News

Distance Selling Ends

We have decided to shut down our distance selling operations. As of today, you will only be able to buy our products at various dance competition exhibitions such as the UK Open and the Blackpool Dance Festival.

The only reliable way of contacting us will be by e-mail.

Thank you to all our customers.

Season’s Greetings

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Far’s London to all of you!

Please note that we will be closed from the 21st Dec and reopen on the 2nd Jan.

United States Dance Championships 2007 - Exhibiton

Far’s at USDC 2007

We will have a stand featuring Far’s couture and practice wear, as well as products by Espen Salberg Design and Edda Hsu. Espen 2006 will be on sale.

Visit us at Space 12 in the Pacifica Ballroom of the Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando, Florida from September 4th to 8th, 2007.

Oxford Workshop 18/02/2007

We have organised another Far’s workshop. We will also be offering private lessons.

Where

The workshop will be on Sunday 18th February at the Oxford Community School.

Who

Nathan Meyers will teach Latin, and Mark Perkovich & Natasha Manderson will teach Ballroom. The couple have made the UK Rising Star ballroom semi final this year. They are a new couple, dancing for Australia. Both have lived away from Australia for the past 5 years. Trained by Luca & Lorraine Baricchi in Italy.

Workshops

1-3pm Intermediate Latin Rumba & Jive
3:30-5:30pm Beginners & Intermediate Ballroom Waltz & Tango

Private Lessons

Private lessons will be run from 12-6pm outside workshop times. Unfortunately, if you are doing both workshops there will not be much time for lessons. You do not need to bring a partner for these.

Cost

£8 per person per workshop. Private lessons £30 for 60 mins.

Book & Pay

To book in for a workshop or a private lesson please contact me. Let me know your and your parnter’s name, a mobile number, which workshops and/or private lessons you are interested in and how you are planning on paying. We accept cash or cheque on the day, card and bank transfer in advance.

Oxford Workshop Recap

We hosted our second workshop day on Saturday of last week. Unfortunately, we only found out that the e-mail contact form on our website was not working the night before the workshop. I apologise to those who tried to book onto our workshop via the web form and did not get any reply from us.

Nevertheless, more people attended than our last workshop. Also, the private lessons were taken. Based on the feedback from our last workshop we have cut our workshops’ duration – from three hours to 1 ½ for beginners and 2 for intermediates – so you can concentrate more and hence get more out of it.

The teachers are young championship level competitors with ample teaching experience, making them ideal to explain and especially demonstrate what standard you could strive for. Having young couples teach also means that hopefully they relate to you more easily as well as charging a lower price for your sake. Having up to 7 different teachers gave students the benefit of different perspectives on, demonstrations and explanations of the same concepts.

Given that everyone had their own routines, the workshops were mostly technique-based. This complemented the mostly routine-based coaching students, especially beginners, already get without interfering with it.

We got only positive comments on the day, which is obviously great, but please let us know if you have suggestions, criticism or complaints!

For example, Michael suggested a different format. We could have 1 ½ hours of group teaching followed by supervised practice and then 1 ½ more group teaching, with breaks in between. This is very lengthy and intensive, so there is time for only one category per day, e.g. beginners’ Latin. Perhaps this could be offered in addition to the current format, if requested. For example, if your university’s competitive team is interested in an intensive day of learning and practice, we can arrange it.

One couple said they found the day very useful as they are usually so busy that routine is mostly what they have time for during their lessons with their coach every week, especially as beginner just starting and the first competition only weeks away at the beginning of the academic year. The greatest challenge is to unlearn all the bad habits they pick up in their first year, leading to mostly 3rd-year-and-beyond student dancers performing more competently and technically sound. Another couple was unhappy with their Jive routine, with which they did not feel confident or comfortable, because they spent too much of their original routine dancing apart. Gleb and Helen taught them a new routine, on request, in which they spend much more time together, as well as what it should feel like being in contact such as leading and following. The couple were much more comfortable with this routine and immediately improved their dancing and confidence.

Far’s runs these workshops non-profitably, as we intend to help students improve their level without breaking their wallets. Even the private lessons are a bargain, since if you would take private lessons on any other – non-workshop – day the rate would be higher simply because the dancers would need to subsidise their travel and the floor fee.

We are looking into organising more of these workshops, possibly monthly. So if anyone can get a free/cheap venue and would like us to come, please let me know as soon as you can so that I can book the teachers.

All of these workshops are available to anyone who is a member of IVDA. So please let us know if you are interested in future workshops, even if they are not planned yet, your level of dancing, what you hope to achieve, and what university you dance for. I will add you to our workshop e-mail list and we will let you know each time we host a workshop.

Please contact us via our e-mail form, or e-mail us directly. If have not heard back from us within 5 days, please try again or better yet: call us or send a fax. Spammers are getting more cunning every day!

Oxford Workshop - Plenty of Spaces Left

Spread the word! We still have spaces left for all workshops and both Ballroom and Latin private Lessons.

UK Dance Exhibition 22-25/01/2007

We will be part of the UK Dance Shopping Mall during the UK Open Championships in Bournemouth International Centre.

Stand S34
Solent Hall

Monday: 1pm-10pm
Tuesday & Wednesday: 9am - 10pm
Thursday: 9am - 7pm

Our stand will feature Espen Salberg Design practice wear, Far’s latin trousers and competitive dresses.

The Shopping Mall as a whole will include Ballroom & Latin couture dresses, men’s evening & dancewear, practice & competition wear, accessories, shoes, fabrics, CDs & Videos.

The Pamper Experience Company will offer complimentary mini massage sessions in the Relaxation Zone, which is open as follows:

Monday: 1pm - 9pm
Tuesday: 11am-8pm
Wednesday: 11:30am - 8pm
Thursday: 10am - 5pm

Finally, part of the Solent Hall will be set aside as a dance floor for you.

Contact Form Working Again

Apologies again.

Contact Form Problem

Our e-mail contact form has not been working for an unknown time. Our web host has shut it down because they have received reports that spam is being sent from our site. However, they have neglected to let us know and there are no error messages.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. If you have used our contact form and not received a reply, please call us or try again using out e-mail address directly, which is now posted as an image on the Contact Us page.

Oxford Workshop - Intermediate Ballroom details

Michael & Martina let us know what they intend to cover during the workshop. See the original post for further information about the workshops, such as time, venue and pricing.

Michael & Martina decided that they will work on a practice routine with you, something which you can use in order to warm up before you start dancing or practicing your competitive routines.
The routines which they will use are as follows:

Tango

  1. 2 walks
  2. rock
  3. Progressive Link
  4. Close Promenade
  5. 5 Step
  6. Close Promenade

Quickstep

  1. Quarter Turns
  2. Lock Step
  3. Natural Turn
  4. Spin Turn
  5. Quarter Turns
  6. Lock Step
  7. Natural Turn
  8. Spin Turn
  9. Chasse to Centre
  10. Quick Open Reverse
  11. Chasse
  12. Progressive Cross Chasse
  13. Chasse
  14. Chasse Lock Step
  15. Running Finsh

Try to get some practice in to learn the routines before the workshop so that you can move on to the juicy part of the workshop sooner.

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