Marco was a lifesaver for our wedding dance! I knew from the beginning I wanted a choreographed dance (because I’m that extra), but with the craziness of life and a fiancé travelin...g and working a lot during wedding planning, we almost had to give up this dream as we just couldn’t have the time for lessons. But Marco saved us! We literally contacted him less than a month before our wedding, had our first consultation the same day, and booked him right away for his 4 classes package! The consultation allowed us to show our song choice and our (extremely limited) skills while he taught us a basic step, so that he could plan the dance accordingly.
Each class was 45 minutes long, where he would teach us 1-2 new steps: he explains and shows a step to you, lets you use your phone to record him showing both sides so that you can rewatch it easily at home, and teaches it to you. His “choreography style” (at least for us) was to give us a library of 5-6 steps that you will do at your own pace with basic steps in between: Because it is not a performance, you are not meant to do a certain move at a certain time. This was a bit hard for me to let go of this idea as a very “everything planned to the details” type of person, but this was for the best to not add this pressure on us. As I wanted to use as much of the song as possible, and match the “flirty” vibe (Michael Bubblé - Feeling Good, 4 minutes long!) without boring our guests with repetitive movements, he worked with us on:
1) how to do an entrance from outside the room with the music on (instead of starting in the middle of the dance floor) ;
2) having a moment between two steps where we could “play with the room”. This part wasn’t really choreographed by Mark, it was a moment for us to show off our personalities, and we easily filled it
3) having a simple but elegant dip at the end (which I requested, in the absence of a lift for which he advised against, and my fiancé being very against a lift as this could very much turn into a “bride & groom on the floor LOL video”), to add some flare and to be the cue to the DJ to fade out the song.
The 4 lessons package fit our timeline perfectly, and was exactly enough to get all the steps we needed. You definitely need to practice at home (thanks to the videos of Marco you recorded) to improve the fluidity of the whole dance, but who wouldn’t enjoy this anyway?
Marc also encourages you “to fail” during your practices: messing up the steps AND KEEP GOING, because there’s a high chance something is not going to go according to plan during your actual dance, but the show has to keep rolling, right? This was valuable advice.
I 300% recommend scheduling a time to rehearse your dance THE DAY OF THE WEDDING, because man, dancing with my unbustled gown was a whole other thing ! (I didn’t have any dress with a train to wear at the lessons) Our first practice after our room reveal was absolutely terrible (we barely practiced the week leading to the wedding though); but we did it a couple more times and felt more confident.
And let me tell you: our actual first dance was OUR BEST ONE, and we had so much fun!!! We felt confident in our steps, we had good communication to what was next, and the crowd cheered us the whole time! We had a lot of staff telling us it was one of the best first dances they have seen in their career! To anyone considering him: trust the 100 reviews, he is worth it =)
https://clipchamp.com/watch/QmHYouLFwIx