Moving Image Dance Academy & "FIRST DANCE VENUE"

l, covering every aspect of the dance, start to finish. He's patient, funny and kind, making the lessons a blast. Best of all, he's a well seasoned pro who really, really knows his stuff. He doesn't charge an arm and a leg for lessons, instead he taught my husband and I how to synchronize our limbs to great effect, learning the swing for our first dance. He took two uncoordinated beginners and worked his special brand of magic. Come wedding day, we felt confidently prepared. We pulled it off and were rewarded with a sea of hoots and howls! Ken and the First Dance Venue make an awesome combination!

dance floor, allowed my husband and I to learn in the same conditions we'd be dancing in at our wedding. It's intimidating to dance in a huge room with no one else on the floor, and best to get used to it prior to the wedding day to get past the jitters. This venue gave us that advantage, especially learning the waltz which requires a lot of space to do it right. We also had the advantage of learning from Ken with his decades of teaching experience. His teaching techniques are easy to understand and produce amazing results. He brought every move together in a cohesive manner which helped us progress rapidly. When we first started, we got a little scared thinking we may not have allowed enough time to learn, but Ken really came through for us. He gave all the credit to the space this venue allows, saying he never would have been to teach us this quickly in any dance studio. Our family and friends were totally impressed with our first dance! Do yourself a favor, avoid dance studios and get lessons from Ken at this venue!!

teaching, but also preparing couples for their wedding. No dance studio provides couples with such a huge space all to themselves! We're very familiar with how dance studios operate. Before moving to Philadelphia, we took lessons at a number of ballroom dance studios. Everyone takes private lessons to learn dance technique not taught in group class. Studios teach how to dance in a crowd, not perform for one, everyone shares the floor and music. We've seen couples have difficulty learning their first dance. We wanted our first dance to be a medley of dances. We wanted it to be fabulous but knew it might be impossible to find the right teacher, and the right space. My husband learned that Moving Image Dance Academy had a very large, separate First Dance Venue specializing in what we wanted. We went for a lesson with Ken and were sold. He charges considerably less than what we previously paid for less experienced teachers in a much smaller space. With his experience and this venue, he's certainly worth more. Ken is a true artist at teaching movement. We had weak spots in dances we'd previously learned. He immediately diagnosed everything. Instead of just giving us pointers like other teachers did, he tied it all together in a way that we'd never understood before. Suddenly everything clicked and our dancing instantly improved. Within a few lessons we felt transformed. Ken helped us choose music and the dances that would look best with my wedding dress, samba, rumba, cha cha, salsa, and swing. He gave us stunning choreography for each one and linked it all together so that it flowed seamlessly. Learning in such a large space with no restrictions allowed everything to be done in accordance with our wedding reception venue space. It really prepared us for performing our dances. With Ken's expert instruction, we really brought down the house at our wedding reception! Thanks Ken! We'll be back to continue lessons soon. If you want lessons for your first dance, forget about dance studios, this is the only place to go!

t to have such a large space all to ourselves in which to learn. Our first dance was the highlight of our wedding day!

turned out. Highly recommended!

cing on a huge dance floor with no one else on the floor, just like first dance is done at weddings. You can't get this by taking private lessons at a dance studio. The only other person on the floor was our teacher, Ken. My wife and I brought in a foxtrot song and he patiently taught us to dance to it. The foxtrot is a dance that requires a lot of space. The dance floor at our wedding reception venue was enormous. Luckily, the floor at the first dance venue was just as large. We paid nothing to use the space, and the lessons cost less than what others charge. We never considered how important floor size and room size is when we thought about learning to dance. It would have been difficult for my wife and I to learn the foxtrot on a smaller floor. Fortunately, Ken has the skills to teach dance to couples, and the necessary space to produce great results. It helped make our first dance a real success at our wedding.

day confidently. Ken offers private first dance lessons in a REAL studio with more than enough room to practice, and to top it off, you won't be sharing the dance floor with 12 other couples all while trying to learn! I highly recommend Moving Image Dance Academy's first dance venue for the best instructor around!

my wife and I.

