Art of Movement

Alyssa was wonderful to work with. She maintained a flexible schedule and worked around our needs. She was very patient in teaching us when we had no background in dance at all.

Alyssa at Art of Movement brings an extraordinary blend of artistry and instruction to wedding dance preparation. Over the course of five lessons, she guided us through both our first dance and mother-son dance, creating bespoke choreography that perfectly captured our vision and personality as a couple. What distinguishes Alyssa is her thoughtful approach to storytelling through movement. Rather than simply teaching steps, she crafts a personalized narrative that reflects each couple's unique relationship. She weaved together technical elements with artistic vision, resulting in choreography that feels both natural and meaningful. Her teaching style is patient, adaptable, and encouraging. She has a remarkable ability to break down complex movements into manageable components while maintaining an atmosphere that's both professional and enjoyable. Even as novice dancers, we felt completely at ease under her guidance. Working with Alyssa was one of our best wedding planning decisions. She transformed what could have been a stressful experience into a series of enjoyable lessons that built our confidence and created beautiful memories. For couples seeking a truly personalized dance experience in the DMV area, Alyssa is an exceptional choice!

My husband and I cannot thank Alyssa enough for being a fantastic instructor and for creating a beautiful first dance routine for our wedding. We are not skilled dancers or natural performers, but Alyssa created a routine that we could master AND impress our guests. We did lifts and dips that got a ton of cheers, but we didn’t feel like it was out of our ability to do those moves. Alyssa is a calm, kind, and fun instructor- we loved our experience and definitely recommend her!

Alyssa from Art of Movement is an absolutely fantastic teacher! If you are thinking about hiring someone to help you learn how to dance or to choreograph your wedding dance, don't hesitate to contact Alyssa. She designed a wedding dance for us that was perfect and was incredibly patient with us as we learned all the steps and lifts. Our wedding dance surprised all of our guests and they still talk about it to this day. We loved working with Alyssa so much that we continued to take lessons with her and even have started competing in west coast swing. We would 100000% recommend Alyssa!!!

Alyssa is awesome!!! She choreographed Nora and I's first dance at our wedding and did an amazing job breaking down each component (very helpful for us being quite at the beginner stage). She could adjust choreography on the fly based on our own preferences and song choice and really set us up to succeed at all stages even with only a handful of weeks leading up to the wedding. We loved working with Alyssa and would recommend her to anyone!

We couldn’t have asked for a better dance instructor than Alyssa. She choreographed our first dance for our wedding, and this was no ordinary routine. We had a big request — combining two different songs and styles: Stevie Wonder's "For Once in My Life" and Tevin Campbell’s "I 2 I" from A Goofy Movie. Alyssa had not only took on the challenge but also exceeded our expectations. She had a great attitude about it, and it turns out it was also her dream to learn the Powerline choreo. :) Alyssa's dance lessons were something we looked forward to as a couple, it took us out of the demands of wedding planning and work. She was incredibly patient and kind, taking the time to tailor the choreography to our dance abilities. She broke everything down well and taught us some spectacular dips, lifts, and tricks. Alyssa's guidance helped us feel confident and comfortable throughout the whole process. We also appreciated her attention to detail and her feedback, which helped us to perform to the best of our abilities. The result was a first dance mash-up we absolutely loved. Our guests were blown away, even our band and our venue staff complimented us. It was truly a highlight of the night and something we'll never forget. Alyssa made the experience fun and stress-free, and we’re so grateful for her talent and dedication. Highly recommend!

My wife and I had quite the vision of blending 2 songs (totally different styles of dance) for our first dance and though I was a bit skeptical that we could pull it off, we did, and all because of Alyssa. Alyssa took the time to break down the dances in smaller, learnable parts and after each lesson our confidence grew. Alyssa was kind, patient and encouraging. We appreciated everything thing she did to make our dream dance a reality. Thank you, Alyssa and The Art of Movement.

From our very first email exchange to schedule our dance package to our last practice before our wedding, we had the most incredible experience working with Alyssa! We had so much fun during each lesson and felt so comfortable learning the choreography she picked for us. We genuinely looked forward to each lesson and were sad when they came to an end, but what made us so thrilled is how much our friends and family loved our first dance! We practiced a lot but would have been nowhere without Alyssa. 10/10 recommend -- she is the best!!

Alyssa is amazing. We had literally 4 weeks to prepare our first dance for our big wedding in Greece and as no-dancers Alyssa was able to get us prepped with a simple yet impressive Frank Sinatra choreography. Couldn't have found a better instructor (and we tried a few). Thank you Alyssa!

