I am a resident in Jessica's building.Tonight we had our first dance class. In her own free time , for free, she has offered to teach us. For four weeks (and hopefully more to come), she's going to teach us a different style of dance each week. Tonight was the Waltz. We all had such a great time. Her teaching technique fits with those beginners that need a little more patience from their coach to lead them the way....to those more advanced that want to perfect their craft. She's fully capable to fit your needs and style of dance you would like to master. I fully recommend Miss Jessica to help you become the best dancer you can be! read more

Words can't express how much of a JOY it was to work with Jessica for our Wedding "1st dance". She has an Amazing personality and she is a Great instructor. She is very down to earth and no matter how horrible of a dancer you think you are she can make you look like you've been a "Ballroom Dancer" your entire life. In just 4 lessons, Jessica turned our "Two Left Feet" into a Spectacular Wedding Dance and on our Wedding Day...we felt as if we were dancing on air and as if there was no one else in the room but the two of us. Jessica you are AMAZING and THANKS for Everything!!! The Garrisons read more

Vaneza and Jessica are amazing! The environment they create makes you forget your insecurities and have fun, while you actually make progress. A year and a half later, I find myself going back to class regularly because there's always something more to learn. The enthusiasm and passion with which they teach is encouraging and entertaining. Love this place! read more

Got married last month and my wife and I realized with only two weeks left to go for our wedding we realized we didn't really know how to dance with each other. Thankfully, Jessica at Windy City Wedding Dance was available to take the time to teach us novices to pull off a rumba as our first dance and it couldn't have been better. In the best interest of time, she listened to our song and came up with a routine for us to follow right on the spot. Jessica's attention and sense of care to our circumstances was exceptional and I would recommend any soon-to-be wed couples to get some pointers from her and Windy City Wedding Dance. read more

Jessica helped my fiance (now husband) and I learn our first dance for our big day! She was absolutely fantastic. She really took her time with us and taught us some moves that we weren't even sure we could handle! She took a non-dancer (me) and a made me feel invincible on the dance floor at our wedding. I would HIGHLY recommend Jess as a dance coach, instructor and (if you're lucky) dance partner! She was so nice and really made both my husband and I feel very comfortable dancing. Big love for her and this company. If you want to check out our first dance, and her work, I don't think we messed it up TOO badly....we were nervous.... it is below! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFwzHJ-EvYk read more

My fiancé and I found Jessica (of Windy City Wedding Dance) through our apartment building as she was offering group dance classes. Since we are getting married this May and have at least three left feet between the two of us(!), we thought we could use some lessons for our big day and the first dance specifically. After meeting with Jess, we decided on 8 individualized sessions and could not be happier with what we've learned and the time we've spent together in just the past four. Jess has been very flexible with us in terms of meeting time (if you live in K2, there's an option to practice in the building!), location, number of sessions, and changing our song. In terms of dance, we're learning the foxtrot and rumba. At first I was particularly nervous because I'm not the most coordinated person, though I love music and always thought I would like to know what it feels like to dance properly. I have surprised myself and I've really enjoyed the lessons. I will probably keep dancing in some form after this because it was so enjoyable (and I have Jess and this experience to thank for opening that door!). Spending this extra time with my fiance has also been enjoyable, especially during this stressful time of weddding planning. Jess is very patient with beginners and will find several ways to explain or walk through a dance move until it clicks (I've really appreciated this!). She will move at your pace and help you learn whatever it is you are looking for- somehting coreographed, or practicing basic steps to translate to any song (as a bonus, if you need help, she also helps you out in understanding rhythms that fit certain dances). My partner and I are pleased with where we are in our rumba and foxtrot skills at this point and can't wait to see where we are at the end of our lessons and really can't wait to cut up the dance floor on the night of our wedding! Personally, Jess is charismatic, genuine and radiates a love for dance and connecting with others. So, on top of being a patient teacher and accomplished dancer, she is just great to interact with. You could not go wrong working with her on a first dance, or more general dance lessons. read more

We would whole heatedly recommend Windy City Wedding Dance to prepare for your special day. Jessica is a wonderful instructor. My fiancé and I were brand new to dance and were much for confident and comfortable after working with Jessica. We are looking forward to using our new found skills and enjoyment of dance on our big day. read more

Basic classes might start a little too basic but the step by step instruction is outstanding and a great value!

