My wife and I had a fabulous experience working with Deborah for our August 2015 wedding. We are not natural dancers (which is why we sought lessons!), but Deborah worked with us to choreograph a first dance routine that we were excited to perform. We left our final lesson well prepared and comfortable to "WOW" our guests with a romantic and elegant performance. We had to reschedule a lesson due to an unforeseen health issue, and Deborah was more than willing to work with us. We greatly appreciated her flexibility to shuffle her schedule to accommodate our unexpected change of plans. Another benefit to working with Deborah: She has us record ourselves dancing before the end of each lesson so we have a video to review as we practice. It really helps to learn the steps. Thank you, Deborah, for offering us this experience! read more

To be clear from the beginning, I would just say be extraordinarily careful doing business with The Wedding Dance Specialists. We had an okay double session to start. Only real note that she was running late. She gave us a heads up in advance, but even still she ran later than her heads up provided. The session itself went fine, my fiancee and I were just trying to get a little bit more comfortable for our first dance. We upgraded our package for an additional two lessons, planning to do another Sunday double session. We had planned to make it that day, but my fiancee had a migraine and we didn't think it was safe for her to try dancing for two hours. This is when the problems started. First, I'll say that yes, we asked to reschedule with not very much notice, but I agreed to the fees required to reschedule the sessions. The process of rescheduling was so needlessly complicated by Deborah. She agreed that day to a rescheduled lesson in a few weeks and when the day prior came she denied ever having agreed to it and did not take any responsibility for it at all. Her website shows a ton of availability, but she doesn't want to come to the studio just for one session, so she continually offers sessions we're not available for in order to make it as economical for her as possible. There's a ton of back and forth about scheduling, but eventually we get both lessons rescheduled. On the day of our lesson, Deborah again lets us know 50 minutes before the start of our session that she's running 10 minutes late. We are already on our way there since we do not live especially close. We get to the studio 5 minutes early, but Deborah's previous lesson runs OVER 20 MINUTES LATE. There's no apology, no excuse, no explanation of any kind. My fiancee confronts her about this, since it's very disrespectful of our time and not the first incident, and Deborah loses her temper immediately. No self-reflection whatsoever, just an insistence that we should be happy for the "free rehearsal time" while we wait for our lesson to start. With her refusal to take any responsibility and getting angry at us for asking her to, we did not feel comfortable continuing with the lesson. I asked her to refund the rescheduling fee, she declined, so I disputed it with my credit card. I then got this nasty note when she cancelled our remaining session, which is full of lies. I've attached both my messages with her and her message to me so you can judge for yourselves. The main things to remember if you're considering The Wedding Dance Specialists and Deborah in particular are: * She will not be on time, and will not be sorry about it * She will not be accommodating of rescheduling, even in cases of illness * She will make stuff up to justify her actions * If you have any kind of negative feedback she will absolutely lose her temper. (you can see it in her replies to these reviews) Take the one and two star reviews seriously. They are extremely true to our experience. read more

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Unprofessional, charges bogus fees. We asked if we could reschedule due to illness, she said no and that she would charge a fee. We then offered to come in anyway and she told us not to, then charged us the fee anyway. She was a pain in the ass about rescheduling and claimed she spent so much time "researching rescheduling options." We had agreed upon a time with her, only to find out that someone else had booked it. This happened twice. She also was late both times we met. We parted ways because of her lack of professionalism. She refused to work with us after we mentioned her inappropriate behavior, then charged ANOTHER cancellation fee and refused to refund us. read more

The instructor was 30 minutes late to our lesson, which was very unprofessional. She was eating during the session, and she stepped on my wedding shoes multiple times with her black dance shoes, causing permanent damage. The studio is a shared space, and the instructor played music from a phone or a weak speaker, making it extremely difficult to hear our song. The lesson itself felt disorganized, and my partner and I had to continually redirect the instructor to stay on track. Ultimately, we sought out a different studio because we did not feel we were getting the guidance we needed. We would appreciate a refund for this disappointing experience. Would not recommend -- consider booking elsewhere. read more

Deborah was an excellent instructor! In 2-1 hour classes we learned awesome choreography for our first dance. She thoroughly explained each move and made an instructional video to practice on our own. My fiancé and I are looking forward to making dance a special part of our marriage. Definitely worth the investment and one of the more exciting aspects of wedding planning! read more

I'm so happy I got to have this experience. It needs to be a mandatory part of wedding planning. Save yourselves the embarrassment of the boring prom sway, and get yourselves a lesson or two! You will not regret it. read more

