8 Ways Your First Dance Prepares you for Marriage

As I like to joke to my wedding couples, if you can survive the dance, marriage is a cake-walk. While I’ll admit that grossly underestimates the challenges of marriage, the point remains the same: Dancing with your life partner prepares you for working together in other ways as well.

Although dancing works great for friends or even business partners (team-building exercise, anyone?), the intimacy and sensitivity of ballroom dancing makes it better suited for for couples looking to spend their lives together. Here’s why.

1. You’re in this together. Unlike sports, dance is a partnership, not a competition, and how good it looks and feels depend on how well you work together.
2. You each have a job to do. Trying to “help” your partner can easily turn into taking over their role in addition to your own, which can lead to frustration on both sides.  Partner dancing teaches you to surrender the half of the partnership that doesn’t belong to you, which makes it look that much better as a whole.
3. You can adjust to each other. Respecting your partner’s independence doesn’t mean you can’t still make their job easier – by giving a stronger lead, or increasing the connection through your arms, for example. 
4. You’ll become more sensitive. Apart from avoiding collisions, your partner is your whole world when you dance with them. Learning to be present and aware of each other is just as important on the dance floor as it is in the living room.
5. It’s not over ’til it’s over. We all make mistakes, but the best partners – in dance and otherwise – don’t just walk away because of a misstep or two. As you practice, you’ll learn to check your frustration before it causes additional problems.
6. It keeps you in great shape. Personal health aside, the flexibility, endurance, and body isolations developed through dancing lend themselves well to certain other – *ahem* – pursuits.
7. You can celebrate your achievement together. In the end, few things bring couples closer than a shared activity, all the more so because this one will be celebrated by your friends and loved ones.
8. It may last longer than you think. You’ve learned to dance together, so why stop now? You have a great romantic activity you can continue creating happy memories with long after the wedding bells have faded.

About the Author

Ian Crewe has been dancing ballroom for over 18 years, and has a Licentiate in American smooth and rhythm. His passion for dance eventually led him to blogging and the World Wide Web. Ian currently teaches at the Joy of Dance Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada.