Warning: wedding dance lessons may become addictive!!!
This time last year I worked with a really lovely couple C and P for their wedding dance. Their first song was Everything by Michael Buble. We had a really fun time with the lessons and I’m told the dance went really well. But it didn’t end there…..
A few months later I had a call from P wanting a surprise routine for a friend’s wedding. This turned into 18 of the ushers and stags performing a River Dance the likes of which you’ve never seen!! More to come on this another time!
Then, a month or so ago C emailed asking if I was up for choreographing a surprise routine for her sisters wedding! This time it would be involving the 10 bridesmaids and ushers! Well of course I was up for it! They chose 3 songs that we linked together – around a minute of each so a quite reasonable 3 minutes in total. We were to have 3 rehearsals, however only 4 girls and 1 boy could come to the first, 1 girl and all the boys to the second, then hopefully everyone together for the last rehearsal the day before the wedding! Everyone was coming from all over, with a few coming from London and one girl from as far as County Durham! Everyone really made the effort to get to the lessons but it was quite a mission for C organising everyone.
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| In rehearsal |
When the girls and one very brave guy turned up for the first rehearsal they were right up for the challenge though! Our first song was Wannabe by the Spice Girls. I started with the girls who got into the swing of things really easily, then I couldn’t resist putting my one boy on the spot for some hips and ‘zig a zig ah’ action! A great sport – he gave his all!
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| What stars! |
The next song was Take That ‘Relight My Fire’. I wanted to do partner work for that song as I felt with 5 guys and girls it would be lovely to see them dancing together in hold. This was going to be tricky until the last rehearsal though until we has everyone together, so we outlined the steps then moved on to the last song.
With Beyonce’s ‘All The Single Ladies’ (guess who chose the songs – the girls or guys!?) it was never going to be anything but camp and I wasn’t about to let the guys off the hook! To give them their due when it came to the guys’ rehearsal they were right up for it! (Perhaps worryingly so!)
Two separate lessons with pretty much half the ‘cast’ for each and we had a good outline of how it would go. All we had to do was put it together in the final rehearsal when we had everyone together.
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| The final performance! |
The day of our last lesson the day before the wedding came, however I had a personal minor disaster – my other half had a crisis at work and had to work late. This meant I was suddenly without childcare. Eventually I found a good friend’s hubby to step in to look after my toddler, but my baby had been proving very clingy and too high maintainence to burden on anyone but family. The only thing to do was to take him along! I warned everyone who all seemed fine with it so along he came! Actually the clingyness is partially my own doing as I use a sling to carry him on my back a lot of the time and he likes the closeness. Consequently when we arrived at the studio I just popped him on my back and danced around as normal! Pretty much what I do when choreographing routines in my kitchen really! Everyone thought it was a funny sight but he loved the music. After a while he sat and watched and was a very appreciative audience!
The other problem that cropped up was unsurprisingly a traffic jam on the M25. What was surprising was that it only affected one guy and by a massive stroke of luck a regular ‘swing’ dancer, Although it wasn’t ideal, I wasn’t too worried about him fitting in with the rest as he was a pretty confident dancer – particularly in partner work.
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| Put a ring on it! |
By the end of the final practice everyone looked so great – I was so proud of them! A couple of the guys really surprises themselves with what they could do!
A week on from the wedding last week I received an email from C. Apparently the dance went down a storm! I love the photos – everyone looks like they’re having such fun!
And as for C and P – they’re trying to find another excuse for a wedding dance! I hope so – they have the most fun projects!
