Thanks to recommendations from couples on The Knot
Emily Coles Dance SF is a dance studio located in San Francisco, CA. Owner and dance instructor Emily is a talented professional who takes joy in sharing her skills with nearlywed clients.
Emily of Emily Coles Dance SF believes that dancing should be a fun and exciting activity for everyone who participates. She fosters a warm and welcoming environment throughout every lesson, allowing her students to relax and enjoy the process. Emily’s lessons provide couples with the opportunity to brush up on their moves and choreograph impressive routines as they spend time with one another leading up to their big day.
Emily Coles Dance SF offers private dance lessons to couples and students throughout the San Francisco area. Emily teaches a wide range of ballroom dances, from Latin, swing, salsa, and cha-cha to samba, waltz, tango, and foxtrot. She also provides her services to those looking to add a unique element to their wedding celebration by teaching a dance class during the reception.
LGBTQ+-owned and Woman-owned Business
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My dance career began at the age of 5, prancing on stage with little girls in tu-tus. I loved the stage, but not the tu-tu . For 20 years I pranced on stages, searching for the "right dance". The search included modern, jazz, Afro-Cuban, and finally salsa. To salsa I added a full range of ballroom, Latin and social dances, which I have now taught for over 15 years.
Anything that creates joy has a positive impact on our complicated world, and that positive impact is important to me. We need more dancing. We need more music, more singing, more laughing. We need more dorking around :)
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Reviews
5.0
out of 5.0
16 reviews
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Emily is highly recommended for wedding dance lessons by multiple reviewers who praise her patience, warmth, and clear instruction. Couples appreciated her ability to choreograph dances tailored to their unique song choices with details that fit their needs. They found her lessons enjoyable and beneficial, making them feel confident and prepared for their first dance at the wedding. Emily's guidance and expertise helped couples create memorable and successful performances, with guests specifically praising their first dances as highlights of the wedding.
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Whitney T
5.0
10/15/2024
Emily was an absolute delight to work with!! She is knowledgeable and friendly and a great teacher, and while her schedule gets filled up pretty quickly, she is communicative and flexible and will figure out a way to make things work within your timeframe/needs/budget! Due to some health issues we ended up only able to schedule 2 sessions with her, but it was still totally worth it!
Emily not only taught us some basics of how to lead/follow, but also helped us choreograph a simple yet beautiful dance that fit perfectly with our slightly unique first dance song choice. We had such a fun time working with her, and she made us feel so much more confident in taking on the slightly daunting task of our first dance! Her patience, warmth, humor, and clear instruction made the lessons feel so easy and fun. She taught us a lot and also listened to our feedback and left us feeling encouraged and confident . While we only got 2 lessons in, it truly made all the difference and set us up perfectly to keep practicing and feel fully ready for our 'performance' at our wedding. YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY BOOK HER!!! Thank you so so much Emily!!
Kendra C
5.0
6/12/2024
CHOOSE HER NOW! Emily blew our expectations. She is so much fun and has the warmest heart. She expertly crafted an elaborate 5 minute dance for us, combining 2 songs into 3 parts. It took us 20 classes, 1x week. We didn’t practice outside of class once, but nailed it on wedding day! (I know she choreographs simpler dances too.) Her dance class ended up being the highlight of our week because she makes it so enjoyable! She filmed our progress, so we could learn from the recording—but also so we could make a montage of our progress! Classes are easy to book on her Calendly and are absolutely worth driving to Potrero for! After class, go out to dinner nearby. I suggest Papito!
Any questions?
Jessica C
5.0
11/10/2023
Our vision for a first dance started with a vague notion of dance style with an atypical song. We completed weekly sessions (totaling 9 sessions) with Emily. Our first session, we reviewed our song, general ideas for the dance (length, different elements, overall vibe), and basic partner dance steps. By around the 5th or 6th session, we had full choreography for our 3.5 minute song and were transitioning to refining our style and technique. Our last session was spent polishing and adding finishing details. Dance sessions with Emily were a delight to attend and easily a highlight of each week (served as date night and was a wonderful break from other wedding planning). She was extremely accommodating with scheduling each week and utilized our full hour sessions wisely.