Deborah invited me to tour her studio and gave me an intro class session and it was so much fun! Deborah is wonderful to work with, very patient and clearly loves what she does. I plan on signing up for more dance classes with her for my husband and me! I would highly recommend her! read more

Probably the worst decision I made during wedding planning - including the caterers whose waiters took bets on how old I was and discussed said bet with my guests. Their employees really misled us about how much we could get done during two lessons; I would've preferred either buying a longer package or just not doing it at all to flushing money away on something ultimately unhelpful. I also didn't feel that the quality of the instruction was very good, but this could've been a function of being sold on an inadequate (read: useless) number of lessons. We still felt extremely awkward on the dance floor, and when discussing our concerns with the owner, we got a massive brush-off. Bad experience all around. read more

My hubby and I just had a group lesson this evening. I have to say for the price it was a good value especially if you're a beginner. If you and your partner are intermediate dancers you'll likely be bored. The pace is slow enough you can get an idea of the moves without being confused. It's a great intro class for wedding first dances. Would certainly recommend if you've got two left feet. read more

I really hate to write "bad" reviews. I'm giving my experience with the wedding dance specialists two stars because even though we did learn something, the unprofessionalism that I was subjected to between our instructor and another dance instructor at the studio she rented space from is unacceptable. I did not pay several hundred dollars to listen to your cat fight and feel incredibly uncomfortable over a "turf war". It was a good fifteen minutes or so that this went on, including the time it took for our instructor to get the owner of the studio involved before we left. That being said, I would give our overall dance experience 4 stars. The boot camp was beneficial and I preferred that group setting, but we only had a few couples in our class. The private lessons were okay, I appreciated our instructor taking the time to coordinate a dance to our specific song. The reason I would not give the whole experience 5 stars, is because I didn't feel as though I could speak up when I didn't like a particular party of the choreography and sometimes felt it was her way or the highway. There were also some parts of the experience that felt incredibly cheesy to me. We did not have a perfect first dance, but we had fun learning and practicing together and that's what's important. Do I suggest you take the crash course? Yes. But I do not think it takes 5 additional hours of classes in order to have a good dance like the instructor will try to suggest. If you do decide to do it, make sure you have plenty of time to dedicate to the classes and don't wait last minute! read more

My husband and I are overworked professionals in a long distance relationship and we had little dance experience. We wanted to dance decently enough to show our love and our respect for our family and friends, but really we would have been satisfied just not embarrassing ourselves. We have so little time together and we could only devote so much to a single aspect of the wedding planning. Thanks to Deborah Joy, our dance knocked everyone's socks off. It dropped jaws all over the room. All we did was enjoy each other for the length of the song and try not to fall down, but what our guests enjoyed was a confident and romantic performance. People couldn't stop talking about it. I think we did 6 lessons but we could have gotten away with 3. The price was extremely reasonable. First, Deborah Joy helped us select a song and taught us an entrance and an exit. Then she taught my husband several moves that he could comfortably use in any order. Our guests were shocked that the dance wasn't choreographed because he was so confident in his execution. We spent the rest of the lessons having fun together and improving our technique. During the wedding planning period, which is inherently stressful, I learned something important about myself: outside of work I really do lack confidence. I was uncomfortable being celebrated as a bride, and the dance lessons brought up a lot of unexpected feelings. Deborah Joy was so cool and supportive, even sending me an encouraging email after one of our sessions. She taught me techniques that enhanced my confidence and pride as a woman. She made us both feel important. We are truly grateful. read more

My fiancée and I used Deborah to choreograph our wedding dance and we are so happy we did! We really loved our dance and everyone was really impressed! She is fun and upbeat and really knows her stuff! Be sure to check her out if you are getting married soon, your wedding guests will be impressed!! read more

I'll start by saying that at the end of the day, we ended up with a really great first dance that we were both really proud of, and we couldn't have done that without Deborah/the Wedding Dance Specialists. Here's the but: it was not the greatest experience and I think there are many ways it could have been improved. The instructor was always running late, we had to spend a lot of time hearing about how amazing other couples were and other nonsense, and how awkward and uptight I am. Seriously, I just wanted some choreography for my first dance, not to be made to feel bad for lack of rhythm, posture, clothing choices, and whatever else. Also, a friend confirmed similar experiences and also said that she was taught all the same moves that she just saw my husband and I perform at our wedding. Obviously other reviewers had more positive experiences and, as I mentioned, we did learn a great first dance, so do what you will.... read more

