Anyone Can Dance NYC — Local services in New York

TL;DR: Emily was the most amazing, best wedding dance instructor we could've ever asked for! She is an incredible dance teacher and choreographer, and an even better person. We were blown away by how well Emily was able to cater towards exactly what we wanted out of our first dance, and the way she lightened the mood with empathy and humor turned our dance lessons (we're not dancers) from potentially dread-able to unforgettable. 10/10 would recommend!

In-Depth Review:

Before we found Emily, we had tried an intro lesson at Fred Astaire. Unfortunately they seemed more into drilling us on ballroom fundamentals and trying to sell us on big lesson packages right away, and less into understanding who we were as a couple and what kind of dance would make our special day even more special.

Thankfully that's when we found Emily! What we noticed right from the intro lesson was that Emily provided a really relaxed and safe space for us to learn our first dance, and ask all sorts of questions about what we could do in the time that we had or in however many lessons we wanted to take. We even showed up with no first dance song picked, and Emily was fully prepared for us to still take full use of that time.

Over the course of a handful of lessons Emily helped us with:

1. figuring out graceful, aesthetic choreography that would be impressive and match the song but could also be reasonably learned by two amateurs in only a handful of lessons; Emily showed us different moves at every step of the way as options for where we could go next, and never pushed us into anything we didn't feel comfortable with. practicing and getting confident with flashy moves like dips and lifts; Emily knew that we wanted something in our dance that would look great for photos, and walked us through moves of varying difficulty while making sure we felt safe the entire time (P.S. these moves ended up looking amazing in our wedding photography afterwards) determining how much of the song we wanted to dance to and where to cut it so that it felt seamless, and even trimming the song on her own time so that all we had to do was send the cut she'd made straight to our DJ and so much more that we can't even fit into this review.

Our first dance went amazingly and all of our guests were blown away! Most importantly though, we had so much fun learning it, practicing for it, and then performing it on the day of. None of that would've been possible without Emily's patience, expertise and kindness. Thanks for helping us make our special day even more...

I don't even know where to begin, but Emily was the grounding force and one of the best parts during our wedding planning process. I was way more excited about dance lessons, and my husband was excited but nervous, (becuase I wanted to do a lift) but Emily totally was the glue that brought ideas for our first dance together. She is compassionate kind, and she made sure we loved our dance. She is also super affordable considering there were others who charged stupid prices, when Emily put more heart into. She even let me add some steps, (and a lift, which was executed beautifully on our wedding day) and totally broke it down and made it super accesible and easy to learn, as well as gave my husband the confidence to feel in his element the day of our wedding. She understood the mood we were going for, and was always professional and when our last lesson came, we were so sad! We felt like birds leaving the nest. But we want to book with her again, though! Our guests loved our dance, and we'll probably be dancing it together for the rest of our lives. I'm grateful to have found Emily. SO DO NOT HESITATE! If you're reading this, you found the choreographer for your first dance! Enjoy and treasure it :)

Update: One year later, and I love this time with Emily even more. When you're in the wedding planning process, especially if you have a bigger wedding celebration, you tend to process things more fully after the wedding day. Now that it's almost a year later, I still feel that Emily was the best part of our wedding planning. It brings tears to my eyes. It may sound corny, but looking back, we were so stressed at times, and it felt like we were two fur babies on a rocky ship, and Emily helped us bring warmth, fun, and grounded energy to our whole experience. She helped us...

My first dance with my husband was everything we could have hoped for, and it was all thanks to Emily at Anyone Can Dance NYC!

From the very first lesson, Emily was welcoming and encouraging. Neither of us had any slow-dance experience, and she made us feel comfortable right away. She helped us realize we were more capable than we thought and even challenged us to incorporate some movements that felt advanced (at least to us)! She choreographed our dance specifically to our song and the result matched the exact vibe we wanted. It was elegant and romantic, but still so much fun!

Emily recorded each lesson so we could practice at home, and after a trail and 3 sessions, we had a full two-minute dance ready to go. We had a blast learning it together and performing it was one of our favorite moments of our wedding day. Also, since we already knew all the steps, we were able to be fully present and take in every second without having to worry about what to do with our feet or awkwardly swaying side to side.

As a same-sex couple, we were a little unsure of how to approach a choreographed first dance since traditional roles are usually so gendered. Emily handled this with such thoughtfulnes and helped us find the perfect balance between leading and following. The final dance felt natural, comfortable, and very us, and our family and friends were so impressed.

If you're considering a choreographed first dance, regardless of your dance experience, we cannot recommend...