On our wedding day, we were very relaxed dancing because of how prepared Emily helped us become and we truly got to enjoy this special moment rather than worry over remembering steps or being watched. Our first dance was easily one of the biggest talked about aspects of our wedding. It was a huge highlight for both us and our guests and would not have been possible without Emily’s expertise and ability to make performing fun. We highly recommend Emily for dance lessons for your special day!
https://www.capcut.com/presentation/7288142903531077638?workspaceId=7288141570484830213
Yan L
5.0
7/23/2023
Dance lessons with Emily were the best part of wedding planning for us! We had so much fun! She was so lovely to work with, so patient, and so talented. Everyone LOVED our dance and it only took 5 lessons (honestly could have been 4 if we practiced more). We are so happy we found her. If you're looking for lessons for your first dance, she is your gal!
response07/24/2023
Thank you so much for this wonderful review, Yan! I loved working with you and Andrew, and...
am so impressed with your execution of the dance we put together, together 😃. You two absolutely nailed it! Congratulations, friends.
Jennifer D
5.0
6/13/2023
Emily is the BEST!! My husband and I worked with her for four sessions to feel prepared for our first dance at our wedding and she did not disappoint! Scheduling with her was easy, she was amazing to communicate with, and she made us feel so comfortable. I cannot recommend her enough to future brides and groooms. It was such a fun part of our preparation process and at no point did it feel like "another vendor meeting"
Lauren P
5.0
6/01/2023
Emily is amazing! If you need any type of dance lesson, for your wedding or anything, book with her! My fiancé and I went to Emily just so we wouldn't look super awkward during our first dance. We ended up booking multiple sessions with her and are now learning swing dancing in addition to nailing our first dance! She can choregraph a routine for you if you want some flair, but she's great at providing you what you want. Emily was so great at breaking steps down for us, reviewing our progress and making us feel comfortable. We cannot recommend her enough!
response06/01/2023
Thank you so much for this lovely review, Lauren! I'm super excited to continue our work/...
fun together, after your wedding. East Coast Swing, here we come!!
Big congrats to you both!
Nicole O
5.0
5/04/2023
I cannot recommend Emily enough! My fiancé and I had SO much fun taking dance lessons with her. Neither of us felt comfortable getting up there and dancing in front of our family and friends without a plan and now we are feeling SO excited to get up there and show off what we learned! She made the two of us feel so comfortable and at ease and we had lots of laughs shared with her during our lessons. We aren’t big dancers but we genuinely loved it so much we want to do more with her after the wedding!
response05/04/2023
Nicole, I'm excited about you two showing off your fabulous nightclub two-step moves at yo...
ur wedding, too! You both picked it up in no time, and I think folks will be really impressed :)
It was a joy working with you! Come on back for some "just for fun" when you have time!
Casey F
5.0
4/20/2023
Do yourself a favor and book some lessons with Emily. Seriously. She made this process SO MUCH FUN and helped us choreograph the most perfect, simple, and memorable dance for our 1st dance at our wedding. My fiance and I were apprehensive and nervous about doing dance classes since it is so out of our comfort zone, but Emily made the entire experience so special that we are going to continue to book dance classes with her for fun date nights moving forward. Thank you, thank you, thank you Emily!
response04/20/2023
OMG, Casey. If that was you feeling nervous then you will absolutely kill it at your wedd...
ing. I couldn't tell! Thank you for your very generous review, and please *do* come back for more merriment on the dance floor :D. You two were a blast to work with, and I'd truly love to see you again.
Emily
Alison K
5.0
11/05/2022
We LOVED our dance lessons with Emily. She understood exactly what we were looking for in a wedding dance, and helped us learn the kind of simple, beautiful choreography that we wanted. It really felt like she understood us, and we had such a great time working with her. Now we just need to find an excuse to take more dance lessons with Emily!
response11/06/2022
No excuses needed, Alison! Come take lessons from me because we'll have fun, and it's a h...
ealthy activity, and a great beginning date night!
I loved our time together, as well! Would be thrilled to work with you again :)
Joe S
5.0
7/31/2022
We had such a great time Emily!
My Fiancée and I wanted to have a few lessons in a short space of time before our wedding day. We honestly did not know what to expect with neither of us having much dance background, or if we would be able to learn a routine, but Emily made it seem incredibly easy.
We provided the song we wanted to dance through, and Emily helped us develop a routine with a few wow moments and we had so much fun doing it! She is really an incredible teacher.