Can't speak to their lessons, but be VERY CAREFUL booking with them -- their cancellation & change policy is draconian ($55 fee if you try to cancel within 4 business days, not counting the lesson date = basically a full week). We booked a Monday lesson on the preceding Tuesday (6 days before) and instantly couldn't cancel without a $55 fee (that's 50% of a $110 lesson). So there was literally no point at which we could cancel without a fee (even when they told us the dates we asked for didn't work anymore). Dealing with them about the issue? Extremely unpleasant. It's not worth the stress, go elsewhere. read more

We were delighted with the personalization they were able to offer. Working with a non-traditional wedding song, Deborah Joy was open to crafting a dance that both looked good and fit the skills that we had. She was patient and willing to go back over aspects about which we did not feel comfortable, while making the most efficient use of our limited time together. Her appraisals were frank, so we knew that her compliments really meant we were succeeding. Working with the Deborah Joy gave us much greater confidence than we would have experienced had we tried to craft something on our own, particularly because we were able to try simple things like dancing with a long 'dress' and with heels (which changed things for both of us). We were so pleased with how everything turned out. Also, the Alexandria studio was conveniently Metro accessible (with a short walk). read more

My fiance and I took 2 back-to-back lessons about a week before our wedding. We weren't total beginners, but we wanted to learn a greater variety of moves. The company fit us in at the last minute on a Monday evening, which I really appreciated. The lesson was broken up into blocks: the instructor would teach us individual steps, we would practice them, then she would record us practicing them them. Notably, the instructor came prepared with a simple intro and exit for us to tack onto our dance. This was the most helpful part, as it gave us a definite structure in which to work. At the end of the lesson, we did a "dress rehearsal" of our entire song while she taped on my smartphone. I'm not sure what she would have done if we didn't both have smartphones, so if you don't have one, you should bring a digital camera with a video function to make the most of your lessons! Overall it was a good experience and we were satisfied. The price wasn't exorbitant and the lessons served their purpose well. I would particularly recommend this service to couples who are very busy, as their response time was really excellent. read more

Thanks to Deborah, my husband and I (both with extremely limited dance experience) presented a romantic, elegant, and beautifully choreographed dance on our special day. Not only did we have fun with Deborah who made the lessons an uplifting experience instead of a stressful one, but she gave us real results as she promised from day one. What surprised us the most was how touched our guests were. Here are some of their comments on our Facebook page: "Dear lord have mercy - breathtaking dance! Beautiful beautiful!!!" "Their dance was a preview of their lives together - full of camaraderie, support and understanding." "I must say your first dance together really moved me; I'm so happy for you." Thank you, Deborah, for helping us transmit our love and respect for one another to our guests through the our first dance! read more

Thank you Deborah for our private lessons. My fiancee and I had never danced formally before. We now know a number of different steps which we plan to use for our wedding dance and beyond. Deborah was very helpful and we also were able to video tape different steps and moves which has been very helpful when practicing. If anyone is interested in showing off during your wedding - and also feeling a bit more confident on the dance floor, the Wedding dance specialists are for you. Also thank you to Perfect Wedding Guide DC-Maryland-VA for their giveaway - I was one of the monthly winners and won the dance prize. My fiancee and I are very grateful and thank you for the wedding tips all along the way! Wedding date 7/21/12 read more

Our first dance at our wedding was absolutely amazing...and it is all thanks to Deborah Joy at the Wedding Dance Specialists! We took five lessons with Deborah. We were so surprised how easy it was to learn the steps to our first dance...Deborah just teaches what we need to know to look good in the most high yield way possible. Our guests were so impressed with our first dance that they thought we had taken months of lessons!! Not only did she teach us how to dance to one song, but she also taught us how to adapt those same steps to different types of music including hip hop and swing! Now, when we go on our honeymoon, we will have lots of steps to incorporate when we dance. We are so happy that we took lessons with Deborah and highly recommend her and the Wedding Dance Specialists!!! We couldn't have asked for a better first dance :) read more

If you are looking to make your first dance as husband and wife something really special then look no further than the Wedding Dance Specialists! At the time my fiance and I had no prior experience with formal ballroom and were a bit nervous going into our first lesson. However our instructor, Deborah Joy (also owner/operator) was a consummate professional and a true master of her craft. She helped us along step by step building up our confidence each lesson. We could not have asked for a better instructor to help us learn a dance that will always remain the highlight of our reception! I would recommend The Wedding Dance Specialists to anyone. Thank you Deborah! :-) read more

