Bravo Dancing Ballroom Dance Instruction

5 stars only, but Lorena deserves an infinite amount of stars! I started ballroom dancing at USC with zero dance experience. Lorena is excellent at teaching ballroom dancing to adults who are just starting to learn dancing and are worried about having two left feet. She knows exactly how you feel because once a upon a time, she too was a beginning dancer as an adult. In the group classes, she breaks down all the steps very clearly and methodically. There has yet to be a question asked in class and in private lesson that she cannot answer. About a year ago, my dance partner and I started to take private lessons with her so we could better hone our dance skills and become serious competitors. We take lessons once a week and they are always the highlight of my week. Lorena is inexplicably patient and honest. She will tailor her teaching specifically to your goals and your needs. There is no cookie cutter plan. You want a wedding dance in 5 weeks, okay, no problem. She has a plan for you. You want an elaborate showcase for your wedding and you have 5 months? She has a plan as well. You want to compete in competitions and move up to higher levels, which is where my partner and I are at? She will make a binder for your and list out the plans and ideas she has for you. My partner and I went from placing 6−8^th in bronze american smooth so 1^st in almost everything. Lorena is the type of teacher that you can feel comfortable enough with to talk to and share your life stories. She aims to get to know you as a person not just as a pupil. If you need life advice, she has a plethora of knowledge. Honest to god, everything that comes out of this wonderful woman’s mouth is gold. Lorena is a gift to the adult dance world and the world of teachers. She won’t use wishy washy abstract language, but will break complex topics into tangible, understandable items.
I cannot recommend Lorena enough! Whatever your goals are, she will help you reach it. Some dancers are born, but I strongly believe that dancers can also be made. Saying that you have two left feet and that it’s impossible to learn dancing is just an excuse. With Lorena as your teacher, you will be doing the Waltz after 45 minutes.

She’s so good that I’m willing to write a separate review. Lorena is awesome with her instructions. very clear and precise on telling and showing you what she meant. Aside from moves, I love the fact that she offers tips on techniques to really polish up any dance steps. What appears to be super complicated can easily be broken down by her. I trust her as a choreographer entirely and she has plenty of patience with all her students. I will only recommend her.
I’ve taken plenty of dance classes from festivals, dance classes, studios etc. but I must say that she’s been the most professional and knowledgeable instructor I’ve come across. Keep up the good work Lorena, I hope I can see you in one of your future competitions.
PS: In case you were curious… my husband and I did American Tango for our opening dance.

lorena is the best dance instructor ever!!! highly highly recommended for anyone looking for a choreographed dance for your wedding. not only is lorena a pro dancer, she is a pro-​teacher, which is super important for people like me (no prior experience and not coordinated).
we came to lorena with an ambitious task — with one month left until our wedding, we needed to CRAM in our dance lessons at the busiest time of our lives (lots of last minute wedding planning…) to learn a choreographed «first dance» for our wedding. i am such a fan of lorena’s dance lessons, but in a nutshell, here is why:
1. FUN! to begin with, lorena is such a friendly and nice person so that really affects the lessons. as soon as i got to know lorena, i felt super comfortable, even when i made mistakes. also, she is so passionate about dance (you can just tell by the way she knows so much about dance as an art), so you can’t help but get excited about it too! very upbeat lessons for sure.
2. reliable and flexible. during stressful times such as wedding planning, i really needed reliability, as well as flexibility. i really appreciated how lorena responded so quickly to my emails when it came to scheduling and rescheduling. both my husband and i had crazy schedules so a few times we had to reschedule on short notice. she was always promptly responsive and willing to work with us. often times we had to schedule for later times in the evening but she was never difficult about it. from the beginning, she gave us a road map of what each class would cover and stuck to it, so that helped us see our progress each week. also i loved that she meets students in a huge ballroom in ktown near the new hmart — very convenient location!
3. cares about her students. after going through so many vendors in the wedding industry, you come across so many vendors who just are looking for profit. lorena is totally the opposite — her intro lesson allows you to experience the class for yourself before committing to the larger wedding package. also, she isn’t the type to be like, «ok your hour is UP!» and end the class. many times, she went past the allotted hour, just so that she could help us with our dance as much as possible. she never tries to sell more lessons or push you to commit to more than you want. you could tell she genuinely wanted us to have a beautiful wedding dance, and didn’t see our times together as just a job, but more like our coach, who was in the trenches with us.
4. FINAL PRODUCT! of course, all of the above is important, but the most important is that we had such a beautiful dance on the day of our wedding! i had very low expectations for our wedding dance because me and my husband were not practicing as we should have been, because we were so busy. however, on the day of the wedding, so many of our guests were so impressed with our dance. i thought they were just being polite, but when i saw a video, i too, thought it looked so lovely! i truly believe the final product was only achieved because lorena was such an effective instructor. she broke down our dance into separate moves and strung them together into a choreographed piece, so that not only did we have a wedding dance for the big day, but we had actual dance moves under our belt to use in future ballroom situations. my friends said that i looked like i was having a lot of fun dancing, and i really did enjoy the entire dance… so much so that we decided we’re going to continue taking dance lessons in the future, just for fun!
thank you lorena, for being the best dance teacher ever! and for making the process of learning dance for our first dance such a memorable and fun one!!!