We had a very large space guaranteed for each lesson. The rate was lower than dance studio rates and we didn't even have to buy a package. We didn't just learn steps, Ken is a veteran dance professional who really knows how to turn couples into dancers. He impressed us with his teaching style, enabling us to impress everyone on our wedding day. If you want a great first dance, Ken is the one for you!

process a lot easier. We really enjoyed ourselves and plan to continue lessons with Ken.

e, so this location was perfect for us. We started lessons a bit later than we should have, so hTinaaving such a large space just for us to learn in was really helpful, and the lessons were a lot of fun.

here. Ken also seems to have a paid relationship with The Knot that makes me wonder if that is the reason for the generally positive reviews here (just speculating). FWIW—my good friend and his fiancé also went to Ken and reported a similarly negative experience that makes me think it was a trend rather than us being an outlier. And this is my only negative review of all the wedding vendors that we hired, so I promise I am not just a Negative Nancy. Neither of us are great classically trained dancers, so our expectations were realistic. We just wanted to have a fun time and learn a few basic moves for our big day. Pros: • He does seem to care deeply about your wedding dance, and wants you to have a great first dance • He gives you focused attention throughout the 45-minute lessons • I’m definitely not the best judge of this, but he does seem to know his stuff when it comes to the technical aspects of ballroom dancing. • The location he uses (Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square) is nice, and was very convenient for us • He really stresses the fundamentals of dance, which I suppose would be helpful if the goal was to lay the foundation for years of dance instruction. Wasn’t our goal, but if it is yours than he might be worthwhile. Cons: • I found him to be an extremely poor teacher. We would do a very simple step (literally walking forward together), and he would stop us to point out that our elbows weren’t high enough, and then spend 5-10 minutes explaining to us the importance of that fact. It was like “dude, I get it!”. He does a particularly poor job of “reading the room” in terms of helping you get better. I happen to be more of a learn by doing kind of person (I get better by just getting a lot of reps in), but he’s really more of a teach by explaining kind of person, who would go on these long diatribes about fundamentals that really eat into the lesson time. • I don’t think he was deliberately wasting our time, but he does cost a lot, which was compounded by the fact that he is a very slow teacher who charges by the minute. It really sucked out a lot of the fun that we were hoping to have out of the whole process. We took 6 lessons with him, and still had only learned ~4 steps, so ended up just giving up and doing our own thing on our wedding day. We are admittedly not world-class dancers, but that seems ridiculous. • He is really not great if you are, like us, just looking to have a fun time, not take yourselves too seriously, and learn a few basic moves to not embarrass yourselves on a first dance. • The previous points probably contributed to this, but I found him to be a bit rude, self-concerned and living in his own world.

husband did not have any, and Ken was able to teach in a style that worked well for both of us. Ken rents a large dance space that each couple gets to take advantage of without sharing with other couples, which gave us the opportunity to practice in a large space similar to the dance floor at our wedding venue. Overall, we had a lot of fun taking these lessons, and we were happy with how our first dance turned out. We would definitely recommend Ken to other couples seeking first dance lessons.

ay too much on small details. He told me at our first lesson that we could not use the wedding song that my fiancé and I wanted because it did not have a good beat. We are taking lessons at another studio now, using the song we want, and making a lot of progress with our dance each lesson. For experienced dancers, Ken may be a good fit but for entry level he may not be the best.

it couldn't have gone better! Thanks Ken!

ur dance and we got a standing ovation at our wedding!

d with a very clueless couple. Ken is very passionate about dance which made our lessons extremely enjoyable. He was patient with us, especially me who was clueless about dancing, and made in otherwise uncomfortable experience very fun. He made sure that we focused on a simple but beautiful routine to ensure we looked as polished as possible given our deadline. Ken talk with passion which not only made our experience great, but inspired us to continue getting lessons after our wedding. I highly recommend moving image for your first dance, or if your simply looking to be inspired by a true professional.