Before our wedding, my husband and I took 10 lessons here to learn our 1st dance and it was well worth it! We felt so confident with the "club 2 step" and enjoyed the spotlight on our wedding day. We got many compliments on our dance and our instructor, Jessica was so wonderful!!! We learned a variety of moves and dips that we can use to any song and she gave us a pacing structure to fit our song perfectly (1 move every time we turn to a new wall so we'd end up facing the audience for our dip.) Taking dance lessons here was our favorite part of the planning process. It was so enjoyable! We looked at two other studios but didn't feel the same level of personal attention or sincerity from those large chain studios that were crazy expensive. Hands down I'd recommend taking lessons here. read more

Working with Jessica at Windy City Wedding Dance was, without a doubt, one of our favorite parts of the insanity that is wedding planning. We started out taking dance lessons as a gift from my mother, who loves ballroom dancing and wanted to make sure we danced properly at our reception. Without any prior dance experience, we initially expected it to be something we had to "get through." However, after just a lesson or two, we fell in love with dancing! A truly talented dancer, Jessica is patient and friendly, and she knows how to push you to develop and improve your technique. As a side note, she's also understanding and flexible, which is key in the last few months of wedding planning, and super easy to get in touch with, even when she has back-to-back lessons all day. In ten lessons, we learned and honed several moves for our waltz (to "Come Away With Me" by Norah Jones) and foxtrot (to "The Way You Look Tonight" by Frank Sinatra). My mom was very happy, and our guests were impressed. One of them actually told us that our waltz moved her to tears. I had always been a terrible follower on the dance floor, and my husband claims to have had two left feet before we started lessons, but Jessica has skillfully brought out the dancers in us. We have had so much fun learning how to dance together that we will continue to work with Jessica to learn more dance styles. We are very excited! read more

My fiance and I were 2wks out from our wedding and desperate for some help! They fit us right in and worked a miracle! Tommye took the time to really understand what we wanted out of the lesson and executed on every point! She was patient with us and so nice. She is clearly very knowledgeable and talented but was easily able to break it down to the basics for us novices! Highly recommend doing before the big day!! Thank you Tommye! read more

Jessica has been a beyond fantastic instructor. We're currently taking lessons for our December wedding and she really tailors the class to your skill and understanding. Additionally, she really takes the time to get to know you as a couple, what your vision for your wedding is and is more than willing to go above and beyond to make sure it happens! read more

We worked with Jessica for two months before our wedding to craft the perfect first dance routine. We (and my husband in particular) are far from professional dancers but we wanted to do something that would surprise our friends and family without setting us up for failure. Jessica totally got us and gave us the perfect mix of waltz, turns, leans and dips to make us look like professionals and blow our guests away while keeping our stress levels low. We were greeted with so many big smiles and happy tears when we finished dancing at our wedding and it was such a special moment that we will cherish forever. It's worth noting that my husband was dreading the dance lessons, he was a good sport but was pretty stressed going into it. If you ask him today, it is one of his favorite things from our wedding day and he will be the first to tell you it was far less painful (and more fun) than he imagined. We took six lessons with Jessica leading up to our wedding (and combined that with intermittent practicing at home) and found that to be the perfect amount for us to be confident and comfortable on our big day. As an added bonus, we have some extra special and fun photo and video capturing the twirls and dips that are definitely going to be framed in our home. Highly recommend dance lessons in general and specifically Windy City Wedding dance for anyone wanting to make their first dance a moment they'll never forget! read more

