. Sometimes there is the option of selecting a male or female instructor if both work at the location you select. However, the gender of the instructor is unimportant in terms of their ability to teach both the leader and follower roles. For the purposes of wedding dance preparation, each of our staff are equally skilled to teach both roles and all styles of social dance from all eras. What does a private lesson include? A private lesson means you have reserved the instructors time and complete attention of one instructor for the entire :55 minute lesson. The curriculum focuses on a combination of presentation choreography, patterns, tempo awareness and valuable technique. The private lessons are scheduled by appointment according to your preferred time slots and the instructor's availability. It also includes all the extra complimentary services listed on the Packages page which are not included in a group lesson. The private lessons are scheduled in advance and pre-paid. Since dance studio space is a limited commodity, a private lesson may include a completely private room but is not guaranteed unless an additional “private room fee” is paid and the room is reserved in advance. The private room fee ranges from an extra $65 on up to a couple hundred dollars depending on the location and the hour of the day reserved. Will we practice to our wedding song? Yes. You will mostly practice to your specific song with the exception of using similar songs in the same genre to teach you how to adjust to the uncertainties of dancing to live band music instead of a recording. If your studio space is shared, your instructor will use your music at his/her discretion as often as he/she requires it for providing quality instruction. The instructors are Wedding Dance Specialists . That means 99% of our clientele are wedding couples and our packages are specifically designed with the wedding couple in mind. That means they have an in-depth knowledge of the intricacies of the vital components of a wedding dance and the unique goals and needs of wedding couples. The instructors have many years of teaching and performance and/or competing experience and also enjoy working with beginners. Unlike many studios which bring in non-dancers and train them from scratch and send them out to teach after a few weeks of training, we only hire top notch instructors with years of experience. Many of them have university degrees in Dance and all of them are bilingual college graduates. Will we always have the same instructor? Mostly for administrative ease we generally try to place you with the same instructor. If your schedule is tight or you schedule appointments at the last minute you may occassionally have a substitute instructor. Many students enjoy sampling the varying styles and personalities of different instructors especially if they are on a larger package. The instructors are trained to make your experience as seamless as possible so that you pick up where you left off from your last lesson. If you have any special needs or concerns that you would like conveyed to your instructor feel free to contact our office and we can coordinate that for you. If you have a strong preference to keep the same instructor please make that preference known to our office. We feel overwhelmed. How do we select a dance studio/instructor? What is the difference between a wedding dance specialist and a general ballroom dance teacher? Your goals. 2) One dance style versus a variety: The Wedding Dance Specialists leaves the decision of how many dances to learn up to you-the client! Most wedding couples are on a tight schedule and limited budget, they want to focus their attention on feeling comfortable for their first dance in front of their guests. In contrast, general dance studios may discourage students from studying only one dance for various reasons (primarily the bottom line). Complicating a small program (3-5 lessons) with additional dances may result in needing to purchase more lessons and cause a sense of confusion and discomfort on your big day. Feeling comfortable with new dance material generally requires about 5 hours. Depending on your skill and comfort level,it’s O.K. to reevaluate your progress and comfort level after the third or fourth lesson to consider learning the very basics of a second dance but be wary of teachers too insistent on focusing on more than one dance from the onset. 3) Experience of the instructor: Since wedding couples generally purchase small packages (less than 25) many studios have their most inexperienced instructors teach the wedding couples. Our instructors have been specially trained for the unique needs of wedding couples and are all competition or performance level dancers. Dance lessons are as important as any other service you might hire for your wedding. You have every right to ask how long your instructor has been teaching. Would you want to hire a chauffeur who just moved to the area, got his license last week and has never driven the limo before? 4) Flexibility in package options: Be wary of studios who insist you cannot benefit from just one lesson or worse do not allow you to purchase only one lesson! Even one lesson with the right instructor can show remarkable results. Some students time or budget do not allow for more than one lesson. We understand this and are flexible. We GUARANTEE that you can look and feel more elegant on the dance-floor with ONE lesson compared to just trying to “wing it.”. The Wedding Dance Specialists cater to the unique needs of wedding couples. We created this niche in the metro/DC area years ago because we saw a need was not being met. A couple years after our inception, we have been flattered by those attempting to imitate us. Your wedding dance preparation can be the most relaxing and romantic aspect of your wedding planning process IF you have the right instructor! We encourage you to do your research and compare! 