Far's London - Latin & Ballroom Dance Wear

All students, beginners and intermediates, are welcome to attend. Oxford has kindly agreed to provide a venue. We have organised 7 teachers for you. The workshops will be a little shorter and less exhausting, while leaving time for private lessons.

Where

We have Oxford’s Morris Motors Athletic & Social Club Ballroom booked from 10am - 7pm with workshops and private lessons going on side by side. Check these sites for address and phone number, route planner, public transport and final approach directions. Apparently, the online map services are slightly off compared to the x-marks-the-spot OUDS provides, which should be more credible.

Who

Your Ballroom teachers will be Sergiu Rusu & Dorota Makar for beginners and Michael Burton & Martina Wuttig for intermediate. Gleb Savchenko & Elena Samodanova will teach Latin, supported by Nathan Meyers.

Having experienced Sergiu, Michael, Martina, Gleb and Elena in lessons, I have to say they not just young, good looking, great dancers, but also excellent teachers. Nathan convinced me with his performance at our previous workshop that he deserves to come and teach even though he is currently looking for a partner. Michael & Martina also got positive reviews from the previous workshop.

Workshops

£15 per person couple per workshop. Beginners workshops have space for 30 people couples, the Intermediate ones for 20. You do not have to come as a couple, but do try to drag your partners along!

[Update January 17, 2007 @ 00:19] Michael & Martina are planning on using the same simple routines they use for their own practice so they can focus on the basics of how to move, e.g. posture, hold, connection, driving and sway.

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!

Kate Vlietstra from Manchester Uni sums the day up:

I just wanted to say thank you very much to Fars for organising the workshop on Sunday. Shane, Chi Wai and I all had a fantastic time and we definitely learnt a lot. The small number of participants also made it easier for each couple to have some individual attention from the teachers. Whilst both were superbly taught, I found the Ballroom class more helpful because it focussed on general technique which can be applied in other areas, whereas the Latin focussed on a routine for which I had to learn the moves first before I could learn the technique. Although there was a fair amount of difference in ability, this was catered for, so it didn’t really affect how much I learnt throughout the workshop.

I think you already mentioned this, probably because all the girls were passing out and cursing their dance shoes, but I’d love it if the workshops were on separate days next time, just to save my feet! Also, something we’re campaigning for in Manchester is for weekend dance events to be held on Saturdays, since one of our student competitors cannot partake on Sundays for religious reasons. Also, since a Sunday service for transport is in operation, traveling really took it out of us.

Anyhow, thank you once again for the workshop. It was a great day and I will definitely be interested in attending any such future events.

There is even more feedback on the University Dancesport forums by Kate and Jenny C.

Except for Nottingham University security being a bit grumpy and asking us to leave half an hour early, I think it was a great success. Most participants were exhausted by that time anyway. But there are definitely areas we can improve in.

Having both Latin and Ballroom on the same day will definitely be under review. The only benefit would be getting more workshop for the same amount of travelling when they are combined, and perhaps a longer break in between would be easier on the feet. As Jenny suggested, if we ever put both workshops on the same day, ballroom should probably come first, as it is less tiring.

Moving to Saturdays would certainly make things easier. It always depends on when we can book teachers, but as long as we plan everything long enough in advance that should not be a problem.

The number of participants will hopefully increase from the almost 8 couples on this day to twice as many, to make the workshops just about break even. I’m sure the individual attention would not suffer too much.

Regarding the teaching style, Latin relies much more on a routine beyond basic rumba walks. Meaning a lot of the basic actions need to be taught from the context of a little routine. We could ask the teaching couple to supply a description of the routine they intend to teach with and a list of prerequisites that follows. That way you could prepare a little beforehand. Teaching Ballroom on the other hand starts with posture, hold and leading & following, which can be taught without a routine and represents a big chunk of material.