Alyssa was an amazing teacher! She choreographed our entire first dance for our wedding. We learned it over three classes. We are very novice, but Alyssa made it easy and fun. My husband was stressed about dancing in front of our guests, but because we took these classes it became one of his favorite parts of our wedding day.

Alyssa was such a tremendous dance instructor as we prepared for our wedding! We came in with very little experience but she guided us through every step of the way, from identifying some practice moves to try, picking a good song, learning simple but fun choreography, and making sure we felt confident going into our wedding. We also had very busy schedules and she was super flexible and accommodating of that. Many people at our wedding commented on how excited and comfortable we looked doing our first dance! And, the experience of working with her was a fun de-stressing activity in the months leading up to the wedding. We couldn’t recommend her highly enough!

We had an amazing experience with Alyssa as our wedding dance instructor! She was incredibly patient, creative, and nice throughout our lessons. Alyssa was also highly adaptable to our beginner dance level, making the learning process fun and stress-free. We would definitely recommend hiring her for anyone looking to create a memorable wedding dance!

We were so happy with our experience working with Alyssa. Over the course of several months, she helped us to choreograph and master our own dance moves, and with her coaching we were able to improve our technique significantly.

Alyssa was absolutely phenomenal in helping us with our first dance! We went in with very little experience and she did a great job of building our confidence and getting us to a very fun routine that was still easy to learn!! Highly recommend!

Alyssa was absolutely amazing! She worked with us to choreograph a dance for us that fit our style and wasn’t too hard for beginners! She was so patient with us to make sure we understood and helped us patiently to make it look good- definitely recommend to any couple looking for first dance help!!!

Alyssa was a pleasure to work with and captured the vision of what we wanted for our first dance at our wedding. She came up with choreography befitting the moment. The lessons were just the right number, at the right pace, and with ease. She designed movements that could easily be captured by photography and also created a positive response for our guests, and a memorable experience for us. Alyssa is a gracious dance instructor who offered a wonderful space and energy for us to create a moment for a lifetime.

Alyssa was an outstanding dance instructor who crafted a perfect (and very doable) first dance for our wedding. Over five lessons, she taught us the moves with patience, warmth and encouragement. Her attention to detail and calm attitude made us look forward to each lesson. Our dance was definitely a highlight of our reception!

Alyssa was fantastic! We gave her the song we wanted for our first dance for the wedding and discussed what we were looking for in our first dance based on our skill level. She choreographed a wonderful dance that really was "us." All along the way, Alyssa was patient, knowledgeable, and professional. Highly recommend!

Extremely professional, reassuring, and skilled! Alyssa planned out our plan to prepare for our first dance exactly according to our specifications and fit to our schedule from day one! We were in good hands and it was fun and rewarding every step of the way! We came out confident, reassured, and ready to enjoy our first dance as well!

Alyssa was so wonderful to work with. We learned the most perfect dance for our wedding. At the first lesson, Alyssa was already teaching us basic moves and had a choreograph to our song that we had sent her just a few days before. She helped us cut the music so it did not drag on. Every lesson was productive and fun! Cannot recommend Art of Movement enough!

We bought the 10-class pack with Alyssa for our wedding last year and it was honestly one of our favorite parts of wedding prep! Alyssa was professional, punctual, and choreographed us a great dance! We showed up to our first class not sure what to expect and she already had several 8-counts choreographed for us! We loved our dance, and it was a total hit at our wedding. She gauged our skill levels well and put together a slightly more advanced but still very easy to learn dance for us. Any sections we had trouble with she was quick to assist or to change up the move to flow better (or make us look better). Would definitely recommend Alyssa to anyone looking to prepare a first dance! We even each took one class with our mom/dad respectively to get some basic steps down for the father-daughter and mother-son dances.

Alyssa was absolutely amazing! She planned the perfect dance to go with our first dance song and the lessons were so fun, but also instructive. On the day, we were able to do the absolute perfect first dance and we couldn't be happier!

We had a wonderful experience working with Alyssa as a couple with pretty much zero talent for dance. She helped us craft the perfect first dance for our wedding that was manageable enough for us to learn, but was so impressive to our guests- we got so many compliments on our first dance which we weren't expecting! Beyond the end product, we really enjoyed our lessons- Alyssa was so helpful in being able to pinpoint what we weren't doing quite right and making small tweaks where needed. She is a very clear, professional, and understanding instructor. I can't recommend working with Alyssa enough, she turned something we were both a bit nervous about into something that we really enjoyed.

