Bravo Dancing Ballroom Academy

If you are looking for a dance instructor to guide your steps into the amazing world of dancing, Lorena is the person you've been looking for.

My husband and I started working with Lorena for our wedding dance, but soon after, because we enjoyed so much the classes, and Lorena's teaching style, we decided to go all in and learn foxtrot and salsa. And boy, Lorena is such a pro.

Started off with a simple wedding plan, but then decided to go for it and get a video done. The photographer stressed that you want variety of action throughout the day; otherwise a sameness will appear in all their work. So with less than 7 weeks to go and now squeezing in dance lessons?!

Lorena reassured us right away that we had enough time and that we could find a dance that suited us. Even after two lessons, I still couldn't visualize this rounding out into a final product; we were just learning steps and drilling it in our muscle memory. In the final two lessons, that's where it all came together. She choreographed everything from walking on to the dance floor to the end of just sitting down at the sweetheart's table. One thing we added was the bride carrying the bouquet and passing it off before we got into starting position.

Lorena is warm, enthusiastic, passionate, and encouraging. You will perform under her gaze and expect to be tired! She gives awesome constructive advice from technical movements to optical flair, challenges you, and shares her wisdom expertly. Practice dancing in a big studio while being watched definitely helps to avoid stage fright. I also took body posture and grace cues from her. I gained confidence and felt more natural when walking down the aisle.

The real 100: a positive attitude and time commitment are vital. She's not of the spirit world; she's not going to possess your body and do the dance for you. It's important to practice 5 minutes or more (semi) daily between lessons! Do this and trust in Lorena's words - you won't go wrong!

I have been taking lessons with Lorena Bravo since September 2012. Across those years, she has taken me from a complete novice to a competitive collegiate open level ballroom dancer. The words hereafter are my attempt to capture what a spectacular educator and excellent human being Lorena is. 


Great teachers can ignite the imagination and rekindle a love of learning.  In this regard, history will soon show that Lorena Bravo is one of the greatest dance instructors of our generation. An endlessly curious student herself, Lorena has studied and continues to study dance from every angle imaginable. Training with other top competitive ballroom dancers isn't enough. Lorena actively studies books on human anatomy and physics in order to understand how different movements affect different body shapes. She also continues to expand her mastery of teaching through not only studying psychology and education theory but by applying it as she teaches people with varying levels of dance ability from limited movement up to professional competitive dancers. 


The best part of all of that is that you don't see all of it. Rather, you feel it. Lorena has the empathetic insight to connect with you and meet you wherever you are in your learning process. As you learn about dance, she learns about how you learn best.  Do you learn best by just trying it and being corrected on the fly? Or do you need to take each move slowly and be set like a mannequin? Perhaps you just want to have fun with some friends and want to impress them with a few moves? Or maybe you're on a tight schedule and just need to memorize a choreography? Whatever it may be, Lorena crafts a learning plan just for you based on your needs and resources. 


And yet, more important than all of that hullaballoo, is that Lorena makes both the dancing and the learning endlessly euphoric and utterly rewarding. She truly and deeply loves dance, art, music, science and all forms of human expression. Her passion is contagious. Her joy is uplifting. The depth of her expanding knowledge is matched only by the depth of her encompassing heart. You get the sense of your world expanding just by conversing with her. 



If you're not yet convinced then I will share a bit of my own story and how Lorena has affected my life. 


I entered my PhD studies in the pursuit of a machine that could translate thoughts and emotions from person to computer then to another person. At that point in my life, I had struggled tremendously with expressing and connecting with others. What initially started as an easy way to decompress after hours of research became a life changing path to my own late development in expression. Lorena has instilled in me an almost unsettling love for dance and the learning of it. My body will wither with time, but for the rest of my life,  my heart will always remember what it feels like to be tetherless and free, existing only as motion and music for moments at a time. Yes, I have put in the work to achieve that, but I will always have Lorena to thank for changing the course of my life.

Lorena is absolutely amazing. My partner and I took group lessons from her for four years during my time at USC and a couple of private lessons as well. She is extremely nice and supportive and gives very clear lessons and concise instruction. She was also great at making sure I understood the reasoning behind everything she taught, rather than just telling my partner and me to move in specific ways without explaining why. She taught us everything we know about American smooth dancing. Even though my partner and I had absolutely zero prior dancing experience, Lorena's instruction led us to win many ribbons and medals at various collegiate dance competitions! I can't recommend her enough!

My now-husband and I were recently engaged, and we were debating about how to learn an awesome wedding dance. Luckily for us, we went out one night to the Cicada Club and saw a group of people dancing, and one particular dancer caught my eye.

I struck up a conversation with her, and it turns out she was a dance instructor! She was so approachable and just lovely, I knew I had found exactly who I was looking for. Lorena literally "swung" into our lives - and we couldn't believe our luck!!