Great Experience and fun! Attended the Boot Camp session and learned a lot! The boot camp session covered a variety of dance moves that could easily be used as your first dance as a married couple. Deborah took her time explaining the moves as well as demonstrating them. She also took time to answer all questions from attendees. Overall, I recommend the Wedding Dance Specialist to anyone, plus it was a lot of fun! read more

We signed up for 6 lessons with Deborah, and after the second one, we sought a refund for the remaining lessons. During the first one, she spoke on very sensitive political topics that were uncomfortable, and she referred to my mother with an explicit word that is not appropriate to write in this review. By the time our second lesson was approaching, she tried to change our scheduled day and time, and get us to double up on lessons (2 in one day, instead of 1), in order to minimize her time spent at the studio. While we realize she likes to have multiple clients/lessons per night, we have very little wiggle room in our schedule. More importantly, we signed up for our lessons months before the first one. We also scheduled them while balancing work, wedding planning, and daily life. During Deborah's attempt to reschedule, my fiancé and her exchanged approximately a dozen e-mails, with no clarity as to when our appointment was. Her e-mails made no sense and contained incomplete thoughts, making it nearly impossible to know what Deborah wanted. After the dozen or so e-mails, the appointment was eventually returned to its regularly scheduled day and time (which raises other issues). This same process went on prior to lesson 3, which is when we decided to ask for a refund. The e-mailing and lack of clarity was way too much to deal with. Obtaining the refund also presented many challenges, which paralleled the challenges of rescheduling - numerous incoherent e-mails. I am leaving one star because we eventually got our refund. She is also an experienced dancer. The lack of stars is due to her inappropriate comments and conversations, constant attempt to change dates and times that were already agreed upon, and her instruction. The only time I received feedback is when I asked for it. Much of our lesson was spent with me asking if I was doing something right, instead of her paying attention, and providing guidance. read more

Before we took dance lessons from Deborah, my husband and I thought we had the moves to do a decent first dance at our wedding. We signed up for a few lessons with Deborah, and it turns out we could've used a couple of lessons. We took three private lessons, and Deborah came up with a great first dance routine pretty much on the spot, but more importantly she gave us steps we could use and mix up to do an awesome first dance and dance throughout the night. We had so much fun taking the private lessons that we also signed up for the wedding dance boot camp. It was fun to hang out with the other couples and practice our moves. We were really pleased with our experience, and our first dance turned out great. In addition to the dance instruction, Deborah has a great outlook on how a partnership in dance translates into our everyday lives as a couple. read more

I don't usually write bad reviews, but this was the worst decision we made during wedding planning, and a huge waste of money. We signed up for 3 lessons. The dance instructor was 30 minutes late to both lessons. She would not listen to what we wanted and tried to teach us moves that seemed cheesy to us. We expressed that we did not like some of the moves, but she argued with us and insisted that we have to learn them all. She also repeatedly told us that we look "retarded" and "constipated" throughout our lessons. She was extremely unprofessional, and since then we have heard others say the same about her. We decided not to continue with her for our third lesson. read more

I really couldn't have been any happier with how our wedding dance classes turned out. They were fun to go to (which we were not expecting) - and we really felt that we mastered our first dance. We went in only with the hope that we would not to embarrass ourselves - and instead many of our guests said it was one of the best first dances they had seen. And, it was one of my husbands and I favorite moments of the wedding (which we also were not expecting!) Deborah Joy was fun - and clearly is very passionate about her job and making sure that your first dance is a huge success. Well worth every cent!!! read more

Deborah Joy accommodated my now-husband and me at the last minute and gave us the basics of a wedding dance that got us through the dreaded First Dance (we both hate dancing and are bad at it). We even got some compliments on our dance, which is saying something. I would definitely recommend her to anyone looking to shine (or just not embarrass themselves) at their wedding. read more