Taking dance lessons with Alyssa through Art of Movement was the best part of our wedding planning process. We have zero dance experience and this was totally out of character for us, so our guests were absolutely blown away when we were out there spinning and crushing it thanks to Alyssa. She choreographed something special that went perfectly with our song and walked us through every step - tweaking it as needed along the way to make sure we were comfortable and everything looked perfect. Alyssa made the process so fun and we both genuinely looked forward to every class. We're even considering doing more dance lessons just for fun! Cannot recommended her enough.

We had a great experience working with Alyssa to choreograph and practice our first dance! She was very professional and helpful, and put together a 2.5 minute dance that left our guests cheering and very impressed - quite a few said it was the best first dance they had ever seen! She also put together tbe perfect cut of the song we selected. All in all, we loved working with Alyssa and the dance made our special day all the more magical!

We took a class with Alyssa ahead of our first dance and it was probably one of the best wedding decisions we made. She is such a pro and could see our thought process as we learned some key steps and gave us excellent advice -- we got it in no time! The photos and video we have of that special moment look top class because of what we learned in just an hour from Alyssa. Thank you so much!

My husband and I have always wanted to learn how to social dance, and our wedding felt like a great reason to finally do so! Alyssa was fantastic - she helped us get comfortable with the dance style we'd be using for our first dance, choreographed it for us, and helped us really look natural and comfortable while doing it. I've already recommend Alyssa to two of our friends getting married later this summer, and will be doing so for any other friends that get engaged in the DC area. Her DC studio was also incredibly convenient. We also got to learn some other social dancing from her as well, which was delightful to whip out later that evening at the wedding! We are so excited to be able to do dances like swing now at events in the future, and might be coming back for some tune-up lessons too.

Alyssa was such a wonderful dance instructor! She made us feel calm and really helped us learn how to dance. Highly recommend her!

We had a fantastic experience working with Alyssa! We went from super uncomfortable dancers to able to adapt on the fly when our DJ accidentally cut our song wrong. We had fun, learned lots, and gained confidence in ourselves! Highly recommend working with Alyssa for your first dance!!

Alyssa was great to work with on our first dance routine! My wife and I provided her a song before we had our first lesson to get ideas and Alyssa did not disappoint. We went to our first lesson and she was fully prepared with a routine for us! She was professional and patient as we learned the steps for our dance routine. We took a total of 5 lessons to make sure we had our routine practiced and the steps correct. We also made sure to practice in our own time to get the most out of our lessons. The routine that Alyssa choreographed was the perfect difficulty for us since we are not dancers. Everyone loved it on our wedding day! Overall, Alyssa was a pleasure to work with and would definitely recommend for an newlyweds looking to learn a first dance song!

Alyssa did a beautiful job with our first dance and was so easy to work with. We had so much fun with her and she made learning the moves so EASY! Cannot wait to continue to learn from her at her group classes!

We wish we could give Alyssa more than five stars. We worked with her to learn a first dance for our wedding. She was patient, calm, clearly very competent, and an overall pleasure. She does an excellent job of listening to our goals and concerns and identifying ways to make us dance better. She utilized the package of lessons that we had to help us create something that we are excited to perform. This is a big deal because neither of us are dancers. Logistically, she is very simple and organized. The apartment where we took lessons was always immaculate and we had enough room to learn. She has a flexible schedule. Prices are fair.

Alyssa was amazing at choreographing our first dance! She truly helped us create a moment we will remember for a lifetime. We would highly recommend her for any couple looking to create a first dance to remember. Her experience and communication made our dance very easy to grasp, especially with my husband & I having very little dancing experience. We could not have done it without her!

Just a few months before our wedding, we decided to have a choreographed first dance and found Alyssa (Art of Movement) on the Knot. Alyssa was up for the challenge even after learning that my wife has two left feet. We had so much fun working with Alyssa during our five lessons, and grew from being skeptical of our skills together to feeling confident and camera ready. We nailed it!! No one was dropped and our guests cheered us on throughout. Cat calls galore!! There's no way that we could have accomplished this without the creativity, talent, and coaching from Alyssa. We would highly recommend Alyssa to choreograph and coach you through your first dance! Thank you, Alyssa!!