Lorena turned two people with no dance experience into actual dancers!! Our wedding dance turned out to be incredible. The reason why is that she took our strengths and played them up! She would suggest different steps and we would try them. If we didn't feel comfortable or couldn't get them right, she just changed them to meet our level. That's the beauty of working with Lorena - she understands what she need to teach you to make you (as a couple) look your very best. Her entire goal is to make you look like superstars on your big day. She breaks down each piece step by step and makes it easy. Lorena will also video parts of your lesson so you can practice at home.

Lorena will not give you a cookie-cutter dance that everyone has seen before. She personalizes every step and you dance a unique piece that will be your forever. In our dance, we transitioned from foxtrot to swing completely seamlessly because of her knowledge of music and which type of dance worked best with the tempo of our song. Working with her is a wonderful experience, and honestly, with all the stress of wedding planning, we looked forward to our practice sessions so much. It gave my husband and I a chance to connect and to be intimate in a whole new way.

Best of all, my husband and I still go out dancing. Lorena gave us a life-long gift and we are forever grateful!

We booked Lorena for five lessons for our first dance and we LOVED everything about her! Importantly, she is hands down the best teacher, we met with about five instructors (through initial meetings that most dance instructors offer) prior to meeting Lorena and no one compared to her, after our initial meeting with her we knew she was great match for us.

She is the best teacher, she tailors her teaching style to what your end goal is, ours was our first dance for our wedding. Because it was a first dance with limited amount of time she did not waste time on technicalities that our guests would not notice, for example specific finger positioning that would be important for competitive dancing but not crucial for a wedding. Also she did not waste our time teaching technical words of dancing, she simply taught us to look good! Also, she knows what the crowd wants! We showed her exact choreography of the dance we wanted (the dance from La La Land) and she taught us the exact choreography and made it more "wedding appropriate," for example by adding simple things like a kiss.

Additionally, she clearly teaches dance because she loves it, you can see it in her work and dedication. She accommodates your schedule to the best of her ability. She is a busy woman doing great work such as teaching individuals with Parkinson's, my husband and I had busy schedules with off hours (one working night shift), but she made it work. She was always so flexible, even willing to come to our house to teach us and even went to our venue for our final lesson! She was the only instructor who suggested we needed three lessons to learn our dance, and she was right! One instructor said we needed 13 lessons, others said 10! We doubted ourselves and said we wanted five lessons, and wanted to buy her five group package, she was so generous and suggested we only buy the 3 lessons and if at the end of the 3 lessons we wanted the extra 2 then she would prorate us for the price of her 5 lesson package! So nice!

Lastly, you will instantly fall in love with her personality! She is so fun and makes you feel so comfortable, and always so patient! I want to book more lessons with her just so se can hang out and be friends!

Lorena was recommended by my fiance's friends for our wedding dance instructor. And boy, she was really good. My fiance 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 fiance 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!

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 a wonderful instructor and an incredible part of the collegiate dancesport community here in SoCal. She took me from newcomer to collegiate pre-champ, and is a huge inspiration to me.

Her group classes are excellent and her private lessons even better. If you are a technically-oriented learner, Lorena is especially good.

I could write a million-word review and still feel like I haven't adequately expressed my adoration for Lorena! Her classes--along with those of her dance partner Jonathan--are the highlight of my week and one of the reasons I love going to USC. While I know her as the American Smooth coach for the SC Ballroom and Latin Dance Team, Lorena is an exceptional teacher for all levels; it doesn't matter if you are an experienced dancesport competitor or a beginner wanting to learn a dance for your wedding.

Even with large groups (some of USC's group lessons have more than fifty participants), Lorena manages to break down dances in a way that is clear to almost everyone. Cramming each style of dance into five 45-minute group lessons is no easy feat, but Lorena has done it for years and never skimps on explaining technique, a valuable foundation for dancers looking to advance/compete. Having Lorena's undivided attention is even better. I never feel nervous asking Lorena for individual help because she makes it clear that she is always willing to help.

As a collegiate-competitor-turned-professional (Lorena is an alumna of the same dance team she coaches), Lorena understands the struggles of her students and goes out of her way to give them opportunities to grow as dancers. She believes in hard work and dedication and often reminds her students that she was once a "terrible" beginner, too (that's actually very encouraging, considering she recently competed at Blackpool).

Although Lorena's skills as a dancer and teacher are amazing, what I love about her most is her personality: warm, caring and kind. She could make even someone with two left feet feel welcome in her class and takes the time to learn about her students as people. She cares about both our growth on the dance floor and our lives off it.

Thank you, Lorena, for being a part of the most rewarding part of my college experience thus far: dancesport and USC BDT.