Captiv8 Dance

My husband and I have no experience with dance and are fairly uncoordinated people so naturally we were a bit nervous to start taking lessons for our wedding. Oya made us so comfortable from the start! She is so encouraging and made the class super fun. She also didn’t just teach us dance moves… she taught us the fundamentals so that we can build upon them in the future . We have much more confidence in the dance floor now and look forward to taking more classes !!

We had such a lovely experience with Captiv8! We started with a few lessons with Ed and Oya together, and then continued with Oya when Ed was away.

In the end, we had a beautiful three-minute routine that we were both so happy with, and our guests absolutely loved it too!

Oya was a wonderful teacher, very patient, encouraging and just so lovely to work with. I struggled quite a bit with some of the turns and keeping my balance, and she really helped me get there. She was always very supportive, but also made sure to correct the little things that weren’t quite right, which I really appreciated.

We genuinely enjoyed our lessons and couldn’t have been happier with how the dance turned out. Thank you so much to Oya and Ed! Would definitely recommend them to anyone preparing for their wedding!

I reached out to Oya to choreograph my bridesmaids dance for my wedding. She was honestly amazing! from the very first minute meeting her, she has all these ideas to make the dance exactly how I wanted it. She cares so much about her work and making her customers happy - my songs choice were in Arabic and French, so languages she doesn't understand, she took the time to translate and read the lyrics to make sure the dance is meaningful which was super thoughtful of her. She is super professional, creative, full of energy and positivity and made the whole experience just amazing. I would recommend her to anyone looking for a choreographer!!

Oya is absolutely amazing! She’s so lovely, friendly and patient, and made every lesson feel fun, relaxed and easy to follow. We really enjoyed the whole experience, and she made preparing for our first dance so much less stressful than we imagined!

We had such a great time learning with her, and she really helped us feel more comfortable and confident. Couldn’t recommend her enough! Thank you so much, Oya!

I’ll be honest, the idea of the our first dance at our wedding had me quite nervous. My fiancée and I didn’t want a generic slow dance, and so had chosen something a bit faster and fun, but with that came the anxiety of “ahhhh, I might make us look really stupid on the day.”

In steps Oya. Not only is her incredible energy infectious, but she immediately took away any nerves I had and worked through the basics and helped us choose dance moves that we wanted, not just what she thought would be best (although I have to say 99% of what she suggests is what we’ve chosen as it works so well with our song). She’s been so incredibly supportive when we’ve arrived a bit tired, but because she’s so wonderful, usually within 2 minutes we’re both in dance mode and having LOADS of fun.

By end of session one we’d learnt the basics and had a minute of fun choreography (which is what I thought might take us 5 sessions), by session 2 we’d almost doubled the choreography and by 3 we were practicing dips and lifts. We have two sessions left and not only are we excited for them as we get to hang out with Oya who’s just so fun and hilarious, but we’re excited to refine our dance and have a really amazing first dance for our wedding.

Her patience, enthusiasm throughout, and incredible teaching making this the obvious choice for any couple who are either starting from scratch or already have some dance skills. Alex her partner even showed up at one session to help to demonstrate the lifts for me (who is also a legend by the way).

DO NOT HESITATE if reading this review and you’re unsure. Just book. You’ll have fun, be made to feel at ease, and I can assure you you’ll be ready for your big day!!

If I’m being honest, I’m enjoying this so much that I might see if my fiancée is up for this becoming a new hobby that we continue even after the wedding as it’s just ALL GOOD VIBES.


And one final thing… sometimes you might be worrying about how a dress or shoes on the day might make a dance harder. Don’t worry… I won’t say how, but she even has THAT covered too. What a beaut.

Oya was truly incredible to work with! You won't find anyone kinder, more supportive, or more dedicated to making sure you feel comfortable and confident for your big moment.

Our dance lessons and all the practice leading up to the wedding actually became one of our favorite parts of the entire planning process and it brought us even closer together. I even brought my dad in for a lesson for our father-daughter dance, and Oya was so patient in helping him feel at ease and giving us some moves to avoid an awkward shuffle. Oya truly meets you where you are at, regardless of your skill level. We couldn't recommend her more!

