Hi, I’m Aaron

Welcome. I’m glad you’re here.

I teach wedding couples how to dance. Or I did, in studios, for about 25 years. These days I do it here. Everything I learned standing in front of nervous couples is on this site, free, because the couples who need it most are usually the ones convinced dancing is hard or just isn’t for them. I know. I was one of you.

I was you

(Come on, you already saw this coming). My first dance lesson was in high school. My girlfriend wanted to learn the cha cha. I couldn’t get it, and I walked out figuring dancing wasn’t for me.

Then I took a ballroom class in college. I still remember three instructors pushing me around the floor (as my partner patiently went along for the ride) while I tried to do the foxtrot. That was 0 for 2. I know how you feel.

How I ended up teaching

After college I saw an ad in the paper. It had a hook. Learn to dance! No experience necessary! A local studio was hiring trainee instructors, so I joined a training class of about eight people. Third time’s the charm, right?

By the second week, six of them had dropped out. I worked my day job and trained at night. Eventually I was hired. That was 25 years ago. Since then I’ve earned three teaching certifications, two of them highly commended by the ISTD. I’ve competed pro/am. And I’ve taught hundreds of couples, many of them beginners. Beginners are my favorite students, because I remember exactly how struggling feels. And once it clicked for me, it was a feeling I couldn’t get anywhere else.

My own first wedding dance

When I got married, the dance teacher needed help with his own first dance. Let’s just say my wife and I had a complicated relationship when it came to my teaching her dance. So we had one of my fellow instructors, a neutral third party, to choreograph it for us.

Our song was “Open Arms” by Journey. Halfway through it, I would start to feel like I couldn’t keep up. Like the song was getting faster. That’s nuts! My fellow instructor thought I was crazy, and that I was just getting tired. So I went home and timed it. The song really did speed up in the middle! I had to edit it on my computer, slowing the second half down to match the first, just so we could dance to it.

That song (which made people cry for reasons other than the speed) is a big reason this website exists.

About choreography

You’ll notice we had a choreographer, but look at what it took: trained dancers, a hired instructor, and a lot of hours. Most couples don’t have that, and they don’t need it.

Learn real lead and follow, and you can dance to your song, and to every song after it, for the rest of your lives. Memorize a routine, and you can dance to exactly one.

Why this site exists

This site is designed to help you at midnight in your socks, whether we ever meet or not.

Here’s my job as I see it. If you find a song here that fits you, maybe one you didn’t know existed, my job’s done. If you learn how the dance lesson world works before it takes your money, or you just save some time, my job’s done.

So is this guy going to teach us or not?

The guides and tips are the same conversations I used to have standing in front of couples, written down so you can use them at midnight in your socks. And I’m building the follow-along version: a video course that teaches lead and follow the way I’d teach it in the room. It’s not finished yet, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

Get on the email list and you’ll get the new guides as they land, and you’ll be the first to know when the course is ready.

One honest warning

Is this going to be super easy? You don’t even need to practice? Sorry. You’ll still need to get your butt in gear and put in the work. But dancing is easier than you think it is, and more fun than you think it can be, when you’ve got the right information and the right instruction. That’s what this site is for. Start with the Song Guides to find your song, or the Dance Tips to learn how this all works.