Far's London - Latin & Ballroom Dance Wear

We have not heard from Manchester, so we are coming with dance wear, without shoes. See you there!

I went to see the play 6 Dance Lessons in 6 Weeks on a preview offer at Royal Theatre Haymarket yesterday because Craig Revel Horwood choreographed it and curiosity asks me what level of dancing can he teach to someone who don’t know much about Latin and Ballroom considering how harshly he judges the celebrities and the professional dancers on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.

The plot unfolds over the course of the dance lessons mentioned in the title. Billy Zane’s character, the teacher, and Claire Bloom’s character, the student, get to know each other more deeply than anyone else knows them.

The delivery of the amusing lines was not very convincing, especially from Billy Zane. But more importantly the dancing was at the level of a first group dance class at the local community centre. Craig Revel Horwood had no skills to work with, sadly. In a play that is not about the dancing at all, but about the interactions between the dancing, Craig’s involvement in it will not enhance his CV.

Maybe I would have found it a lot more amusing if a better ballroom dancer plays the teacher role. I could see it potentially very amusing if someone like Anton Du Beke plays Billy Zane’s role, which I tried to imagine for most part of the play. On the other hand dancing takes a completely different role than in Footloose, for example, with the high-powered Derek Hough, so perhaps the dancing was not supposed to be so good, or would have changed the message.

Several current social issues and facts of life, with which the characters struggle, are highlighted and I did start thinking about them in a broader context as I watched the play. The dancing served as a kind of refuge, a place to escape from life’s problems and find a real connection to other people.

All in all it was a good play but it could be better as it wasn’t as exciting as I hoped, maybe it could be made better with a better dancer. Or the story to be more developed. It kind of doesn’t have enough of a story for you to get really into it. Maybe if I know very little or none at all about Latin and Ballroom I expected too much and having been in the position of the student learning the dance as well as getting to know the dancers the story seems to be a lot weaker than my experience hence didn’t really appeal to me. Sam and I were rather unsatisfied walking out of ‘6 Dance Lessons in 6 Weeks’ and ended up watching ‘Flushed Away’ straight afterwards.

If you do want to go, here is a seating plan. The theatre is quite small. The stalls seemed a bit too low, the Royal Circle works best, even from the back. The Upper Circle would not be too far away from stage, but I’m not sure whether one can see all the stage from the back rows there. It was far from sold out in any case.

I honestly think that the judges are being more and more biased as the weeks go on.

Take Emma. Look at her Paso facial expressions. They were like those of a constipated pole dancer. What about her hands? How are her hands any better than Matt Dawson’s?

And Lousia? I know she pulled off some difficult drops in the Cha Cha Cha, but there were hardly any basics to show she can actually do the dance! I don’t think it was any better than Matt’s Rumba. Rumba as Claudia suggests is the dance of despair for any celebrity. And I think Lilia did a great job of choreographing a rumba that shows the least weak point of Matt, which is the fluidity of his movements.

Somehow Strictly is becoming a little annoying… Everyone seems to be biased towards Emma. They say she’s so modest that she has to promote her CD so she couldn’t put the hours in. But look at Aled Jones. He was doing a tour during his Strictly, he still managed to put the hours and practice in.

Unfortunately, International will not be able to provide us with shoes this weekend after all. Currently we do not know whether Manchester still wants us to come. Apologies for the uncertainties.

Look out for our stand at the Manchester Winter Comp in a week’s time. We will bring shoes (International) and practice wear (men’s & women’s) as well as a couple of comp dresses.
Do come to browse and chat, get yourself measured and let us know your ideas for your own dress: it might be cheaper to realize than you thought!