Highly recommend if you want to learn a wedding routine, or just have a break from Wedding plan to have a bit of fun with your partner!
response07/31/2022
Thanks so much, Joe! You will forever be the first person I taught a wedding dance lesson...
without their fiancé present 😂. Such great chutzpah to show up even though Keren was unavailable! I loved working with you both, and hope you’ll come back to learn something social and fun next :)
Mayu I
5.0
7/29/2022
Emily is great! She’s a lot of fun to work with and gives great instruction. We really enjoyed learning from her!
response07/29/2022
The feeling is absolutely mutual, Mayu! I look forward to every lesson I have with you an...
d Josh. Your wedding dance “project” is the most ambitious I’ve ever done, and it’s been a tremendous joy to figure it out with you :)
Nicholas M
5.0
4/24/2022
Emily was incredible instructor. We worked with her for first dance and Mother & Son dance as well.
None of us are experienced dancers at all but it was no problem. She was warm and patient, and coached us through. We had a lot of fun at the lessons too as a fun "date" activity.
We had only a few lessons with her but I thought we ended up with a great dance--much more than I was expecting.
response04/25/2022
Thanks so much for this very kind review, Nicholas! You and Sandy were an absolute joy to...
work with on your wedding dance, and I loved getting in a lesson with your mom, as well! I hope all went exactly as you hoped and planned on the Big Day.
Very sincerely,
Emily
Katie K
5.0
1/21/2022
Emily is the absolute best!!!!! As a lesbian couple, we did a lot of research to find a dance teacher we could feel comfortable with as we learned the first dance for our wedding. We were so lucky to come across Emily! We wanted to do a fun, cheesy, over-the-top dance to an 80s banger, and she was ALL FOR IT! She fully choreographed our first dance with all of the flair we wanted, and she taught us how to do a lift, multiple dips, and coordinated moves that truly wowed our family and friends! We went in with hardly any experience, and she broke down each part of the dance in very easy to digest pieces where we learned the proper body mechanics (so we didn't bust a knee or a hip lol). We are so incredibly grateful for all of the time we had with her during the lead-up to our wedding. Our lessons gave us such a breath of fresh air during our wedding planning, and after the big day we missed her so much that we decided to go back and learn Salsa with her!!!!! Thank you so much for making our special day the best ever! We still hear so many of our guests say that we did the best first dance they had ever seen :).
response01/21/2022
Best. Chutzpah. Ever. Katie, you and Ninette make me wish *I* got to write reviews of my s...
tudents, cuz MAN! You’re both stupendous fun to work with :)
Bosco H
5.0
1/03/2022
In preparation for our wedding my partner and I decided to learn how to dance together. We found Emily after doing some research on dance instructors in the Bay Area. We focused on learning Foxtrot and Salsa for an hour each week. She was very accommodating, responsible and reliable as we navigated safety measures during the pandemic. Not only were we able to make great progress but we also had so much fun throughout the process. She is an immensely encouraging, patient and kind dance teacher. Our dancing during our wedding was a success and we now feel confident on the dance floor. We love our dance classes with Emily so much we have decided to continue going to them even after the wedding.
response01/04/2022
Thanks for the great review, Bosco! I’m excited to see you and Andrew for our lesson this...
Thursday! I’ve missed you guys during holiday travel :)
Andrew T
5.0
12/01/2021
Strongly recommend you consider Emily for your wedding dance. She was so patient, understanding and friendly throughout the whole process (we booked a total of 5-6 lessons). My fiance and I left each lesson feeling very good - we viewed them as date nights! It was just such a pleasure learning from Emily.
I have stage fright and likely suffer from social/performance anxiety (undiagnosed), but came away feeling excited during my real wedding dance. If you want the crowd to see you in awe and cheer you on during your dance, please choose Emily. If I could post a video here, I would!
It's important that you know that I could have never imagined looking forward to dancing - an impossible situation. Turns out I was looking very forward to dancing during my wedding night - all thanks to Emily.
That said, make sure to practice, as well as tip Emily.
response12/01/2021
Thank you so much, Andrew! You and Melissa absolutely ROCKED in your wedding dance video, ...
and I could not be more proud of the work we did together to get you ready to not only perform beautifully, but also ENJOY it!
Adam J
5.0
11/12/2021
Emily was fantastic to work with. We had no idea how to put together a dance, but my wife and I came to her with an unconventional song and little to no dance knowledge and she put together a routine to make us look fantastic.
Practicing with her was a lot of fun and she helped us prepare so well that we were still able to pull off a great first dance despite our DJ playing the wrong version of the song!
response11/12/2021
Thanks so much for your very kind review, Adam! I truly enjoyed working with you and Kym ...
:). Huge kudos to you for forging ahead, even though it was the wrong song!!
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Emily Coles Dance SF
Emily Coles
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