5) The Teacher: The personality, demeanor, image, teaching style are all important factors to consider when selecting a dance teacher. Just because they are good dancers does not guarantee that they will be good teachers. The teacher must genuinely enjoy working with beginners and ideally have compassion and understanding of the unique pressures that wedding planning involves. Our staff also stay abreast of the wedding industry by reading our two complimentary online newsletters called "Wedding Dance 411" and "Marriage 411" which provide professional planning advice, resources and we have negotiated exclusive vendor discounts on your behalf! We hope you'll read it and benefit too! Do you offer a FREE trial lesson? Beware of "FREE" lessons! You get what you pay for! Free lessons are not given out of the kindness of a studio's heart, most "free lessons" at dance studios are simply a lure to get you through the door. Much of the lesson is spent convincing you of the benefits of dance as a lifetime hobby and reviewing lengthy and expensive packages for after your wedding. The "free" lesson’s emphasis is not actually on learning to dance but rather on selling you more lessons. It costs a dance studio thousands of dollars to create a dance instructor and promote their business. Therefore, studios do not give away QUALITY private lessons for free. Therefore, they must recoup their loss on the "FREE" lesson by hiking up the price on any lessons you purchase in the future. A "FREE" lessons generally consists of 20 minutes of dance instruction (which may not even focus entirely on your actual dancing goals) and the rest of the "lesson" is a sales pitch. Your time is valuable, studios should respect your time by answering all your questions over the phone, by email or on their website. The first sign that a studio is in the higher price bracket is if they refuse to quote you their rates over the phone and/or don't post them on their website. Other studios know each other's prices, so you have to ask yourself...who are they hiding them from? If you have to spend your valuable time finding out that a studio is too expensive or doesn't meet your needs or expectations, isn't that already too high a price to pay for a "FREE" lesson? With us, you can expect answers to all your questions before even walking through our door. The lesson is intensive and focused on your specific needs from the onset. We will even GUARANTEE you an entire wedding dance in ONE lesson if you tell us in advance that is all you intend to take. Isn't that better than a "FREE" lesson designed to convince you that you need MORE lessons? Ask the studio if they are willing to make that same guarantee on a "FREE" lesson. Hint: It's impossible to provide the same quality in the standard :40 - :45 minute lesson most studios provide. Can we come and observe a lesson? In an effort to provide you with as much advance information as possible our website is the most detailed and comprehensive one of its kind in the nation. We hope you find the resources helpful! How do you ensure customer satisfaction? Although we rarely receive any complaints and have never received a request for a refund based on dissatisfaction with the quality of instruction, we try our best to ensure that clients are satisfied with the results of their lessons and their experience with the instructor. We welcome any feedback that can help us provide you with great service! 1. Provide a timely (usually 24 hours or less) response to your emails and phone calls. Lessons are taught weekend (mornings through early evening) and weeknights 4-10pm in all locations. Check with specific locations for exact days. We offer convenient office hours for scheduling and billing issues, Monday - Friday, from 10am - 4pm and an emergency after hours line is monitored until 10pm weeknights and weekends. Do you only teach wedding couples? While we are wedding dance specialists and the vast majority of our clientele are wedding couples, we do have many years of experience teaching people of all ages who enjoy dancing in general. We offer separate packages for singles, non-wedding couples, semi privates, mini groups, and private parties. What if we are absolute beginners and have 4 left feet? There is no expectation that you should have prior knowledge of dancing. It is a myth that natural ability is a prerequisite for becoming a dancer. Dancing is a learned skill and as professionals it is our job to empower you with the skill. It's like taking lessons for any new activity, no previous experience is required. Most of our students are complete novices. We pride ourselves in our patience and enthusiasm for working with beginners. What type of shoes should we wear? Wear leather-soled dress shoes or suede bottomed ballroom dance shoes if you own them. You can order dance shoes online or from a catalog or visit a local dance store to purchase a pair. Information about dance shoe resources is located on the Dance Shoes page of this website. Otherwise socks are fine. We do not recommend wearing pumps, mules, sling backs, flip flops, clogs, sandals or tennis shoes to class. On the second to last lesson we recommend practicing in your wedding shoes. Unlike many studios, whose lessons are only 40-45 minutes. Our lessons are 55 minutes. We also encourage you to come in 15 minutes early to warm up. If you have an unusually restrictive schedule, we can minimize your travel time and provide double sessions back to back of 110 minutes with a 10 minute rest break in the middle of the two sessions. This minimizes your visits tot eh studio while still maximizing the amount of material you learn. In terms of quality comparisons, we are unparalleled but if you are doing strictly price comparisons with other studios be sure to recalculate for the differences in lesson durations. Do we have to purchase a “package?" No. You customize your own program. We offer an a la carte option for less than 5 lessons. The package sizes are not designed to specify how many lessons you are limited to, they are guidelines for what is generally accomplished in that time span based on the average student. The package sizes indicate where quantity rate discounts apply to the rates. These discounts may apply to the entire range of lessons below the subsequent package. (For example: 5-7 lessons = $x, 8-10 lessons - $y, 11-19 lessons = $z) Is it worthwhile to take a “crash course" of just a couple lessons if we've procrastinated? Absolutely! We are the only dance company that GUARANTEES a wedding dance in one lesson! Just be sure to let us know in advance if you only plan to take one and plan to limit the attendance to one couple and focus on one dance style. We do our best to accommodate last minute requests and believe that even ONE lesson is better than resorting to the “high school prom sway.” We will focus exclusively on your wedding dance, give you a lovely entrance, help you move as a team around the room and a lovely finale and exit off the floor. These are the three components that your guests will remember most. All components of the dance are uniquely customized to your song and your personal style. We also provide an optional complimentary crinoline dress rehearsal and in-class videotaping for you to evaluate the final product. Testimonial: "Our appointment with Jim went great...we just met with him once to get some ideas to incorporate into our song. He gave us many good tips and it was amazing how much he was able to fit into an hour!" Thanks, Debbie Vanetti and Mike Platz, July 2005 The Wedding Dance Specialists GUARANTEE:
