Great venue for private parties

A few months before our wedding, my then fiancée and I decided that we wanted to do something a little more appealing and a lot more refined for our first dance than your typical first dance. Shortly after that decision, my fiancée began looking at Yelp reviews for dance studios in the San Francisco Bay Area, and that’s when she discovered The Dance Loft. She then booked us for five sessions, which as I understand it, was very easy to schedule online.At our first session, we met our instructor Kayleigh, and she was such a delight. Very professional, welcoming, enthusiastic, and accommodating. The studio seemed very zen-like and calming, with a combination of Buddhist and Celtic decorations. Kayleigh incorporated some new-age elements into our lessons, such as exercises in sensing each other’s aura or energy which was supposed to help us in anticipating our next moves. As the groom, this was entirely foreign to me, and I don’t know if I fully grasped what I was supposed to feel, but being a team player, I trusted the process.Initially, my fiancée and I thought that Kayleigh would be teaching us a routine to practice, but at The Dance Loft, they instruct you on how to perform several dance moves that can then be utilized in an improvised manner. This improvisation purportedly aids in alleviating the pressure of remembering a set routine. Being Type-A people, my fiancée and I had difficulties with the whole idea of improvising our first dance. By our way of thinking, having a set plan is what alleviates the stress, especially during a major life event such as a wedding where all of your guests would be looking directly at you. In the end, we created our own routine with the dance moves that Kayleigh taught us, and we certainly appreciated having the tools to do so.On our wedding night, my wife and I performed our first dance exceptionally well. There was hardly any pressure at all, which enabled us to focus on each other, be present in the moment, and enjoy our first dance together. Our guests were pleasantly surprised that we had a choreographed routine, that unbeknownst to them, was choreographed by ourselves with the help of Kayleigh. See, what made The Dance Loft a good value for us was that Kayleigh taught us a number of dance moves to put into our repertoire, and based on our comfort level with the steps and how we felt about the song we were dancing to, we were then able to use those moves to formulate our overall routine. The entire experience was very empowering in that we felt like we had complete ownership of our first dance. It wasn’t a routine given to us, but rather a routine that my wife and I put together.All-in-all, Kayleigh, and The Dance Loft was an excellent investment for us. It made our wedding memorable, unique, classy, and all our own. The dance moves we learned have a shelf life well beyond our wedding too. Now that the pressure is off, we will be able to use the steps that Kayleigh taught us in future dances whereby we would be more comfortable with improvisation. Additionally, once we get some more time, my wife and I would like to go back to The Dance Loft for some follow-up sessions. It’s definitely worth it!

If you are reading this review, stop and book Val right now. I know the position that you are in, scouring reviews to make sure things are legit and cross-referencing several dance schools in the Bay Area, probably for a wedding dance. Save yourself the time and book Val. In 5 lessons she helped us start from square 1 to create an amazing and memorable dance that provided jaw-dropping moments for our guests and a lifetime memory for my wife and me. No one would have known that before working with her we could not keep beat if our lives depended on it. I promise you will not regret it!

My wife Ashley and I were SO lucky to have been referred to Val & The Dance Loft SF. I, not being the natural dancer that my wife is, was a bit hesitant to go through with a choreographed dance for our wedding day. Little did I know that Val would help us create the most natural opportunity for us to show off our stuff, almost as if we did it all on our own. To top it off, they have a sound mixer who will make a flawless, shortened, dance-friendly version of your song choice.We had SO MUCH fun creating the dance from start to finish, Val was an excellent coach, motivator and friend throughout the process.Impossible without her and we are forever grateful!

My now husband and I put off dance lessons for our wedding until a couple months before; we chose The Dance Loft for its close location and high ratings. There are three instructors: Val, Kayleigh and Angela. We took lessons with all three but most of them were with Angela as we liked her style the best. We did around 12 lessons here because my husband had a very specific vision of what he wanted our first dance to look like!Angela was great to work with in terms of balancing any tension between us, helping us with overall dance vision, and cleaning up certain sections at the end. She also handles any bride or groomzillas very well as my husband was constantly bringing in videos of DWTS and wanting her to replicate!The approach we took was first to learn certain dance techniques - fox trot and swing, and then to work this into an actual wedding dance. Angela is clearly very passionate about what she does and I like that she video-ed us at the end of every class so that we could see things we were doing well / not well.Angela was flexible with our schedules but do book in advance especially during wedding season. This place is open 7 days a week and has late lessons (last one starts at 9pm) so very good for people commuting. Its also in a cute area and next to a lot of cool restaurants like Ungrafted.I recommend without hesitation

The minute I walked into this lovely studio, I knew that this is the space I needed to rent. Its such a beautiful space! It feels cosy, it feels homey, its unique, fun, eclectic, it even has a functioning disco ball!! It is truly a unicorn, and the last of its kind in San Francisco. It is simply the perfect space for me to rent, to do the intimate work that I get to do with my students. My students all gasp in awe when they walk in. Yes, the space is seriously that BEAUTIFUL! Val is such a delight! She teaches private dance lessons, and has been doing so out of this space for the past decade. Im so lucky to be able to teach my group classes here and share this wonderful space. I teach group fitness classes Sat mornings at 9 am and a cardio class at 10am. I also teach Heels Conditioning Sundays at 7pm and Beginner Heels Dance at 8pm! Find me on ig @mikeylikesthed for more 😍❤️😘