For our wedding reception “first dance”, Judy and I decided to do something a bit different. Rather than the typical ballroom dance set to a mushy love song, we decided to inject some fun and liveliness into our first dance.

We decided to come up with our own routine set to an original music mix (GarageBand totally rocks!). Not being anything close to professional dancers, we scoured the internet for fun (and funny!) dance moves that weren’t too hard to do.

Judy is a huge Friends fan (she TiVos multiple episodes everyday) and we both thought Ross and Monica’s dance in “The Routine” episode was absolutely hilarious. If you haven’t seen it before, you really should. Here’s a clip on YouTube. We definitely wanted to incorporate elements from their dance into our routine.

YouTube turned out to be a great resource. We found great inspiration from Judson Laipply’s ‘Evolution of Dance‘ as well as this couple’s non-traditional wedding dance. We also pulled a few moves from the movie Hitch, particularly the scene where Albert (Kevin James) shows Hitch (Will Smith) his “dance moves”. Since we both grew up in the 80′s, we simply had to have some moves from Michael Jackson and M.C. Hammer. Thanks once again to YouTube, we had ready access to videos from both these artists.

Coming up with a routine, especially if you’re not a dancer, can be pretty hard, but what’s even harder is coming up with the music to match the routine. You’ve got to find the right music with the right beat, properly adjust fades and transitions, snip and clip songs to the right durations, and at times, add your own sounds and sound effects. Let me tell you, it can be quite time-consuming! Good thing I can be a bit OCD when it comes to creative pursuits.

So without further adieu, here are the video clips of the dance. Big thanks go out to Derek who captured the dance on video. Several others took video as well, but I think this is the best one since it is from straight on. I’m trying to acquire the other video clips and will post them when I get them.

Roger & Judy’s 1st Dance (medium quality, 39 MB)
Due to its reasonable file size, this one’s recommended for most people.

Roger & Judy’s 1st Dance (higher quality, 153 MB)
This file’s huge so it’s only recommended for those with super-fast internet connections.

UPDATE: I’ve added details of the music used in our dance as well as the accompanying dance moves.

Here’s a guide to all of our dance moves and the accompanying songs and sound effects:

Mirda Rock by Reggie Griffin & Technofunk
- Computer voice intro (“I am a computer, I have been programmed to dance”)

Clip from ‘It’s a Sin’ by The Pet Shop Boys
- The Robot

GarageBand sound effect
- Robot Rewind

Clip from ‘It’s a Sin’ by The Pet Shop Boys
- The Robot

Clip from ‘Another Part of Me’ by Michael Jackson
- Judy goes through hoop (my arms)

GarageBand sound effect
- Me as a puppet-master lifting up Judy’s arms

GarageBand thunder sound effect
- Me striking down Judy

‘Looking for the Perfect Beat’ by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force
- Judy: The Running Man
- Me: Rollin’ the pizza dough and the Q-Tip
- Judy: The Lawnmower (starting the lawnmower) and Goin’ Shoppin’ (taking things off the shelf and putting them in the cart)
- Me: Diggin’
- Egyptian arms
- Head slide
- The Sprinkler
- V-Eyes
- Judy tries to escape while I hop on my horse and swing the lasso.
- I lasso Judy and reel her in.

‘U Can’t Touch This’ by MC Hammer
- MC Hammer dance moves

‘Billie Jean’ by Michael Jackson
- Michael Jackson dance moves

‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson
- Michael Jackson dance moves

‘Trouble with Boys’ by Loretta
Here, we just reproduced the entire Ross & Monica dance from the Friends episode ‘The Routine’. It was a bit of a pain because the actual released song differs from the version in the Friends episode. I had to splice various portions of the song to line up with Ross & Monica’s routine. I even had to add a unique sound effect – the two beats where we “hip bump” each other (towards the end of the routine) is actually a GarageBand sound effect.

Posted by Roger at 9:02 PM.