Lorena was recommended by my fiancé’s friends for our wedding dance instructor. And boy, she was really good. My fiancé wanted to do a choreographed tango dance, which I was apprehensive of since the beginning. Lorena was able to teach me, someone with negative partner dancing experience, to being decent enough to showcase my fiancé who’s good at dancing. She taught us moves that were showy but not too difficult to learn, and she was also very good at breaking down the steps to make it easier. She also added fun things to our dance that spiced up our performance. I was also very impressed by her dance knowledge, as she could dance either the girl or guy parts.
Our dance turned out great on the wedding day, despite my nervousness. Our guests really enjoyed it, especially our friends that didn’t expect something like that from me!
Thank you again Lorena!
(Miyoki)
Lorena was superb! from what my friends said about her, I already had high expectations… but she went above and beyond! I wondered why she taught us certain steps prior to others, and wondered if our steps were too simple… but it turned out that she knew all along, what was the best way to help train us and get us ready for the final performance. She’s excellent at giving us the basics but dressing it up with specific techniques. Great dancer, wonderful instructor! I would highly recommend her to anyone who has either NO experience in dancing, or those who feel that they have some foundation already. She can teach ANY levels, and I mean that!
Thank you for all your help Lorena… we got tons of compliments!

My husband and I met Lorena through her classes at USC and Caltech. (in fact, my husband and I met at ballroom dance class, but that’s a different story!)
So, of course, we asked Lorena to help us with our wedding dance.
Among Lorena’s strengths include:
— Ability to break down complex moves into small patterns so everyone can learn
— A talent for telling stories through choreography — her style is the opposite of one size fits all. She can tailor the dance to your music, style, level and venue. We asked her to put together a foxtrot that we could do in a measly 6 square feet of a tavern floor (foxtrot being one of the most floorspace-​hogging dances out there) and she got it down!
— Friendly and wonderful personality
We highly recommend Lorena for wedding dance, lessons, or any other dance adventures.

My fiancé and I took two dance lessons from Lorena. We wanted to learn a few moves for our first dance at our wedding. She was so awesome to work with and very patient. Lorena is very efficient and wastes no time. She made everything easy to learn! Thanks Lorena!

Lorena is that one in a million ballroom dance instructor. Her technical knowledge, ability to communicate complex concepts, and skill at effectively teaching students of all levels (from zero dance experience, up to professional competitors) with deep dedication makes her the ideal match for anyone hoping to learn or perfect their social dancing.
— GROUP LESSONS
I first met Lorena through the USC Ballroom & Latin Dance team. An alumnus of the team herself, she began teaching the ballroom & Latin beginner classes when I first joined. Her patience and organization/​efficiency in teaching a group of sometimes well over 50 students was amazing. For students who had never danced before, she was able to break steps down into very simple concepts, so people began to find dancing as simple and straight-​forward as walking down the street. Soon after joining her classes, I jumped into collegiate competitions and had a great time as she emphasized the enjoyment of dancing. With her focus on posture/​upper-​body/​frame and fundamental techniques from the start of training, Lorena’s students most often placed in the top of their competitive heats (e.g. Newcomer, Bronze, etc) from the start. All the while, lessons remained focused, yet always fun and entertaining.
— PRIVATE LESSONS
My dance partner and I began taking private lessons with Lorena after taking her beginner & intermediate group classes at USC. With a lesson approximately 1x/​week (and practicing on our own), Lorena took us from Newcomers to top competitors in the Adult Amateur Open Championship level for American Smooth. In lessons, she broke steps down to the most basic movements, using video and audio to guide our practices outside of lessons. She has a talent for developing unique & creative choreography that emphasizes the strengths of the couple. Not to mention, she is extremely versatile when it comes to dance styles and choreographing/​advising artistically for events: we took several salsa lessons & International Latin lessons with her, and choreographed pieces for various showcase performances for film/​theater.
I highly recommend Lorena as a coach for any style of social dancing. She hones into dancers’ abilities and needs, breaks things down to make progress easy, and keeps dancing fun.