Do you provide the music for our "First Dance?" What about upgrades or add ons? We pride ourselves in our unique and flexible pricing options. Therefore, for purchases of 1- 4 additional lessons we honor the discounted package rates up until 24 hours after your second lesson. This "trial period" allows you to experience two lessons and have some time to evaluate and discuss your options with your partner afterward. If you decide to upgrade after the grace period, each additional lesson is at the a la carte rate. Additional full packages of 5 or more lessons can be purchased any time. Do you allow refunds for unused lessons? We offer a money back GUARANTEE on "unused" lessons for any reason. If you cancel too late, attend late or do not show up for a scheduled appointment the appointment is considered "forfeited" and therefore there are no refunds on those specific missed lessons. Lessons are valid for up to one year after the date of purchase. The lessons are transferrable as a gift certificate to friends or family or you may recieve a refund (before the expiration date). We do not require contracts that lock you into spending a fixed amount. If you choose to discontinue lessons you may recieve a *pro-rated* refund which reflects the number of lessons already taken and the applicable package and/or unit rate. Refunds require 4 business days advance notice in writing and a 3.5% processing fee is applicable for refunds requested after 55 days from the purchase date.The emphasis on the lessons is to feel comfortable while dancing together. If you feel relaxed, you will look relaxed. The first dance is a romantic moment and should reflect that mood too. Our goal is to empower you with the skills to look calm under pressure when all eyes are on you in the spotlight and the camera is rolling! The components of the first dance are comprised of Leading and Following skills, Patterns, Technique, Tempo and Choreography. The special song you pick will help us design a dance that will allow you to express the mood and personality of its unique sound. Patterns are the barebones footsteps of the dance. They are like puzzle pieces that you combine to make a picture. Technique is what makes the picture pretty. Technique transforms patterns from being robotic and mechanical into smooth and seamless movements. It's important to lay the groundwork of good technique right from the beginning in order to dance elegantly as a team. Preparing a wedding dance with your partner is very different than everyday social dancing because it requires additional components in order to “perform” in front of a crowd without looking overly rehearsed. That's where the choreography come in. We will also empower you with skills to recover from unexpected situations so that you look natural and confident. What if I need to cancel or reschedule a lesson? We understand that sometimes circumstances occur or things change and you might need to cancel or reschedule your lesson. That is fine, provided we receive the requisite advance notice. In cases of extreme emergency (death in the family, hospitalization or accident) we will do our best to accomodate you and try to fill the slot and assess no fees. In non-emergency situations (minor illness, traffic, other committments, working late, unexpected business trip) where you find that you need to cancel at the last minute, consider having your partner attend the class solo. It is very beneficial for people to experience the one on one experience with the teacher and each person has unique areas of learning on which to focus. Another option is to invite a parent to join you to learn the Honors Dance. We have created this policy to fairly balance the needs of our clients, potential clients on waiting lists, our teachers and administrative staff. Like in other areas of wedding planning where a deposit is required to secure your reservation of a reception site, a live band or DJ service, dance lesson reservations are also pre-paid at the time of scheduling. You can mail in payment or pay by credit card. Just like you pre-pay for a gym membership, or catalog and internet purchases you also pre-pay for your reservations. Since teachers are only paid for the time they teach this has become a standard practice among the majority of dance studios. As the client, you benefit from pre-paying by having the convenience of reserving the teacher's time in advance, ensuring you recieve your preferred time slots, maximize instruction time while minimizing paperwork time and receive quantity rate discounts. In exchange pre-payments give us the assurance that students will show up for the lesson or give us the requisite notice if they elect to cancel or reschedule. The policy is in place to protect the staff from being stood up and results in people only scheduling appointments that they genuinely intend to keep. Consequently, we have found this system to be the most fair way to enable all potential clients to have a chance to be scheduled. What if we would like to take more lessons after the wedding? Your current package does not expire for one year from the date of purchase. This means you or someone else has one year to use the lessons. They are transferrable as a gift certificate. Please contact our office to make transfer arrangements. If you have completed your wedding package before your wedding and would like to continue with private lessons after the wedding and we happen to be running a sale you can place a $87 deposit and lock in the sale rate for a year. You do not need to pre-select a package amount until you are ready to resume the lessons. Be aware that dancing is recreational exercise. Make sure you are physically fit enough to handle the exertion dancing may cause and consider checking with a physician if you have any outstanding health conditions that may be aggravated by this activity. You are undertaking this activity at your own risk. |
First Dance Song and wedding dance selection assistance. Check out our 
Easy and fun patterns that glide smoothly along the dance floor. 
"Lead and Follow" Technique to move "as one." 
An elegant Entrance and Finale for an impressive and confident appearance plus a great photo opportunity!| (Top) | YOUR WEDDING DANCE | PACKAGES | LOCATIONS | CONTACT US |
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