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Dance lessons for reception guests?

Knottie09409352Knottie09409352 member
First Anniversary
in Wedding Reception Forum
Having a barn themed, country style outdoor wedding in Texas. Thought it would be cute to offer a dance lesson during the reception. I have done a dance lesson from this company at a bar in town and they did a great job, but its a full hour lesson. I have friends giving split opinions on whether this is a good idea or not. That takes up a good chunk of reception time after dinner and maybe overlapped with dessert. Anyone been to a wedding with dance lessons before or tried this themselves?
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Re: Dance lessons for reception guests?

  • AddieCakeAddieCake member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    What are other guests supposed to do, sit and wait for the lessons to be over before they can dance?
    What did you think would happen if you walked up to a group of internet strangers and told them to get shoehorned by their lady doc?~StageManager14
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  • wrigleyvillewrigleyville member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its First Answer
    I'd be so bored. Please don't do this. Just open up the dance floor and let people have fun.
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  • ohannabelleohannabelle member
    First Answer First Comment First Anniversary 5 Love Its
    This would really annoy me. I love receptions. Socializing and eating and dancing is enough. Once you get a structured activity ( games, watching videos, choreographed performances, whatever) it's a big wet blanket on the natural flow of the party.  
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  • NYCMercedesNYCMercedes member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    Knottie09409352 said:
    Having a barn themed, country style outdoor wedding in Texas. Thought it would be cute to offer a dance lesson during the reception. I have done a dance lesson from this company at a bar in town and they did a great job, but its a full hour lesson. I have friends giving split opinions on whether this is a good idea or not. That takes up a good chunk of reception time after dinner and maybe overlapped with dessert. Anyone been to a wedding with dance lessons before or tried this themselves?

    If the teacher can do it outside or in a side room as an extra, it sounds like a fun activity. It shouldn't be the main dance floor activity, however.
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  • atlastmrsgatlastmrsg member
    5 Love Its First Comment First Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited November 2014
    Compromise: pay someone from dance school to get up and dance during reception, and show anyone the steps if they look lost.  Or, get a few friends who love to dance a great gift and ask them to keep the party going by dancing lots and showing people how (if they're friends who would be comfortable with this...only you know your friends).

    "Lessons" are too structured and perhaps pushy for a party.
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  • southernbelle0915southernbelle0915 mod
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    This sounds awful. 

    Adults do not need or want forced fun. The best weddings I've ever been to have the least amount of stoppage time and "activities". Good food, good drink, good music - that's what makes an awesome party. 
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  • ohannabelleohannabelle member
    First Answer First Comment First Anniversary 5 Love Its
    atlastmrsg said:
    Compromise: pay someone from dance school to get up and dance during reception, and show anyone the steps if they look lost.  Or, get a few friends who love to dance a great gift and ask them to keep the party going by dancing lots and showing people how (if they're friends who would be comfortable with this...only you know your friends).

    "Lessons" are too structured and perhaps pushy for a party.
    Frankly, if I was on the dance floor and someone offered to "help me out," I'd be pretty effing insulted. How would that work? "Hi there, you look like you don't know what you're doing, let me show you how to dance the right way?"
    Nope. Rude. 
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  • atlastmrsgatlastmrsg member
    5 Love Its First Comment First Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited November 2014
    ohannabelle said:
    atlastmrsg said:
    Compromise: pay someone from dance school to get up and dance during reception, and show anyone the steps if they look lost.  Or, get a few friends who love to dance a great gift and ask them to keep the party going by dancing lots and showing people how (if they're friends who would be comfortable with this...only you know your friends).

    "Lessons" are too structured and perhaps pushy for a party.
    Frankly, if I was on the dance floor and someone offered to "help me out," I'd be pretty effing insulted. How would that work? "Hi there, you look like you don't know what you're doing, let me show you how to dance the right way?"
    Nope. Rude. 
    You must never have gone country/western line dancing.  It's pretty hard.  The nice people on the floor come over and do the moves next to you so you can watch and learn.
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  • VulgarGirlVulgarGirl member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    There's a bar we go to (actually there are two different bars) that offer weekly line dancing/two step lessons, the lessons either start at 7 or 8 (depending on which bar). I love them, I go have fun, I learn some new dance moves. But by 9 the lessons are over and the floor is open to everyone else. 

