The awkward shuffling and shy swaying of the newlyweds’ first dance has always been a traditional crowd-pleaser at weddings.
However, while couples were once happy to simply stride elegantly down the aisle, they are increasingly opting to cartwheel or twerk their way into marriage, sometimes even with the help of the best man, bridesmaids and family.
The trend for choreographed wedding dances, spurred on with the help of viral YouTube videos, is on the rise.
Last month Kirk Henning, a professional dancer, surprised his bride, Valerie, a ballerina with the Richmond Ballet in the US, with a performance to Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk at their wedding in Virginia, with the help of his friends. The synchronised eight-minute routine went viral and has been viewed almost three million times on YouTube. George Watts, who trades as The Wedding Fairy, said that the demand for choreographed routines at weddings was “massive”.
“It’s grown and grown and grown,” he said. “We see bridal parties dancing down the aisle doing R&B moves or the groom and his groomsmen dancing to Gangnam Style.
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“It’s really escalated and people want memorable days and now the cake just doesn’t cut it any more. They want something bigger and more dramatic.”
With many couples sharing their big day on YouTube, Mr Watts said: “They’re not just doing it for the audience at their wedding. They are doing it for the wider audience of the internet.”
Jess Brichto, 37, manager of Start The Dance, a London company which offers personalised wedding dance lessons, attributes the popularity of choreographed routines to the success of Strictly Come Dancing.
“I have been doing it for ten years and there were only two other companies and now there’s hundreds and we have a team of 20 — and it was just me to start,” she said.
“In the last year, the demand for choreographed routines has increased by about 30 per cent. Before last year, it was rare and now couples want to involve more people.” One of her clients, Vanessa Salamony, 29, a banking solicitor, is marrying her fiancé, Mattias Thärn, in Cannes in two weeks.
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The couple have had about 12 90-minute lessons to perfect their Dirty Dancing and have included other family members, bridesmaids and the best man in the routine.
“I wanted to do a quite spectacular wedding dance and always wanted to do this dance. My fiancé has never had a dance class in his life and I knew we would need some serious teaching and a lot of effort,” Ms Salamony said. “We have been training since January and we have not strayed from the difficult choreography at all and it’s actually quite impressive what he’s done.”
Ms Salamony, whose routine incorporates 1950s costume changes and who is considering uploading her video to YouTube, said: “ I have always danced so I wanted to do a proper full-on dance and this is also a surprise. It’s really going to get the crowd going. Everyone will be wowed.”
Melissa, 28, a lawyer who who did not want to give her surname, married in November 2013 . She said that she decided on a routine, choreographed by a friend who is a professional dancer, “to make the day even more special”. It began with a slow dance to Van Morrison’s Moondance, before turning into a routine during which the ushers and her nephew joined in, before returning to a slow dance.
“We’re not the best dancers, it was more about the shock factor and I didn’t want a cheesy first dance . . . One of the first things my husband said to me was how will you dance in that dress? But we practised it so many times, we knew it so well, so I was not nervous.”
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Adam Gardner, 42, a director at First Dance UK, said that the “weirdest” request from a client was a routine that started in the church, with 18 people jumping up and doing a dance with tennis rackets which carried on to the dance floor.
“A lot of it is down to YouTube and also people want to get one better than everyone else,” he said. “It’s relatively mainstream that people get lessons for themselves so this is the next level.”
Sometimes, things can go wrong, however. Last month, one video went viral after the groom backflipped into his bride, knocking her to the ground. The couple have yet to be identified.
Music for swinging lovers
●Time of my Life Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley from the film Dirty Dancing
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●Thriller Michael Jackson
●You’re the One that I Want Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta
●Baby Justin Bieber
●Uptown Funk Mark Ronson
●(You Drive Me) Crazy Britney Spears