Hi everyone,

I'm having my first dance lesson with my fiance tonight and we have to choose which dance we want to learn. The thing is, we might want to do that dance as our first dance as a couple next year at our wedding, but, to tell you the truth, my fiance isn't very good and isn't very coordinated (he's not horrible but not good!). So I was wondering which dance would be easiest for him to learn and execute witha bit of grace (and not knocking me down on the floor!)

Thanks everyone!

Hey - NOBODY is good when they start - that's why you go to take lessons!! (You certainly wouldn't consider operating on someone before going to med school - you'd be considered 'not very good' by the other doctors, right?)

For your first lesson your instructor will teach you the very basics of partner dancing - hold, posture, etc. Don't think you'll learn a dance in one lesson -but I'm sure you'll be well on your way after the first one.

Yeah, I'd let the instructor help you figure this out. You should learn a variety of elements and steps. And remember, almost no one is born to dance. It takes training and practice.

With all of that said, I've always felt the easy dance to make look good is swing. Paritcularly triple-time swing. It moves quick and has lots of spins and turns. When someone starts to dance, if they're working on swing, it usually is the first dance to look okay.

If you are thinking that this might be your first dance at your wedding I would say try Rhumba, waltz or foxtrot. They are typical dances for weddings. I would talk to your instructor though. They would be in a better position to tell you what looks the best.

Every dance needs both steps and technique. The technique is often much harder to learn and requires a lot more time for you to look good. I believe that your best bet would be a dance that permits the technique to be minimized or faked. To me, that means Rhumba. It is slow enough to be non-stressful, the technique requirements can be faked for a short dance, and everyone should be looking at the girl anyway (that means YOU). The steps are not hard, the box step in particular is an easy "thinking" step (... what am I supposed to do next?), and if your fiance looks hungrily enough at you, it is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the dance.

Jerry

It would my suggestion to learn the Foxtrot or Two-step first. It will teach the man to keep his right foot in between yours and not on the outside. If you have someone who is left footed so to speak they should learn the 14 step line dance. It can be done very slow to very fast and. It's easy to learn and will teach co-ordination, mutliple steps with the same foot and maintaining rythmn with the beat of the music. From there they may think dancing is fun. You might even get him to do the elctric slide at the wedding.

Good suggestions here. Your instructor will be best qualified to decide. Your instructor will probably pick something that you seem to be the best at, and at the same time something appropriate for a wedding. My guess would be that he/she would pick waltz if you appear able to do it OK. Waltz is a traditional wedding dance, and there are a large selection of waltz songs that fit very nicely into a wedding.

Someone mentioned swing. I once ask my instructor what she thought was the most difficult dance. She said swing. I was floored. I always thought it was pretty easy. Guess I haven't learned the difficult stuff yet. I will, however, agree with the earlier comment that simple swing steps tend to look OK quicker than some of the other dances.

Jerry #2

Hi,

when my boyfriend started dancing he felt most comfortable with slower dances, such as rumba and slow waltz at the beginning. He said these dances leave him more time to think about the steps contrary to the quicker dances. In general men are said to THINK more than the ladies when dancing, so maybe having more time for that really helps.

Have fun.

We think we have to think because everyone tells us we have to lead and decide what to do and we dont think we can remember what comes next.

I think.

Jerry

Caroline. Even though the Waltz is traditional at a wedding, I think Jerryblue below is right when he said the Rumba is the way to go. There are some beautiful tunes that can be used. My favourite at the moment is Elton John singing "Blessed".