ALYSSA IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST! We love her so so much! She was the best instructor ever. When we started dance lessons, I had a dance history and my husband had never dance in his life. He also absolutely hated dancing. Alyssa not only choreographed the most amazing dance for us combining the best of both our abilities, she helped my husband learn to really enjoy our dance lessons. Honestly pretty magical considering how much he hated it at first. All of our guests loved our dance so much and could not stop gushing all night about it being one of the best dances they had ever seen. This would have never been possible without her. Thank you for everything Alyssa!

In just three lessons, Alyssa taught us a fun, beautiful dance that wowed our guests and that we felt skilled in executing. She is patient, talented, and kind in the way she instructs you. By the time we did our dance, we both felt confident in the moves and were able to pull it off perfectly. Learning the dance was one of our favorite parts of our wedding planning process!

Alyssa was absolutely outstanding. She is extremely patient and knowledgeable. She gave helpful pointers not only on moves, but frame and posture, as well as to remember to smile (and not look at your feet!). I highly recommend Art of Movement and Alyssa!

Alyssa was amazing! She came up with a special dance for our wedding and I was very nervous because I’m not much of a dancer. She helped us at every step and turn. She really helped me with my rigidness and helped me move a lot smoother. Alyssa even gave my parents a few moves and trust me my dad never danced before this. Our dance routine looks amazing and we are so excited to perform at our wedding next weekend. We would absolutely take more classes just for fun to learn some new moves and would recommend her to everyone especially brides who want to impress their guest.

Alyssa is a true gem and we loved working with her for our wedding first dance! She is incredibly patient, is a gifted dancer and choreographer, and gave us the confidence we needed to dance like professionals during an important moment in our lives. For that, we could not be more grateful! We received countless compliments on our first dance and truly, we have Alyssa to thank. As an added bonus, the dance lessons gave us something fun to look forward to during the stress of wedding planning, and it was fun picking up a new skill. Highly recommend Art of Movement -- thank you so much, Alyssa!

My wife and I received dance lessons as an engagement present in preparation for our wedding. We took 6 classes with Alyssa who was just fantastic. Neither of us had taken dance lessons before and were nervous about dancing in public in front of friends and family. Alyssa taught us salsa, merengue, and swing. She guided us through every step and helped us to choreograph our first dance. On the day, it went off without a hitch. I highly recommend Alyssa. She was friendly, very helpful, and knowledgeable.

Alyssa taught us how to DANCE wonderfully to our first dance song. She clearly knew what she was doing. She took our first dance song and came up with a beautiful choreographed dance for us. She was kind, took her time with us, learned how to adjust our movements when it made sense, filmed us with our phone to take home and learn, and it was overall just FUN! We even had time left to learn some other basic dance moves for other songs. I highly recommend Alyssa if you are wanting to learn how to dance for any occasion.

We can't say enough good things about Alyssa and Art of Movement! Thanks to her, our first dance at our wedding was a big hit. My original goal was "don't fall down" but we actually earned a ton of compliments! As context, my wife is a good dancer (some ballroom training, good sense of rhythm), while I am like Kevin James in Hitch (very, very bad). We started off with the 45-minute introductory lesson, which Alyssa offered at a discount rate, and left with a few basic steps, spins, and a dip that were timed for our specific song. I was impressed that it wasn't just a teaser session; we could have done a perfectly good slow dance with only those moves. We opted for three additional lessons, during which Alyssa taught us about 1.5-2 minutes of choreographed steps she put together for our song. The steps took into account our varying skill and comfort levels, and Alyssa expertly coached us through them, giving tips on execution and style. She was patient with my beginner skills and gave some more advanced tips to my wife. She even put together an edited version of our first dance song (for a smoother outro) that we had our DJ play. TLDR, Alyssa was a great instructor, put together great choreography based on our skill levels, and had reasonable rates. We would highly recommend her and Art of Movement!

Working with Alyssa on our wedding First Dance choreography was a fun and very positive experience! We came in with a song and she helped us bring our vision to life, which we eventually ended up dancing for our friends and family at our wedding this summer! Alyssa is an excellent teacher and through her guidance we even surprised ourselves! Highly recommend Alyssa for anyone preparing for a wedding or needing choreography, she goes above and beyond and is such a joy to work with! We feel very lucky to have found and worked with her.

Alyssa was the absolute best! From our first lesson to our last, Alyssa was patient and made learning our first dance the most enjoyable part of our wedding planning experience. She brought a sense of calmness and humor to what had to be difficult project, teaching the two of us with two left feet to dance. We can't recommend her enough!

