Two months before our wedding, my then fiancé Jessica and I went to the Society Hill Dance Academy to choreograph our first dance to Michael Jackson's "Rock With You." Neither of us had ever taken a dance lesson. Upon arriving, we were introduc...ed to Ro, who promptly moved us into a private room. We discussed what we had in mind for our dance, so he listened to our song, and informed us that we would be doing a dance known as "the hustle," which is a common style of partner dance. After a good first class in which Ro began to show us the movements involved in the hustle, we signed up for a series of 8 lessons, with the final lesson being 4 days from our big day.
Partner dance requires learning a new skill, and in order to get comfortable with it, that necessitated practice. Our lessons were spent rehearsing our moves, and Ro would add something new each lesson to keep moving us forward. We were always given homework, which was to practice our moves at home. Believe me, if you are reading this review for purposes of choreographing your first wedding dance, you will need to practice. If you have never partner danced, you will be a fish out of water and will require constant practice in order to legitimately feel all of the moves and know you can execute without having to think too much about them, when it comes time to perform. Ro hammered us about practicing, and like any good teacher he could tell if we had put in the appropriate amount of time between lessons. Practicing your dance is not as easy as it sounds, because you will probably need to be disciplined enough to schedule time to do it.
After our ceremony, Jessica and I were able to practice in the bridal suite one last time, especially some of the tricky moves that we hoped to incorporate into our dance, and the opening/closing sequences that Ro created for us. We rehearsed our dance within 30 minutes of actually performing it. I can say with certainty that those final rehearsals made all the difference for our confidence in our ability to perform with a large audience and many distractions. At any rate, we went out and pretty much killed it. Everyone was very impressed, and it was apparent to all that an amount of work went into the finished product.
Aside from having a great knowledge of dance, Ro was simply a good teacher. I know that effective teachers don't teach their subject, they teach people. Ro had this approach to dance, as he built a relationship with us, and held us accountable to work on and perfect what he taught us. He was invested in our success, and truly wanted us to perform well. I personally had the sense that if we did not do a good job with our dance, we would not just be letting each other down, but Ro as well. I was very impressed by his instruction, professionalism, and how well our dance came out as a result. We were even given the opportunity to do a dry run of our completed dance before a small crowd in the studio in order to mentally prepare to have eyes on us. Looking back, I feel that the experience was good for us as a couple. We had to work on this dance together starting from absolutely zero until we had a finished product that we were ready to put on display in front of 200 people. Learning dance can also do a lot of good in forcing would-be dancers out of their comfort zones, and to develop a self-deprecating sense of humor. We did not just learn a dance- we grew as a couple as well, and managed to have a lot of fun doing it, too.