Groom's All-Out 'Uptown Funk' Dance Routine Goes Viral
A professional dancer surprised his bride with an 8-minute choreographed dance.
— -- When your vows just aren’t quite enough to profess your love, why not choreograph an entire 8-minute dance?
That’s exactly what this groom did for his bride at their July 25 wedding, kicking off the ceremony in serious “Uptown Funk” style.
The newlyweds, Kirk and Valerie Henning, are both professional dancers with the Richmond Ballet in Virginia. They’ve actually shared this very same stage performing together before, but unlike those times, this routine was a complete surprise for Valerie.
“We had it at CenterStage, which was a fun, different venue,” Kirk, 34, told ABC News. “We had dinner on the stage and then we did the father-daughter dance and mother-son dance and everyone was eating and visiting. We all moved out to the lobby for cake cutting and toasts, and once we came back out the band was set up and that’s when the surprise happened.”
Of the eight groomsmen, four were also professional dancers and easily able to keep up with the speedy dance steps, but the other four definitely had no dance experience and really surprised Kirk with their willingness to play along.
“My two brothers work construction, my brother-in-law is a Second Officer navigation on a cruise ship line and one is a Secret Service agent, so they’ve never danced before,” the groom explained. “They were all actually on board from the jump.”
Apparently, Valerie had dropped hints that she’d love the men to do a dance at the wedding, but Kirk played it off acting like that would never happen.
“When we first got engaged, she was like, ‘You could do a groomsmen dance for me,’ and I didn’t even know what that was,” he explained. “She showed me a few online and I was like, ‘No way, I’m too busy.’”
Little did she know that he had taken that idea to heart and began emailing his groomsmen in March with Vimeo videos outlining the steps.
“I was just hoping they were actually checking their emails,” said Kirk, who only had one in-person practice with all the men before the wedding.
But it was a “happily ever after” when all the men perfectly pulled off their routine to Bruno Mars, Britney Spears and Brad Paisley, just to name a few. The YouTube video posted by their wedding videographer, Ginger Topham, has nearly 360,000 views since Aug. 11.
Judging by this grand gesture, it’s safe to say this bride will have a fairytale romance with her fancy-footed fella.