No instructor will ever live up to the professionalism and personal support that we recurved here.This is the last 5 stars I can ever give for dance lessons because the bar is now that high

We took 4 lessons from Alyssa before our daughter's wedding. Had a wonderful time! Alyssa was personal but efficient in teaching some simple, but elegant dance floor moves which translated magically to the dance floor! We cannot thank her enough and highly recommend lessons for First Dance, and Father/Daughter dances.

Great instructor. She choreographed and helped us learn a dance for our wedding based on our requested song. She is patient, kind and funny. 10/10 experience and would do it again.

Alyssa was extremely professional and helpful throughout the whole process. She came prepared for our first lesson with choreography already sketched out in advance. It took us just three lessons to learn everything and we had a great time at all three. Alyssa has a calming presence and keeps it fun for amateurs like us. One of our wedding guests told us it was her favorite wedding dance she had ever seen. The dance itself was a highlight for both my wife and I as we think back on the day. We highly recommend Art of Movement.

Alyssa was referred to us through a family friend, and I’m so glad we found her. My husband and I had zero dance experience and wanted just a couple lessons to have some kind of routine for our first dance. Alyssa choreographed the perfect dance to our song - not too hard for us to learn but with a couple lifts and turns that made it extra special! My friends and family were super impressed at our wedding. Highly recommend if you are looking for lessons in the DC area !

Alyssa is a lifesaver. We had come to her in a panic a week before our wedding, because we had a really disappointing experience with another vendor, and she took care of us and gave us two crash course lessons. Our dance turned out to be everything we had hoped it would be, and we couldn’t have been happier with it. She saved us!

I always felt I had two left feet on the dance floor. When I met Alyssa, which was almost a week before my wedding, all I could do was step and tap. She gave me a sense of rhythm and taught me a variety of moves which gave me a lot of confidence for dancing. Subsequently, my then fiance and I took two Waltz dance lessons for our first dance. At our wedding reception, we surprised everyone with our first dance, and received lots of compliments afterwards. We danced most of the reception time and I felt very liberated and happy to be able to finally dance. For the first time in my life, I felt I was really dancing and not just prancing around. It was such an amazing feeling, and I'm grateful to Alyssa for making that happen.

We had so much fun learning from Alyssa! Her choreography was the perfect combination of easy to learn and impressive to watch. When we were struggling with something, she was so quick to troubleshoot with us and find an easy solution. It is awesome to feel this confident going into our first dance. Plus it was a fun way to take a break from stressful wedding planning and just do something fun with my fiancé. I would highly recommend!

Alyssa is an amazing instructor and choreographer! Taking dance lessons was actually my fiancé’s idea because he was very nervous about the prospect of dancing in front of all of our friends and family. Alyssa made us feel comfortable from the first class and even helped us narrow in on a first dance song because we just couldn’t pick something. She broke our first dance down into manageable chunks and took videos every week so we could review it if we got mixed up while practicing. She also customized the steps when we were struggling or uncomfortable with a certain piece of the dance and celebrated with us when we finally nailed something. I’d also add that I was a bit on the fence about taking lessons since it felt like just another expense and thing on the to do list, but it has become one of our favorite parts of the wedding process. We get to have a date night every week to connect, get a little exercise, and importantly forget about all the other tedious tasks for a little while. We are so excited to surprise our friends and family with our dips and lifts in a few weeks! Thank you, Alyssa!

Alyssa worked magic on us. I have two left feet, and my husband has never had any formal dance training either. We skipped traditional wedding music and really personalized to songs we liked. Alyssa brought our first dance song to life with choreography to "If I ain't Got You" by Usher and Alicia Keys. It took around 8-10 lessons for us to learn the dance. She took video so we could watch ourselves and practice at home. She laughed with us when we'd goof up, and got us back on track if we ever felt frustrated like we couldn't get it. The end result was so special. Our friends and family were blown away when we had our first dance at our wedding! The video is one of my cherished keepsakes from the day as well. For those on the fence about dance lessons.. I know it's an added expense when a wedding already costs quite a bit. However, going to dance lessons was a really fun and unique recurring date night that we looked forward to in the weeks leading up to the wedding. Especially those 2-3 months prior to the wedding it seems like days can go by and all you've talk to your fiancé about is the wedding, and the caterers, and the seating chart. Taking an hour to dance with my now husband was one of the highlights of wedding planning and allowed us to do something fun and stop fussing over tiny details. 10/10 recommend!!!