WORKOUT WISDOM




Nice Moves

Make your first dance memorable with pre-wedding dance lessons.

By Samantha L. Daniels | Photography by Megan Wylie

Brides are often advised to “keep it short,” when it comes to their first dance on their wedding day. The idea is that guests become bored while you and your new husband awkwardly step-to for three and a half minutes. Among the seated guests, it is too often only the family members who truly appreciate it, while the teenagers
nod off, and the toddlers cry. Still, most newlyweds suffer through the tradition of the bride and groom dance whether or not they both have two left feet.

Dip it! Patrick Callahan and MacKenzie Hoops lead the way.

There is hope for the couple who fear the first dance. Ballroom dance lessons can make any neophyte look professional, or at the least, comfortable on the dance floor.

We sent WHIRL’s art director MacKenzie Hoops and her such-a-good-sport partner Patrick Callahan to Steel City Ballroom in Mt. Lebanon to see what can be accomplished in an hour of training. Five minutes in, our dancers looked right at home sashaying around the dance floor.

Chris Roth opened Steel City a little less than a year ago, but he has been teaching dance since 1989 and taking lessons himself even longer.

While Hoops and Callahan concentrated on the pattern of their steps and on keeping their heads up, Roth circled around them, snapping his fingers and softly stating commands. “Forward — side — together. Forward —
side — together.”

By the end of the hour, our couple was reasonably comfortable with four patterns based on the components of the box step. They did the fox trot and rhumba, and also learned a modified dip called an “oversway” and a “rock step.” The oversway looks as elegant as the traditional dip,
but is easier for beginners to master. The rock step is suited for the faster, more contemporary music typically played at receptions. The couple clasps hands and then each partner moves forward and away from each other while gently marching their feet.

Hoops admits that her biggest struggle in the class was letting Callahan lead. And her partner agreed. “That is the biggest complaint among couples,” says Roth, explaining that since the ladies often learn the steps quickly, they begin reciting them before their partner has a chance to take the lead. Roth advises them to let their steps be a reaction to their partner’s steps. “I tell them that ‘every step for the lady should be a picture,’” says Roth. “It should be bigger and bolder [than the male’s steps.]”

Owner Chris Roth snaps to the beat.

Steel City offers both private and group classes for traditional dancing, including the foxtrot, waltz, tango, and Viennese Waltz. The bold dancer can also try Salsa, Cha-Cha, Mambo, Swing, and Hustle, among others.

Private lessons are typically 55 minutes long and cost $75 for a single, $80 for a couple. Individual classes are $15 per person.

Four to six months of lessons before the wedding is ideal, but many basic styles can be learned in three or four visits. Although many dance studios require students to sign up for six or eight week of classes to master a type of dancing, Roth says that his students can “show up any time for an hour class.” Each session has a beginning and an end and gives students the knowledge of two dance patterns.

Roth and his wife, also a lover of dance, were married in October 2008. They performed a Viennese Waltz to “Runaway” by The Corrs.

Steel City Ballroom, 702 Washington Road, Mt. Lebanon. 412.531.8320. steelcityballroom.com.

 

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