It’s wedding season, and for many students, that means awkward reception dances. There’s hope, however, even for those who think they have two left feet.

Dance instructor Valerie Williams is offering “Your Wedding Dance Class” from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in the Workspace of the Memorial Union, in which she will teach some basic dance moves to help students get through the first dance of a wedding reception.

Williams said she’s trying to get people comfortable enough to move on the dance floor so they’re not just standing there confused on their – or their friends’ – big day.

The class is open to everyone who would like to learn how to dance, not just soon-to-be newlyweds.

“We’re trying to avoid that swaying-back-and-forth first dance,” Williams said.

Social dancing requires as rigorous instruction as other types of dance, she said – and it’s not just about the moves on the floor.

“I try to teach people how to physically communicate with their partner on the dance floor,” Williams said.

Dance-happy students may know Williams from her Workspace classes, but she is also the director of Co’Motion Dance Theater, which is currently in residence at Iowa State, and teaches social dancing at the Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas Ave.

Williams began teaching social dancing approximately 30 years ago when she was in college, and her history on the dance floor goes back even further.

“I’ve been dancing socially all my life,” Williams said.

Physics graduate student Larry Engelhardt and his wife Susan, physics instructor for Iowa State, are in their third consecutive semester taking classes from Williams.

“We caught on well,” Larry said. “She’s very good. I think that she does a really good job of going slowly at first and helping her students to get down basic concepts, which can then be applied to many different things.”

The Engelhardts began taking classes partly to prepare for their wedding last spring.

“Everyone was very impressed with our first dance,” Larry said.

For their first dance, “It Had To Be You” by Harry Connick, Jr., Larry and Susan did a foxtrot, which Larry said is the same thing as a waltz, except that there’s four beats instead of three and less up-and-down, bouncy movement.

Susan said she’d recommend Williams’s classes to anyone.

“She’s good at going over it until you understand it and start to feel it,” she said.

Williams advises anyone taking the class to wear comfortable shoes, or if in preparation for their own wedding, to wear shoes similar to those they plan to wear.

She said learning to social dance for a wedding can be informative and fun.

“They should be open and ready to have some fun because dancing is really a good time, and I try to make it fun, too,” she said.