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Vaneza at Windy City Wedding Dance made dance lessons our favorite part of wedding planning. We took two months of weekly group lessons with her to learn the basics, where we learned ballroom/salsa and practiced with various partners. Her instructions were always thoughtful and precise, which is why we were excited to take lessons with her privately for our first dance. She choregraphed our whole dance--which was 4 minutes long! She was mindful of the lyrics and moments in the song for dramatic dips/spins, and made changes when certain moves didn't feel right. We truly enjoyed every lesson with Vaneza, she always had helpful tricks when we didn't feel in sync. We highly recommend her if you are looking to build your confidence with the basics or want to wow your guests with an impressive first dance. The location in the loop and flexibility with scheduling private lessons were also a plus! read more

Jessica was fantastic. She worked with our schedule, spent extra time with us, and really helped us get the dance we wanted for the wedding. We would highly recommend her to couples with different experience levels -- Jessica made our dance lessons fun. We will be coming back for more lessons in the future! read more

Windy City offers a fabulous dance space overlooking Michigan Avenue. You can even spy Buckingham Fountain while being inspired by one of the city's most experienced and gracious instructors. They are terrific with beginners and offer inspiring challenges to veteran dancers. I even asked for a specific suggestion for a mother/groom dance and they came up with multiple outstanding choices. read more

Jessica is great. We're having a wonderful time taking lessons from her. We've been dancing badly for years. We're big fans of ballroom but need lots of help with form and variety. With her help were moving on to new and better levels of dance and having lots of fun. We also love her flexibility for scheduling classes. We travel a lot and she makes it easy to fit dance lessons into our odd schedules. read more

Jessica with Windy City Wedding Dance helped us absolutely crush our first dance! Jessica is truly a spectacular and committed instructor. We signed up for the 7 class package and definitely needed every single minute of all 7 of them! Haha! We picked a nontraditional, upbeat song by Charlie Puth and she was able to conceptualize and choreograph a fun, incredibly unique first dance for us! It incorporated the rumba, salsa, and a show-stopping 360 degree lift! Although we were almost just as nervous to perform the first dance as we were to commit to a lifetime together, my wife and I had so much fun learning the steps and performing it that it was one of our favorite parts of the entire wedding! Jessica is an awesome, patient, funny and very talented dance instructor. I'd 100% recommend her to anyone and everyone! read more

My husband and I took 9 lessons with Jess before our wedding. She is an amazing instructor and dancer and she makes you feel comfortable from the first minute you walk in the door. We wanted a choreographed first dance and it turned out so much better than I could have imagined! She taught us a lot of different moves and when we wanted to change something she was always open to it and had great suggestions for alternative moves. It was a great built in date night every week that we looked forward to going to. I highly recommend taking classes with her if you want to wow your guests at your wedding! We got so many compliments and were told we looked like we were on Dancing with the Stars! read more

We took lessons with Jessica over the course of several months and had an amazing time--this was honestly our favorite part of preparing for our wedding! She helped us feel comfortable and confident, and was always such a good teacher. The vibe of the studio is super friendly and welcoming, which was perfect for newbies like us. Thanks for making our big day so special! read more

I would absolutely recommend Windy City Wedding Dance to anyone who wants to get ready for wedding "first dance." Jessica was awesome to work with and made the experience so much fun! The studio is in a perfect location with an amazing view. My fiancé and I definitely plan to go back for a fun date night. Thanks for everything Jessica!! read more

We had an amazing experience taking dance classes at Windy City Wedding Dance. Jessica was our instructor. We really enjoyed learning to waltz for our wedding. Jessica has a lot of experience helping couples prepare for their wedding. When we met with her, she listened to our goals/vision and took the time to explain to us what can be achieved in the given time frame before the wedding. She put together a beautiful and very elegant choreography. Our guests were very impressed with our dancing skills! Highly recommend Windy City Wedding Dance!! read more