that our routine fit the layout of the room and how we would enter. I highly recommend him!

with Ken that were 45 minutes long apiece, so we certainly felt that we made fast and efficient progress. Ken rented a large private room in downtown Philadelphia for the lessons and that gave us lots of space and the chance to dance to music of our own choosing (played from my phone over an audio system). As suggested in previous comments, Ken takes dance seriously, has high standards, and is honest and direct in pointing out areas for improvement, but we never had trouble accepting his feedback and felt that all of it was very much to our benefit. Thanks to his guidance, which went far deeper just teaching us the basic steps of our dance, we had a thorough sense of how we should move and feel while dancing. We had a lot of fun learning the dance and practicing it together. Thanks Ken for making this aspect of our wedding an enjoyable success!

is that he is a classically-trained ballroom dance instructor. Hence, he has a very knowledgeable of the mechanics of each dance and has years of experience training people of various skill levels and learning styles. His prices are very reasonable compared to other studios in the area. I would highly recommend Ken if you are searching for a dance instructor for your wedding or are interested in pursuing ballroom dance instruction.

ly had fun learning. Best of all, he gave us movement skills that made our dancing come alive. He covered every detail to help prepare us for our wedding day. Everyone was super impressed with our performance, and we couldn't have been more impressed with what a super talented professional Ken is. If you're getting married, he's your guy!!

kes sure you learn to do things the right way and not cut corners. Highly recommended, my wife and I will be going back after our wedding just for fun and to stay current! Thank you!

so made the practices very fun. I would recommend moving image dance academy to anyone looking for dance lessons.

t.. We highly recommend him if you are serious about working at it and building on something you can use at your wedding and into the future.

experience for us.

ed us to continually build on our knowledge. If you want to learn how to dance and have fun doing it, Ken is the teacher for you!

t with a dance routine, but also with an entire repertoire of dance styles and moves!

and never done fox trot. He taught us basic steps (as we had 4 weeks to our reception) and taught us how to use them in the space available. He is particular about posture and foot alignment. Me and my husband still laugh about how he could never get his feet aligned with my feet. Ken will give suggestion on dancing shoes as well as keep in consideration the wedding dress while making decision about the steps etc.. everybody love our first dance and we enjoyed doing it.

was a father-of-the bride and he taught my daughter and I a difficult waltz. But he started us slowly and moved us into a final dance that we were very comfortable doing. I recommend him wholeheartedly.

He was very patient with me when I was trying to learn the moves. He understood that I am not a natural born dance lol yet he wanted me to perfect the moves. I remember that this was a little bit frustrating and I thought I will never learn the moves but the way he taught me made more persistent. Our dance was a big hit and everyone was very impressed with our dance, specially they knew I never really danced before. Thanks to Ken. Me and wife plan to go back again and learn a new dance since we had a very enjoyable experience.

so important. He went over a lot of pragmatic details that we hadn't even considered, like aspects of the venue and space, how our clothing would impact the dance, where the crowd and photographer would be situated, how we would process in, what the finale would look like, everything! Neither my wife nor I had any formal dance training, and Ken patiently communicated on our level. He was an encouraging and supportive teacher. He had rigorous standards for our posture and movements, and trained us to meet those standards to the best of our ability. By focusing on particular elements of the dance in training, we had a very easy time on the wedding day. Ken also arranged meetings around our work schedule on quite short notice. We only started taking lessons shortly before the wedding day, and he made sure we got the most out of every session. I would recommend Ken and Moving Image to anyone looking to have a marvelous first dance experience, and I have! Thanks for making that part of our special day so wonderful.