    If the bar were to start the lessons at 9, people would get pissed because they couldn't get on the floor to just dance if they don't want a lesson, until 10 or 11.

    I'd just skip it.
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  • ohannabelleohannabelle member
    First Answer First Comment First Anniversary 5 Love Its
    atlastmrsg said:
    ohannabelle said:
    atlastmrsg said:
    Compromise: pay someone from dance school to get up and dance during reception, and show anyone the steps if they look lost.  Or, get a few friends who love to dance a great gift and ask them to keep the party going by dancing lots and showing people how (if they're friends who would be comfortable with this...only you know your friends).

    "Lessons" are too structured and perhaps pushy for a party.
    Frankly, if I was on the dance floor and someone offered to "help me out," I'd be pretty effing insulted. How would that work? "Hi there, you look like you don't know what you're doing, let me show you how to dance the right way?"
    Nope. Rude. 
    You must never have gone country/western line dancing.  It's pretty hard.  The nice people on the floor come over and do the moves next to you so you can watch and learn.
    Yep, I actually have. And if I ever again decide to go down to the Ol' Riverside Inn for line dance Thursdays, that's what I've signed up for, and what I'd expect, and I might Hee-haw the night away. The appropriate activity in the appropriate place.
    At a wedding reception, I don't care for structured activities, and I didn't go there for unwanted two step instructions. The dance floor should be open and inclusive of all guests, and nobody should feel as if they need lessons to enjoy themselves, or feel awkward for not wanting to participate. 
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  • climbingsingleclimbingsingle member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    Please don't do this. 
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  • peachy13peachy13 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    I would be kind of annoyed if I was a guest at this wedding, and would probably avoid dancing all together in the fear that the teacher might come over to me to teach me how to square dance in front of everyone.
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  • theartistformerlyknownastheartistformerlyknownas member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    No. There are line dances at weddings all the time - a few people start it and everyone else follows along. Any dance that is too complicated to just follow the people in front of you or can't be learned/danced during the length of one song doesn't belong at a wedding. Frankly, plenty of people who argue that none of those dances belong at weddings, but that's a debate for another day.

    Taking over the dance floor is a prime example of taking your theme too far and negatively impacting the event as a whole.
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its First Comment
    What kind of lesson is it? Would be someone there to guide people along with some of the more popular line dances or would it be a more formal type of dance or a square dance? As a guest who has a husband not too into dancing, depending on what type of lesson it is I would be bored. If it was someone there to just give a demo & then yell out the instructions to some popular line dances, that wouldn't be bad. You might actually get my husband to come out for that. If that's something your DJ can do, great, but I wouldn't spend extra money to have instructors come to teach.
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  • Jen4948Jen4948 member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    I wouldn't do this.  For the guests it isn't "cute" to have to wait an hour for some teacher to get through with a lesson before the dance floor is opened up in general.

    Choose songs that are universally known to your guests, not ones that someone has to "teach" them to dance to.
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  • Sugargirl1019Sugargirl1019 member
    Combo Breaker First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its
    NYCMercedes said:


    Knottie09409352 said:

    Having a barn themed, country style outdoor wedding in Texas. Thought it would be cute to offer a dance lesson during the reception. I have done a dance lesson from this company at a bar in town and they did a great job, but its a full hour lesson. I have friends giving split opinions on whether this is a good idea or not. That takes up a good chunk of reception time after dinner and maybe overlapped with dessert. Anyone been to a wedding with dance lessons before or tried this themselves?


    If the teacher can do it outside or in a side room as an extra, it sounds like a fun activity. It shouldn't be the main dance floor activity, however.

    This.

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  • tcnobletcnoble member
    First Comment First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its
    We thought about doing this because one of our favorite bars here does line dancing nightly and offers lessons.. but as other PPs have pointed out, not every guest will think this is "fun" and enjoy it. If you are your FI like to line dance, go ahead and start it during a song and if people want to follow they surely will. Maybe talk to your DJ and ask him to play songs that are fairly easy - of course Cupid Shuffle and Cha Cha Slide are well known, but if you like other line dances just pick something that people can join in easily, or just dance however they like.
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