We only had a few days before our wedding to scrap together a dance, having decided at the last minute that lessons were kinda super necessary. Kind & on point Jess to the rescue!! In 4 short classes, she showed us basic moves to our song ("Middle" by Jimmy Eat World) that we were able to nail w/ very little practice. By some miracle of her genuis, she was able to teach my dual-left-footed (now) husband how to swing dance, pass me from the front, back, under-arm and even do the famed "Dip" finale! By the end of our routine, the crowd was blown away and estaticly cheering for an encore (which my husband decided to endulge, and where things went horribly south...but that's another hysterically funny story.) The take home is that Jess can put a light in the eye and a rhythm into the step of the most hopeless trodderer. We can't thank her enough for helping us to kickstart that amazing day!! read more

I enrolled for the 4 week beginner Salsa class and totally loved it. The classes are super convenient being once a week and a great way to learn some moves along with a lot of fun. The first week is mainly basics and the trainer gradually introduces us to something new every week which you can practice over the week before the next class. All partners are rotated so you don't dance with the same partner all the time. I would recommend this place to anyone who wants to learn how to salsa. :) read more

About 2 weeks before our wedding, my fiance and I decided to take some dance lessons, to avoid the high schooler at prom look for our first dance. We found a couple of companies on Yelp that did wedding dance lessons, and emailed them both. Godiva from Windy City Wedding Dance promptly emailed us back with answers and I was immediately drawn to her positivity, so we went with Windy City over the other company. And I am SO glad we did! My fiance and I had little to no dance skills, and in 6 lessons we not only had a dance routine for our first dance, we also learned some salsa basics. Godiva was absolutely the best; I cannot recommend her enough! She made us both feel comfortable and confident, and we totally rocked our first dance. Coming to dance lessons was surprisingly my favorite part of wedding planning (even my fiance enjoyed it!), and I cannot believe what we accomplished in such a short amount of time. Take lessons with Godiva- you won't regret it! read more

Jessica was awesome to work with! My fiancé and I went to her for 4 dance lessons before our wedding. She's helpful, encouraging, and fun!

My husband and I took lessons from Godiva and could not have been happier! She was very patient with us even as we changed what dance we thought we wanted to do and they fact that my husband and I had different levels of dance experience. She provided us great feedback, and was always very positive and supportive. She came up with a great routine and made sure we left on our last session feeling confidant! The dance went wonderfully and all of our guests were super impressed with our dancing skills with only 4 lessons! read more

My fiancé and I knew we wanted to make our first dance special and we relied on YELP reviews to help us find Windy City Wedding Dance. It was everything we could have hoped! We really looked forward to each of our lessons. We saw both Jess and Tommye throughout our 10 lessons. Most of our time spent with Tommye who really helped break down the steps and teach us in a way that ensured we would be successful. We can't thank her enough and hope to come back for some more lessons! read more

We took 6 lessons with Godiva to practice our first dance and she took us from a couple with four left feet to feeling totally comfortable on the dance floor! She completely customized the choreography to the song we picked with no issues. Despite the craziness of wedding planning, she worked with our schedules to fit in all of our lessons. Godiva was a pleasure to work with and made us feel very comfortable with constant encouragement. We highly recommend lessons with Godiva to prep for your first dance! read more

After coming to the realization that we have no dance experience and 0 rhythm, my fiancée and I signed up for Windy City dance lessons 2 weeks prior to our big day. Following our intro session, our instructor, Godiva, pulled together a choreographed piece for our first dance. After 6 cram sessions, we were able to pull off our dance on the big day and received rave reviews. We owe it all to Godiva who was extremely professional, fun to work with, and patient (despite our 4 left feet). We had so much fun that we have discussed signing up for additional lessons. read more

What a wonderful studio. Indeed, "the little studio with a big heart" is nothing less than a gem. Can't imagine why anyone would be less than thrilled with the experience, including facilities, staff, attendees and the curriculum. read more

