The Dance Wedding

IMG_5348I had the pleasure of experiencing a rather unique wedding in St. Louis a few days ago.

Two friends, Jess and Scott, got married on Saturday. I play board games with Jess, but she has another hobby: She dances. A lot. So does Scott–that’s how they met.

Many of the people they invited to their wedding were Jess and Scott’s dance friends. The ceremony was short, but it featured a lot of different songs, and I could tell the dance folks were itching to start dancing.

I didn’t think I cared about dancing until I watched Jess and Scott’s first dance. It was pretty incredible. Jess’ wedding dress was made for dancing, and it was clear they were completely in sync with each other.

At some weddings people have to be dragged onto the dance floor. That definitely wasn’t the case on Saturday. I expected a big rush, but it seemed like the dancers knew to give each other space–with the moves they were doing, they needed it.

One fascinating aspect of the evening was watching how often the dancers switched partners. Many of them were there with one specific partner, but it seemed completely normal to have a different partner with every dance. Gender didn’t seem to matter much at all–it was pleasantly progressive.

I’m a terrible dancer, and it was intimidating to watch these people dance. I wanted to dance the way they were, but I knew I couldn’t, so I just got up there for one slower song. But it made me want to move the way those dancers can. Also, the band was great (I think they were called Philadelphia Slim).

Have you ever been to a wedding like this? Did you try to keep up with the near-professional dancers?

2 thoughts on “The Dance Wedding”

  1. We had a Ceilidh at our wedding, it’s a traditional Irish/Scottish form of organised dance.(we’re neither Scottish nor Irish but it’s popular all over the UK).
    You have a live folk band and a band leader, the BL tells the dancers what steps to do and in which order, slowly at first with the band playing at about 1/4 speed, then you go through it again a bit faster, and then again and again until you’re at full speed. Everyone gets it wrong and it’s all over the place but it’s a lot of fun and people don’t feel self conscious because everyone else is doing the same thing and getting it wrong too. Check out some vids on Youtube, it’ll be a lot clearer!

    Reply

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