ATTENTION INTERNET: We can all stop doing viral wedding dances now that these Professional Ballet-Dancing Newlyweds have made all other videos second best.
I’m sure every guest at the wedding of professional ballet dancers Kirk Henning and Valerie Tellmann knew there would be a killer first dance, but it seems like no one quite expected this groomsmen dance to end all groomsmen dances.
The wedding was held at CenterStage in Richmond, Virginia, where the couple met as dancers with the Richmond Ballet company. The Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote about their incredibly romantic story in February, read below if you want to get a little teary eyed:
“The appeal of being a princess on her wedding day is lost on Valerie Tellmann.After all, she’s been a princess off and on for years, having danced with Richmond Ballet since she was 11 and joining the company officially in 2000.
That’s also where she found her prince — freelance dancer Kirk Henning, whose bold blue eyes caught her attention across the dance floor in 2004. That moment began their 11-year dance toward marriage.“Sometimes (our relationship is) soft intimacy and adagio style, which is really soft and fluid and continuously calm,” she said. “And then sometimes you have petite allegro, which is really fast and energetic and jumping high and jumping low and jumping far and darting.
“Yeah, we’re like that pretty much. A lot of dynamics,” said Tellmann, laughing. “Like a great dance.”“Dance has a lot of ups and downs,” she said after a recent company technique class the couple did at Richmond Ballet. Waving a flat hand through the air, Henning added, “You’ll never see a dance that’s just kind of (like that).”
To that point, Tellmann and Henning’s romance has had its ups and downs. After nearly four years of dating, Henning left to pursue their mutual love — dancing — both nationally and internationally as Tellmann stayed with Richmond Ballet, and it seemed their story was over.
But 10 years after they met, Henning proposed to Tellmann along the Canal Walk in Richmond. The wedding is set for July, culminating in a reception on the stage of CenterStage, where her first dream of playing the role of Clara in “The Nutcracker” came true as a child. Their story of love, patience and learning to let go would not be out of place on a stage with the main characters starring and dancing as themselves.
Tellmann is known for her bold personality, cheerfulness and frequent bursts of laughter. Henning can be equally outgoing but has a calming demeanor. Both, however, dance with a commanding sense of control.
Maggie Small, a Richmond Ballet dancer and one of Tellmann’s bridesmaids, said their most riveting performances together came when they had broken off their relationship and outside choreographers who did not know their situation paired them together.
“The filter was gone. … We wear our hearts on our sleeves anyway. You have to be an artist,” Small said. “Breakups kind of force you to be honest with yourself. … The dances they did together during that time were actually really beautiful.”
Those fiery dances came nearly four years after their first date — brunch and a trip to Maymont’s Japanese gardens. By the time they split, she was 26; he was 27. She was ready to get married and keep dancing in Richmond, the city she loved. He was ready to travel and tour with various dance groups to hone his craft.
“I was ready to move to the next level, and I noticed he was hesitating,” Tellmann said. “That’s when things began to unravel.” Marriage “just wasn’t on my radar,” Henning said. “I loved Valerie to death, but I just wasn’t ready.”
Tellmann knew Henning wouldn’t be happy staying in Richmond and felt they both had some growing up to do. So they broke off the relationship, and Henning started looking for freelance work.
“Dance is a blessing and a curse because it’s a short-lived career. We’re both fighting the clock,” she said. “For us, there’s always a ticking time bomb.”
Four years passed and Henning danced and traveled to Oman, Puerto Rico, Scotland and all over the U.S., and Tellmann did a fair amount of traveling with Richmond Ballet. They had completely lost contact, though some mutual friends would occasionally update the other on their lives. And at some point, Henning’s desires began to change.
“It took me a few years to realize I wanted to be married and be married to Valerie,” he said. But they would have to start over. And Henning had to get back in her father’s good graces. “I knew she wasn’t going to take it seriously unless I was going to take it seriously,” he said.
So he moved back to Richmond and wrote Tellmann’s father, John Tellmann, who lives in Arizona, a letter explaining his intentions and how he had changed. John Tellmann was skeptical.
“If you’re close to your daughter or your son, they kind of bleed on you. … She’s been hurt once, she doesn’t need to be hurt again,” he said. “Kirk wrote a letter. I wanted to trash it. I didn’t want to reply to it. Then there was a follow-up letter.”
A few months later, the opportunity came for Tellmann’s parents to talk with Henning in person. They came to Norfolk in 2013 to see their daughter perform in “The Rite of Spring.” Beforehand, they had dinner with Henning — alone.
“I wasn’t real easy on him. I couldn’t imagine going to my wife’s father and having that conversation. I felt for him,” said John Tellmann. “But after talking with him about his experiences and what he learned, we had to say absolutely. … It means a lot to me that she even cared what we thought of it.”
And thus began the couple’s second run. “If he’s willing to put up with all that, it must be special,” Tellmann recalled thinking when Henning met with her parents. “We eventually got on the same page of the same chapter of the same book,” she said jokingly. The couple like to say they have two engagement days. And both involve fireworks.
The first was a humid day in July 2014 when they and their dancer friends sold fireworks in Colonial Heights as they do every year when Richmond Ballet takes a break from May to August. As Tellmann and Henning stopped to drink some limeade, Henning asked a pointed question.
“What would I need to do to be married to you by next summer? When would I need to propose?” he said. With some hesitation and surprise, Tellmann said, “Well … now! And book the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.” Tellmann had attended the church near Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe campus since she was 20 years old.
So the next day, the couple headed to the church, checkbook in hand. Even a year in advance, there were only two dates open in July, and one was July 4 — when all their friends would be selling fireworks. So they chose July 25.
And just like that, Tellmann and Henning booked their wedding without officially being engaged. That came a couple of months later, just before Henning was set to leave on another tour. Tellmann prepped him on what not to do during his proposal: not at dinner (especially over salad!), not walking on a random sidewalk in Richmond, and certainly not in a place where she would scream and make a fool of herself. “And he did good,” she said. “Well … ish,” Henning added.
A friend of Tellmann’s agreed to take their engagement photos without the ring before Henning left on tour. They went to a few overlook spots in Church Hill, the cathedral and CenterStage and were supposed to wrap up by 5:30 p.m., when their friends would gather at the Canal Walk with a table set for two, champagne and, of course, fireworks.
But photos were on pace to be done at 4 p.m. “I didn’t think we would be done that fast,” Henning said. So he and the photographer stalled at each location, taking numerous shots in unnecessary poses and making a point to chat about the good old days and how far the couple’s relationship had come.
When they finally had stalled long enough, they headed to the Canal Walk, where friends greeted them with fireworks as Henning dropped to a knee and proposed. Looking back on their dance into marriage, Tellmann said they both would have felt unfulfilled if they jumped into marriage when she first wanted to.
“A relationship should enhance your life, not be your life,” she said. “And I think the good ones are worth fighting for.”
That’s just a great story, love is cool but perfectly executed groomsmen dances are cooler. These viral videos are at the brink of being awfully overdone and it’s a blessing that this one was so amazing, enough to take the crown.Henning’s groomsmen keep up with his badass dance skills surprisingly well (Maybe some of them are dancers too?) as they cycle through “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, “(You Drive Me) Crazy” by Britney Spears, “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins, and “The World” by Brad Paisley, complete with confetti cannon and multiple hat changes.