My wife and I bought a six lesson package to prepare for our first dance at our wedding. Vaneza was our instructor - she was great! She first showed us some basic steps, the box step, foxtrot, and swing. She gave us options of a repeating step with a few showy bits, or a choreographed dance. We chose to do a simple choreographed dance, which she helped us design based on our song and abilities. We took a couple lessons to design and practice the steps, and did some practice at home. Vaneza also agreed to use one of the lessons to help teach the father of the bride to prepare for their dance, which as very helpful for him! He has always said he can't dance, and since that lesson he brags about how he finally met a dance teacher who could show him how. He did a great job at the wedding and was beaming. Finally, we had a group event with the bridal party the day of the rehearsal dinner, where Veneza helped teach everyone the Greek Hasapiko dance, which was a blast. Vaneza was a good instructor, and was able to help everyone improve their skills. She is super friendly, she made everything really fun, and she's excellent at tailoring her teaching approach to your skills and ways of learning. We highly recommend! read more

I can't say enough good things about Jessica, Alesha and Tommye. All very professional and very good at what they do. I've taken classes from both Jessica and Tommye and they are both fabulous. They are very encouraging and helpful, and I always have a blast dancing with them. You are making a good choice if you go with WCWD! read more

Jess worked with me and my fiance (now husband!) to learn our first dance for our wedding. Neither of us had danced before and we went in thinking we would just learn enough not to embarrass ourselves and came out with an actual real dance routine! Jess gave us great private lessons and spent a lot of time with us to make sure we learned the dance AND had fun! We felt like a million bucks on the dance floor at our wedding and didn't skip a beat - we would highly recommend Jessica. She is a real pro and and a very nice, genuine person as well! read more

My mom insisted that we should take dance lessons before our wedding so she signed both my dad and I up and my fiancé and I up. We were a bit hesitant to do this, but Jessica was absolutely amazing! She worked it out so we could split up the lessons and helped us figure out a dance for both songs that we had chosen. We not only learned our dance, but had a lot of fun with her as well. After we did our dances at our wedding my mom immediately said it was the best money she spent on our wedding. We were thrilled with everything and will recommend Jessica to all of our friends! read more

My fiancé and I purchased a package of 10 private lessons from Windy City Wedding Dance to prepare for our wedding, and we simply could not have had a better experience. Jessica is INCREDIBLE to work with as a teacher. She has a knack for figuring out how different people learn dance steps best and she adapts her teaching style according to each student. She was able to quickly teach us the basics and then incorporate in a number of fun, more advanced steps that I know will be entertaining for our guests to watch. Best of all, she taught us how to lead and follow so, rather than a strictly choreographed dance that only works for one song, we can recycle our moves into a variety of songs. (In fact, this was crucial when we decided to switch our first dance song more than a month into our lessons.) We think Jessica is such a great teacher that we actually purchased a few extra lessons to take with our parents in the last few days before our wedding. Jessica has such a friendly, patient personality that I honestly believe that anyone would have a great experience working with her. On the administrative side, Jessica is incredibly easy to work with regarding scheduling and payment. She always responded very quickly to any texts we sent regarding dance lesson scheduling, and it was breeze to set times to meet with her. She can take credit card payment at her studio so that is simple. Speaking of which, her studio on Michigan Avenue is in the Fine Arts building (a really cool historical building that still has real elevator operators) and the studio has a gigantic window overlooking Michigan Avenue. It's a gorgeous space to learn in. While we were taking private lessons with her, we also had the opportunity to drop in on a group lesson taught by another instructor. That was also a fun experience, and one that I would recommend. Windy City Wedding Dance occasionally plans dancing outings for people in the group class, and I am sure those in particular are a blast. Neither my fiancé nor I had done any dancing before we started our wedding dance lessons so we were a bit nervous going in, but it has undeniably been a highlight of our wedding planning. As my fiancé said after our last dance class, "that was shockingly fun." I've already started hinting that I would like some more dance lessons for Valentine's Day! I strongly encourage anyone considering taking dance lessons to book at Windy City Wedding Dance. read more

Jessica was fantastic and helped us put together a great dance to an unusual song. We spent several classes with her and she was always extremely patient, funny and easy to work with. The dance that she choreographed for us made our wedding night even that much more special. People were shocked to see that I could actually dance and it was all because of her. Thank you for everything, Jessica! read more