The plan is to hold the next workshops in mid-October/November and then Janaury. Let us know your thoughts either by commenting to this post, or by posting to the University Dancesport Forums. Thanks

After Robin Sewell & Nicole Cutler pulled out and we had to cancel our first attempt at organising a university workshop, this one will surely go ahead, unless the sky falls until then.

When
Latin: 1-2.30pm and then 2.40-4.10pm
3 hours covering Cha, Jive and Rumba

Ballroom 4.30-6pm and 6.10-7.40pm
3 hours covering Waltz, Quickstep and Tango

We are aiming the workshop to improve attendees basics. At the moment we have no takers on private lessons as all the people who have booked are doing both workshops but we can take bookings on on the day for private lessons if you wish.

Who
We have recruited two couples, one ballroom and one latin, who will be conducting one workshop each. Nathan Meyers & Karina Schembri placed 53rd in Amateur Latin. Espen Salberg teaches them and he recommended them to us. Michael Burton & Martina Wuttig finished 44th place in Pro Rising Star Ballroom. Fiona and I have taken countless lessons with them and trust us, it is not because of their lack of excellent teaching that we still cannot put an entire routine together…

Where
The workshops will be held in the Great Hall, Trent Building, Nottingham University. Directions can can be found on the Nottingham University page for this year’s NUDA.

How much
£13 for one workshop, £20 for both. Private lessons with one of the four dancers at a time is £25 per 45 minutes.

Attire
Obviously, bring your dance shoes/trainers. We would also recommend proper practice wear to get the most out of the workshop. You can take it at face value, or as a marketing ploy to get you to buy some of our products, which we will be selling on the day; no shoes or related things this time though. Also, there will be comp dresses to marvel at, try on and buy, and we can of course take your measurements if you are interested in a custom dress made to your specifications and budget.

How
If you want to come along, get in touch via the contact page. Advance bookers can pay by cheque or card. You can come on the day and pay at the door, but we will only accept cash.

As not to end this post on that note, I hope to see you all nicely rested to enjoy the workshops!

P.S.: If you liked Nathan & Karina and want to brush up your Rumba, they are doing a workshop in Dorking Surrey on June the 27th, as organised by LeRoc Surrey.

Far’s Hong Kong and Far’s London exhibited at the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool, along with a host of other companies, as part of the Grand Dance Expo, during the Blackpool Dance Festival.

It was quite a change from doing one-day university competitons. It is a lot less intense, and with practically every other company in the industry present either at the hotel or at the Winter Gardens, a great opportunity to forge new, to reinforce existing relationships and to check out the competition.

We were all too tired in the evenings to watch much dancing, though we did go and supported our sponsor couples, Sergey Tanchev & Elena Boychennko (Amateur Latin) and Ming Li & Shirley Rui Huang (Pro Latin).

Sergey & Elena placed 84th in their 3rd appearance on the UK competition circuit, after being a bit nervous in Rising Star Amateur Latin, where they came in 174th. Elena switched from ballroom to latin only 10 months ago.

Leo & Shirley improved a lot and finished Blackpool with the second highest rating of their partnership.

Espen introduced his new collection, produced by Far’s, very happily. Together with more foot traffic and consequently sales, this year’s Blackpool was more successful than ever.

For us the event started much earlier, with preperations.

We all jetted to Hong Kong for 5 weeks around April time to support the final push of our efforts to produce Espen Salbergs 2006 dance wear collection, a huge learning curve. It was introduced to the public at Blackpool to great satisfaction, which shows that “Made in China” can be of excellent quality. Fiona and Katie played an essential part of keeping everything on track and everybody sane.

A new dance wear collection takes a lot of work aside from the dance wear itself. Photoshoots, advertisements, banners and not least catalogues need creating. So Sam found himself diverted from his project of computerizing/barcoding the retail and admin operation of the Hong Kong shop, tying in with its redecoration.

Along with training a new full-time staff member, it turned out to be the busiest Far’s has ever been.