Oya was a fantastic instructor and was such a help in getting us prepared for our first dance. She helped to calm our nerves and take us from very little experience through to being confident with our dance on the night. We really enjoyed her style of tuition. She is such a joy to be around, and she pushed us to try bolder choreographies and in the end we were so happy with the result.

We recommend her very highly.

While at a close friends' wedding we were completely blown away by their first dance - we asked who had taught them and it was Captiv8 Dance, who they couldn't recommend enough. From our initial interaction with one of the teachers, Oya over text she was so enthusiastic and accommodating. We had our initial lesson and absolutely loved learning to dance with her, she even convinced the rather reluctant groom that dancing was for him. She listened carefully to our vision for our dance and choreographed a routine that felt so uniquely us. Her passion for dancing is infectious and she's a patient and encouraging teacher. Learning our first dance fast became our favourite part of wedding planning. We enjoyed our time with Oya so much we've signed up for a post wedding dance class with other couples. Oya is a generous and kind person, and if you want to impress your wedding guests with your dancing skills don't hesitate to book lessons with Captiv8 Dance.

We took five dance lessons with Oya to prepare for our first dance at our wedding, and we absolutely loved the entire experience. She is incredibly sweet, positive, and supportive, and she explains everything in such a clear and encouraging way that even some of the tricky steps felt manageable.

Oya was also wonderfully flexible whenever we needed to adjust our lesson dates, which took a lot of stress off our shoulders during a busy wedding-planning period. She was patient throughout and really took the time to understand our personalities and what we wanted and the type of dance style (a bit of a mix of everything!) we wanted to get to.. She helped us create a routine that felt authentically “us” while still looking elegant, cool, and sophisticated.

We truly cannot recommend Oya enough. She made our first dance something we’ll remember forever!

My husband and I went from knowing nothing about first dance to being able to complete the whole 4-minute choreography confidently! It was such an incredible, fun and enjoyable experience. Oya is always full of energy and positivity and truly loves what she does! She was very willing to give us extra time whenever she could and gave us so many great ideas as to how to perfect the dance. Both ourselves and our wedding guests were so impressed by our first dance. Whenever someone asks me to recommend a wedding dance instructor, I will say Oya/Captiv8!

We had an absolutely amazing experience working with Oya and Ed from Captive8 Dance, for our first dance! From start to finish, their professionalism and positive attitude were outstanding. They created an atmosphere that was fun, engaging, and inclusive, making us feel comfortable and confident on the dance floor.
The value for money was exceptional – not only did we receive top-quality instruction, but the energy and enthusiasm they brought to every session made it worth every penny. Their attention to detail, patience, and ability to tailor the experience to our needs and the best way to make our wedding dance perfect truly set them apart.
If you’re looking for dance instructors who combine skill, professionalism, and a fantastic attitude, Oya and Ed are the perfect choice. From two inexperienced dancers who were very nervous our first dance was so fun and a memory we will always cherish. We can’t recommend Captive8 Dance highly enough!

Thank you to Oya for being truly amazing!! We booked 5 hours of classes very last minute for our wedding, and it was the best decision we made. Oya bought so much energy to our classes and genuinely made us fall in love with dancing. We walked into the first lesson saying we couldn’t dance and to keep it simple, by the end we were doing dips and lifts. It was such a lovely new activity for the both of us just before making such a big commitment to each other and it made us fall in love even more ( I guess there is nothing more intimate than dancing with the love of your life)!

Love Sheena and Conor

Oya is a great instructor. She made the whole experience so enjoyable and we loved our first dance on the wedding day. We would highly recommend her.

Ed and Oyu could not have been better teachers for our first dance at our wedding. My husband was nervous and described himself as having two left feet but they made us an amazing routine that we both loved and he was great at. Ed and Oyu were brilliant at making the dance bespoke for us and what we wanted and made the whole process totally enjoyable. We are going to take some more classes now our wedding is done because we loved it so much! Thank you. Zoe and Rory.

A thousand thank yous to our lovely Oya for the wedding choreo! All of our guests were truly amazed!! It was one of the highlights of the wedding!!