Over the past 26 years, we have worked with thousands of amazing couples across the world. Recently we have seen many couples spend a lot of time, money and energy trying to figure out whether to keep or postpone their wedding date. With the COVID-19 Pandemic at large now, we're seeing many more couples stuck at home and waiting anxiously for their special wedding weekend. We started the DRETalks to lighten up the mood, give couples helpful advice, and, of course, keep everyone entertained. Here's a blog where you'll learn how to continue your dance practices virtually for the big wedding weekend!

How to Continue Wedding Dance Practice From Home

1) Music and Themes

• Hear multiple songs before choosing the right songs for the dance.
• Think of songs that will go with the theme you choose.
• Check out new hits that relate to you, the group, and the bride and groom.
• Check out classics that relate to you, the group, and the bride and groom.
• You can hear all new music on our music blog. 
• Use songs you grew up listening to with the bride and groom. 
• The audience's attention usually strays away when all performance groups do the same popular song. Make sure to choose different songs than the other groups. 
• if you performed a song with the bride and groom in the past at a wedding or a dance competition, reuse it so they remember the good old days. 
• You can use the song that was most played from the bachelor or bachelorette party too. 

2) Dance Performances

• Number of dances and Length of the mix: The ideal dance performance is 2 to 3 minutes in length with about 2 to 3 songs in it at 1 minute each. 
• The total number of performances for the night should be at 10. You don't want to overextend a program. The guests attention will start to wander. 
• Everyone loves to see a collaboration of the brides' side and grooms' side. Make a melody mix where it's a 15 minute performance where everyone is included and everything constantly flows smoothly. 
• The steps should be based on your level of dance.
• Create steps that are easy for non-dancers and use the advanced steps for a solo or friend's group that loves a good challenge.
• if you have great dancers make sure to put them in the center of a formation.  
• Always make sure there's a way to transition on and off stage seamlessly not just walking up or walking off. 
• Keep formation simple so it looks clean: windows formation is ideal.
• The right number of people for a performance would be 5 - 10 people, but we've seen the flashmob piece at the end where 30+ people are dancing. 

3) Where to get your music

• Great sources for music: iTunes, Google play, Amazon. When you use legal music, you're really paying for the mastered good quality tracks. Your DJ is a great source for music too. If you need a DJ, contact us here. 
• YouTube quality songs are bad when you download it. It may sound okay on your computer or phone but on professional speakers it will sound horrific.
• Spend the money on good quality music. You're already investing so much time and energy in the making the mix and choreography. 
• What software to use for mixing the music: Audacity can be used for basic song cuts, Mixcraft is the next level up and Ableton is for advanced mixing. If you're Mac person then Garageband is the software to use. 
• Make sure to cut on beats not on words.
• Make sure to have transition music in your mix so groups can come on and off stage during the dance.
• Figure out a solid end point so the crowd knows when the dance is done and you're ready for an applause. 

4) Video the dance practices

• As a group you can host dance practice over video calls over Group FaceTime or Zoom. 
• Let the dancer of the group make the choreography and record it. That way they will send it out to the group and everyone can practice it.
• Have the rest of the group send a practice video back so the main person knows if they are doing the dance right or not.
• if someone is stuck on a certain step, use video chat to fix the steps for immediate results. 

5) Show excitement

• During the actual wedding weekend make sure to be either singing or smiling during the performance.

• Practice singing and smiling during your virtual practices that way on the actual performance day it looks great. 

• You don't want to be caught counting steps in pictures and videos.

• We know everyone is bored at home and needs things to do, so stay tuned for the rest of our DRETalks videos and blogs coming out soon. Follow us on Instagram to watch our DRETalks. 

As we hope for better days to come soon, we want to let you know you're not alone, and together we can all get through this. Over our 26 years of bringing joy to couples, the DJ Riz Entertainment team has been a part of thousands of couples dream wedding weekends. We look forward to making many more thousands of couples happy once the COVID-19 Pandemic has passed. In the meantime, please stay safe and stay home. And a big shoutout to our frontline workers. Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacies you guys are the true superheroes.

If you liked the 5 Tips on how to Continue Wedding Dance Practice Remotely from Home, check out all our blogs focused on Indian Wedding Tips.