The first dance at your wedding, this is how we can help you

You want a first dance at your wedding? We can help!

You are getting married soon and you would like an opening dance. At Slowfeet Studio you are in the right place. We have helped many couples with the first dance at their wedding over the years. In this article we would like to tell you how we work and what you can expect. Hopefully this will give you a good idea of ​​how we can help you and whether we are a match.

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“Slowfeet Studio made the opening dance of our wedding completely tailor-made. Our wishes were taken into account and we looked at what was feasible. The lessons were also super fun and we are very happy with the end result. Certainly highly recommended for anyone who is struggling with that first dance!!”

John van Os
review left on Google

A choreography or improvisation for your first dance

In an opening dance, you basically have two options:

Option 1: You learn a choreo (choreography). This means that we teach you a dance where we do specific moves on the song you have chosen. So you actually learn a dance by heart, with rehearsed moves in a fixed order.

Option 2: You are going to improvise. During the lessons you will learn how to lead and follow and we will also teach you how to connect, dance together and how to do a couple of moves. During your opening dance there is no rehearsed sequence of moves and steps, so you decide what to do at that moment.

There is something to be said for both options, depending on your personal preference. Most people choose a choreography. It gives couples a little more security and also a feeling of really shining on the dance floor.

Whichever form you choose, we can help you make something beautiful out of it.

Choosing a song for your opening dance

At Slowfeet Studio we specialize in dancing to slow music. The dance we normally dance, Slow Bal, is danced to slow jazz music. But we can also get by with pop music, for example.

Choose a number that makes you both happy and let us know which song it will be. This way we can start developing the choreo before your first lesson, or see which moves fit well on the music.

Can’t choose and need a little bit more time? No worries. Even without knowing the song we can start with the first dance lessons. We mainly focus on connection, leading and following and on a couple of basic moves.

Tell us your wishes for your first dance

Maybe you’ve always dreamed of a nice lift in your opening dance, or you’ve seen a video on Instagram with a cool move. It’s nice to communicate this kind of thing in advance so that we can build it into the choreography. Other things are also good to think about, for example:

  • Do you want to dance the whole song, or do you want to dance with a parent (in-law) somewhere halfway?
  • Do you start together on the dance floor or do you approach from the top of a staircase, for example?


Here too, it’s totally fine if you don’t know it all yet. We can also think along and give advice. But if you do know, pass it on!

Additional tip:
It is very handy for us to know what the bride is wearing. Some dresses require some extra attention during an opening dance, for example because they have a train or a hoop. All these things we want to take into account.

“We followed private classes with Deirdre for our wedding dance choreography and it was a great experience! She built us a very personalised dance for a song we picked.

From the very beginning the communication was really good, she was very professional and the classes were fun thing to do. She’s really good in explaining the steps but she’s also really passionate about what she does. I highly recommend the studio and specifically Deirdre to any couple and/or individual looking for a dance teacher.”

Anna Reginova
review left on Google

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An opening dance without dance experience

Do you, your partner, or both of you, have no dance experience? Don’t worry and believe us: we can always make something beautiful. Also, you are probably better than you think. Even when you’ve never danced before. Think of it this way: the first time on a bike was also difficult, but now you don’t think about it anymore. We will help you based on your experience. During the first lesson we will see how quickly you learn things. We adjust the choreo and the rest of the lessons accordingly. So even if you have no dance experience you can have a really nice opening dance.

Your first dance lesson

If you have passed on what your wishes are and what song you have in mind for the opening dance, we can get started with the preparations. This way we can immediately dive into it during your first dance lesson. For example, we focus on making a connection while dancing, the rhythm of the song, how you can move together on the dance floor and how you feel how to step. If you opt for a choreo, we will also make a start on that during the first dance lesson.

Nothing is set in concrete. If you want something different, you can always tell us. It is tailor-made and the choreo we develop is really created especially for you. So we adjust it just as easily if something doesn’t work or feels right.

“Cannot recommend enough. We worked with Deirdre who helped create a first dance for our wedding. I have no dance experience but Deirdre created the perfect choreography for us and supported us the whole way through. On the day we had so many compliments from family and friends. Thank you so much for helping make our dance perfect!”

Chris Moss
review left on Google

openingsdans rotterdam bruiloft

Practicing your opening dance at home

As with everything, the more you practice, the easier it gets and the better you remember everything. Even if you practice together once a day, or when you take a moment yourself to go through the moves. To help you, we make a video after each lesson in which we record what we did during our session. Handy if a few days later you are no longer sure how that move went or what the correct order of moves was.

Also nice, you can see the progress after every lesson!

Practical things about dance lessons

We schedule dance classes based on both your and our availability. We prefer evenings or a moment during the weekend. A dance lesson lasts one hour. Longer is also possible, for example an hour and a half, but keep in mind that you will often have learned a lot of new things after an hour and your head will get a bit full. With a choreography we need between 4 and 8 lessons to teach you the entire opening dance and to fine-tune it.

If you do not want a choreography, it’s possible to do less classes. Although in my experience, we usually end up with 4 lessons as well. 

Prices of an opening dance

The cost of a lesson for an opening dance is 95 euros per hour when you choose the tailor made choreography. If you just want to learn some moves to the song that you’ve chosen, the price is 85 euro per hour. Prices are excluding rent of a studio (10 euro). We also do training at your house! Depending on the location and travel time, costs are 10 euro (minimal). 

Let's do it and have an opening dance!

Do you feel like getting started with your own and unique first dance after reading this article? Send an email to info@slowfeetstudio.nl or fill in the contact form below.