I highly recommend Moving Image Dance Academy.

rail lesson at another studio and it did not compare to what we learned in our first lesson with Ken. We could not be more happy with how our dance turned out. We are still getting compliments from friends on how well we did and are re-using some moves at recent weddings. We could not recommend Ken enough to couples who want to learn a few moves or an entire dance for the big day!

how to really dance swing. There was so much we didn't know before and with our new skills we were able to wow everyone at our wedding. Ken is a super instructor!

iption of each to each of us so that we were able to grasp the dance moves in a way that made sense for us both. Do prepare to make this a regular commitment,and start earlier than you think you will need to. If we could have, I would have started right after our engagement. The dance is not something you want to be stressed out over. Even though we left less time, Ken was able to work with us to teach us as much as possible in a more limited amount of time. Another plus is that he was able to work around my husband's travel for work. I would highly recommend Ken to anyone in the Philadelphia area.

and planning things out for us. He was professional and patient and it was an awesome experience.

could be in such a short time. It's no wonder Moving Image Dance Academy has won so many awards.

ience but caught on in no time. It's amazing what the right dance studio can do.

-hard to believe a dancer of his level would even work with beginners like us-a bit scary at first but he's such a sweet guy he made us feel at ease quickly. We were just stepping before but he made the dance come alive with lots of flashy turns, spins and movement. It was a lot of fun doing it at our wedding and we're still dancing today.

we knew nothing about dancing, our teacher, Ken skillfully guided us through the technique of latin dancing. He gave us some great pointers that helped make the rumba easier, and gave us the confidence to pull it off. We got many compliments on our wedding day and we owe it all to Ken.

ot. He showed us how to make the dance glide around the floor smoothly in spite of my platform shoes. We had a special intro and ending which pulled it all together and made for a great presentation at our wedding reception.

xtremely professional at his craft, and with a great sense of humor. The end result was a special dance that wowed everyone at our wedding. A big thumbs up!

the lessons. It was time well spent to gain the confidence to dance at our wedding reception.

to learn and he helped us with every detail. He chose the best song and dance and gave us the right technique to make the learning process quick and easy. We had fun on the lessons and even more fun dancing in front of everyone on our wedding day. We got lots of compliments and we owe it all to Ken.

uple of times a week. We highly recommend Ken and the moving image dance academy.

joy dancing around the house.

ing my fiance and not in a helpful constructive manner. The second lesson was a bit better, we did learn a dance step. For the third lesson my fiance came down with a brutal cold and could barely go outside without coughing up tons of phlegm so we cancelled the lesson. We re-scheduled a week later where at this lesson he spent almost the entire lesson making my fiance and I practice walking back and forth across the floor. He criticized myself and my fiance the entire time, and once again not in a constructive manner. We would ask questions to try to understand what we were doing wrong and he would simply say to just trust him. Then if we did something wrong he would reprimand us for not asking questions. 90 bucks to practice walking and get yelled at for an hour. At the end of the lesson we explained that the following week we would not be able to come at our usual time and asked for alternative times. He said perhaps over the following weekend and would let us know. He did not let us know that Sunday would be acceptable until that Friday. At that point my fiance and I decided to stop lessons with him due to our disappointment with his professionalism and our financial struggles. I'd now like to mention that his policy is to pay one lesson ahead. Thus every week we would be paying for the following weeks lesson. When we cancelled lessons with him I requested he rip up the check for the next lesson. He agreed. I have recently been notified from my bank that he cashed the check. He did not return any of my voice mails or emails until I finally tried calling him from a different number. When I finally got him on the phone his explanation was that he cashed it because we had cancelled the lesson the week my fiance was sick. He never told us there would be a fee for canceling the lesson, especially not a 100% fee. I mentioned I could understand a small fee for the inconvenience had it been agreed upon prior, but not the entire payment. I also mentioned that when we did see him again the check we gave him was acknowledged on all fronts to cover the next weeks lesson, not to cover the prior weeks cancellation. I asked him if he was refusing to refund my money and he said there was nothing to refund. He continued arguing with me bring up many invalid points until he hung up on me.