The Dance Doctor

rew closer, I knew I needed help. I reached out to many dance studios in my area here on the knot and John was very quick to answer my questions and had reasonable pricing. We decided to book five lessons, our first one starting a month before our wedding! I love dance so for me it was a bit easier, my husband on the other hand has two left feet. John was patient with us, and let us pick the moves we wanted in our dance. I appreciated that he did not sugar coat reality when it was necessary, If our technique was off he made sure we practiced until we fully understood. In our short five lessons/one month, we completed steps for our full first dance! We practiced and practiced and when the day came it went flawlessly. The crowd was cheering so loud, everyone absolutely LOVED our dance! Looking back now, our first dance is one of my favorite memories about our wedding. I loved the main moment and felt so proud that we pulled it off and that we put the effort in to make our first dance unique. Thank you John, we truly enjoyed the Saturday mornings spent with you!

to make my husband lock up. We originally signed up for 10 lessons, but added 5 more to shore up some areas that were still weak or not perfected. We didn't pick AJ, but are so incredibly thankful and grateful that we were lucky enough to get matched with him. He wasn't just a dance instructor. He was a friend, a motivator, a crisis counselor, a good critic, and just overall made us feel so at ease. He knew our personalities from the way we danced, got to know us better as we talked, counseled, and advised, and knew how to provide that push or criticism that made us want to get better. I think any other way would have made us melt down or defensive or not motivated to push through our trouble areas. When we first met him, we gave him two very different songs. AJ was able to pick out our personalities through a few minutes of conversation, and also based on our look and behavior. Based on that, he recommended one song, which turned out to be the perfect choice for us. He designed a beautiful and graceful dance routine that was light and fun. He also matched our choreography perfectly with the lyrics. Additionally, he worked with us on posture, placement of hands and fingers, and where to bend our neck to add to the visual appeal of our movement. When we would ask about adding in a little pizzazz or flare, he was all for it and worked it in for us. I do feel bad that we continued to provide AJ nothing short of challenges all the way up to our wedding day. He would fix our timing and then we would do a wrong step, or he would fix our spin and then have to fix footwork somewhere else. But despite that, he was always SO POSITIVE and interacted in a way with us that helped us fix those mis-steps. What we also liked was that towards the end, when we were running out of time, he was able to prioritize the most important things to fix, so we didn't feel overwhelmed or that the world was going to end. AJ always has so much energy! Even when we were the last class at 9:15PM, he was still always energetic. Sometimes after a long day at work, I was dragging at the dance lesson. However, when we met him, his energy would just refill our empty resevoirs and lead to a productive session. In the end, everything paid off! We loved our dance and everyone told us how impressed they were with our routine and just how beautiful we looked. Even when we made a small mistake, we were able to continue with our dance so that people couldn't tell. We ended up with a dance we just love and again, are just so grateful that we had AJ and cannot thank him enough. Ask for AJ and once you talk to him, you won't be able to imagine having anyone else as your instructor.

everything! We took lessons with Jake, who was great and took us from super beginners to learning an entire routine in 6 weeks! John came out and taught us two lifts that completely made our routine shine! He was patient, and fun and excited for us too! We practiced and practiced and on our wedding day, the crowd went wild! Our guests were so impressed and couldnt stop talking about our "show" that they said was just like Dancing with the Stars! Jake and John helped make our day absolutely perfect. No matter your level of dancing the Dance Doctor will get you ready to shine for your big day!

nding ovation-it was well worth the time and money!

ructor. He is patient, funny and knows what he is doing. I would strongly recommend a few dances lessons before your big day, it really helps with your nerves the day of to know you have been practicing and you know what you are doing. So call Jake and have fun!

well and we adapted some parts of the dance to make him more comfortable. Our guests were floored! The packages are a bit pricey but it was a lot of fun and made for an incredible wedding moment.

sizing each of our strengths and taking into account the difference in our levels (both ability and height!! he is almost a foot taller than me). She was patient and managed to tailor each of our parts to our abilities. It was a really fun experience to do this together, and the results were FANTASTIC!! We nailed it the day of and we got so many compliments. We were so happy. :)

ught we should seek professional help. We went to John Cassese’s Dance studio in Santa Monica and what a difference it made. There, the dance instructors were able to choreograph dance moves to the song we chose and made us look like we knew what we were doing on the dance floor. I didn’t want to be that couple, who, just swayed back and forth to a song while our guests just stared at us. The instructors were so patient with us and would change, modify and adapt to whatever we needed. Not only were they amazing dancers, but even more, amazing teachers. They broke down every step so we could perfect it and memorize it before adding on more. Learning to dance at the studio was an amazing experience that we will cherish forever. As John Cassese (the Dance Doctor) would say, “If you can walk you can dance.” Thanks again for making our dance memorable!

. The dance turned out beautifully. I am so grateful that we found this studio. Thank you Sarah! You're wonderful!