When my husband said that he wanted to do a real first dance for our wedding, I cringed. I am not a dancer (pretty bad to be quite honest) and he comes from a family of dancers. Our wedding planner recommended the Wedding Dance Specialists. We ended up taking 5 private dance lessons and attended the Footsteps and Twirls workshop. Our instructor was Deborah, one of the co-founders. It is clear that she has extensive experience coaching engaged couples. She knows what works well for a first dance (lifts, twirls, etc.) that make the guests cheer and the bride feel beautiful. We told her our song choice and showed her a video we had seen of a first dance to our song. She choreographed an intro and a finale for us and then we spent time learning different moves that we could use for everything in the middle. We watched a lot of videos and let Deborah know if there was something we wanted to learn, and she was always open to that. And she was always happy to provide feedback and even asked us to let her know if there were any other moves that we wanted to incorporate. We also attended the workshop which was great b/c it allowed us to see even more moves. But we were also able to see the dance moves performed (her husband co-taught the workshop). We attended the workshop after we'd had 3 lessons so it was perfect timing. We knew some of what we wanted but we were still figuring things out. We tried each of those moves right away and it was clear what might work and what definitely wouldn't! We did end up incorporating some of those into our dance and worked on them with Deborah in our private lessons. Deborah also impressed upon us the importance of learning the dance moves and how to follow and lead vs memorizing a dance. In this way we could dance together to other songs and we didn't have the pressure to memorize every single move we were going to do in our 3.5 mins. She was right! My husband did the dance a little different each time we practiced and different again on our wedding day and it went perfect. Countless people asked us how much did we practice, how many lessons, etc. My other was awed. She said she couldn't believe her daughter could dance like that. And really it wasn't me, it was my husband. Deborah said it's 90% on the groom and it's his job to make his bride shine. Did we spend endless hours outside of our lessons practicing? No. But we did adhere to the pointers that we were given. Deborah provided us with the basics and helped us to really improve upon those to create a polished dance to wow our guests. Immediate feedback from a professional is really invaluable as watching an iphone video of yourself only gets you so far. We can't wait to see our video! read more

My fiancé surprised me with dance lessons for our May 30th,2015 wedding as a Valentine's Day present. We met with Deborah Joy, who was our dance instructor. To be honest- at our first dance lesson, she sat down and did the introduction for about half an hour. I kind of felt like, this is great getting to know you and all, but aren't we here to dance? We wasted about 30 minutes just getting to know her and talk to her about our first dance at our wedding. On a positive note, she was helpful with videotaping our dance and giving us feedback about our posture and keeping our elbows up. This past Saturday, we were married at a Catholic Church and then had our reception at Herrington on the Bay. Right before our first dance, I changed out of my high heels and put on flats. I was way more comfortable. I'm glad we practiced. We only took 3 lessons, but my fiancé Adam said that he would recommend at least 4 as a minimum to future couples because we felt rushed through it. Also, it was weird that they didn't give out their address and had to walk through a private neighborhood to someone's house in their dance studio basement. I did enjoy the romantic dance we did and everyone thought it was amazing that we had a chorographed 1st dance for our song when we entered through the reception onto the dance floor. We only forgot one move and changed it into some dance spins and no one even noticed. The dance instructor Deborah Joy was a little eccentric but overall she DID in the end help us with our 1st dance. Thank you Deborah Joy for helping us with our 1st dance, even though it was tricky at times with the schedules and running too early or too late. read more

We are currently taking lessons with Deborah of The Wedding Dance Specialists. We have had about 4 lessons so far and they have all been wonderful experiences. She is moving us at a very nice pace, keeping in mind that my fiance' is a total beginner with zero dancing experience. I mean zero! I can already see a marked change in his confidence/demeanor when we practice at home and I know we have Deborah to thank. I'm really looking forward to our wedding and showing off our "pro" moves to our friends and family. Highly recommend The Wedding Dance Specialists for any couple that wants to wow their wedding guests with a classy and elegant dance custom made for them. read more

With tremendous luck we found our fairy godmother of wedding dance. We wanted to use our first dance as our first act as a legally married couple in front of our loved ones. I loved to danced but my husband was only very good at the "one-hand-on-a-beer-bottle-while-both-feet-stay-attached-to-the-floor-with-slight-sway-side-to-side" kind of dance. But when we met Deborah, we knew we found our perfect teacher. She was fun, a little out-there (in the best possible way), and she made both of us super comfortable. She tailored our lessons (we did 4) to meet our needs and my husband just simply loved going to her lessons. The actual dance was perfect but the experience of us going to the lessons was awesome. Going to Deborah was almost like our little escape from all the last minute planning and running around trying to get everything done. Needless to say, our guests were floored by how our first dance turned out. My husband was beaming with pride and joy and that made me want to cry again. Seriously, we went to Deborah with the music and general dance style in mind, she made it happen. Love her. read more