Lorena taught my husband and me a foxtrot for our wedding dance. Although initially I had chosen her mainly for convenience sake because she was within walking distance, we could not be happier with her as our wedding choreographer.
Lorena is very patient and knowledgeable and a great teacher. We knew how to dance, yes, but not ballroom. We felt comfortable with her from the start, and she is warm and friendly. We never had any time to practice the moves she taught us, but she never lectured us. I had a lot of doubts whether we’d be able to remember all our moves, but on our wedding day, our dance went off without a hitch and was lovely =)
Whenever we had issues with practice times, Lorena was very helpful in trying to accommodate us. The ballroom we practiced in has a lot of history, which Lorena related to us, so that was fun and interesting. Overall, it was a great experience, and I would love to go back for more lessons some day! =)

Lorena Bravo is an amazing dance instructor! Her degrees from USC in teaching are a great asset when it comes to teaching all levels of students how to dance. I have had the pleasure of taking a few lessons from her and she was able to target what I needed to do to improve my dancing. When I came to Lorena I had taken lessons with someone else for one year but was not making much progess. I felt like a klutz but she provided a warm and nurturing environment that was conducive to learning and her enthusiasm was contagious. If you feel self-​conscious about not knowing how to dance or think that it is impossible for you to learn how to dance, look no further, Lorena is the teacher for you. She is very caring and encouraging and you will definitely be able to dance once you take lessons with her.

So, you’ve been watching Dancing With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance, and you think that you kind of maybe wanna try to learn how to ballroom dance. But you need the right teacher/​coach. And how do you even go about choosing one from those zillion ballroom websites where they try to sucker you into huge package deals for classes? Well, look no further– Lorena Bravo is an awesome ballroom dance teacher with loads of experience.
Having had Lorena as my coach for nearly 2 years (I’m an amateur American Smooth dancer competing in the Open/​Championship level), I have experienced firsthand how she brings out the best in her students and makes ballroom dancing fun and accessible to anyone. She possesses those vital characteristics of a great teacher — infinitely patient, has solid technical knowledge, and is a good communicator. She is both the ultimate professional yet very down-​to-​earth. She’s encouraging, funny, straight-​forward, serious, yet non-​intimidating. I am continually impressed by how highly committed and supportive she is to developing her students’ dancing. She’s the real deal– no BS, just great teaching from someone who knows her stuff and makes learning to dance fun and rewarding.
The unique thing about Lorena is that she’s a good teacher/​coach for all levels. Below are some benefits of taking lessons from Lorena…
–IF YOU’RE A BEGINNER DANCER
You’ll learn correct dance technique and have fun at the same time. Lorena provides very clear explanations, breaking down steps into manageable components, and all of this is done in a relaxed learning environment. Lorena is also trained an many styles of ballroom so you can learn several types of dances at once.
–IF YOU’RE PLANNING FOR YOUR WEDDING FIRST DANCE
She knows a wide variety of ballroom dance styles so she can create a personalized and unique first dance for your big day. She’s very flexible in accommodating your needs and can work within your specifications. Some ballroom dance studios that offer wedding dance packages require you to sign up for multiple lessons spanning a long period of time. Lorena can work with you to help best meet your needs.
–IF YOU’RE A COMPETITIVE DANCER
Lorena is currently competing in the Professional American Smooth division and attends many competitions throughout the year, so she’s up-​to-​date on the current trends, judges, competitions, rules, politics, etc. She regularly takes coachings from top ballroom coaches and is continually learning about new/​latest techniques and passing them on to her students. Lorena knows what it takes to produce high-​level, competitive dancers. She understands how to have a serious approach that is results-​oriented yet also focuses on developing artistry and technique.