empressorchestra

The very best of wishes to all at the start of this New Year and decade. Here’s hoping it brings health, happiness and a certain amount of luck to everyone.

Ashley Frohlick

There are still tickets available for the New Year’s Eve Ball from the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool.

If you’re within striking distance of Blackpool on New Year’s Eve, why not come and dance the New Year in with style in one of the world’s most spectacular ballrooms?

Tickets for the evening are available from the Blackpool Tower website via our ‘Links’ page, or you could just drop by on the night. It’s a formally fun and safe way of ringing in the New Year with some excellent music for you to enjoy dancing or listening to. Hope to see you there!

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick

On the verge of selling the world famous Blackpool Tower and Blackpool Winter Gardens, what changes would you like to see implemented by the prospective new owners to help turn around these two iconic venues for the good of Ballroom Dancing?

Comments welcomed.

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick

I just wanted to bring your attention to our ‘Home’ page video which was uploaded yesterday. For those of you that visit the site regularly, you may need to refresh your screen to view this video as often cached memory will display the previous video displayed. (Happens a lot on mac computers, which I can attest to)!

The footage was shot by Studio Himawari during the 2009 Blackpool Dance Festival, re-edited to feature many of the different styles of dance we perform for and accompanied by a piece of music that I composed for my son, ‘The Boy’. This track incidentally, is only available on our album ‘Always & Forever’.

The video features dancing (set to a cha cha) from the semi-finals and finals of both the Professional Latin and Professional Ballroom Competitions. It also has the current World Champions in both styles and has the final appearance of Mirko and Alessia from Blackpool dancing their trademark tango.

I hope that you enjoy it, it is of course free to view and share should you wish and if you enjoy the music, please support us by buying a copy of the CD – (They make excellent presents if you already have a copy and are stuck for something to buy during the ‘Festive’ period!)

Comments as always welcomed.

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick

Thanks to everyone that took the time to express their feelings about the music we played during the recent British National Championships and WDC World Professional Latin Championship, it’s always a pleasure to perform for wonderful dancers and a knowledgeable and appreciative audience.

It was also interesting to talk about ‘Latin rhythms’ and their relevance to dance with a competitor eager to learn, (I hope the conversation helped!)

Congratulations to all that entered and danced so well during the four days, there were some cracking competitions with a few thrills and spills along the way, a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Looking forward to the next one!

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick

On the eve of the British National & WDC World Latin Championships and having just set the stage at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, I just wanted to wish all the competitors luck in their respective events. I hope that you dance to your true potential, achieve the targets you have set for yourselves and have fun in the process!

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick

The final of three articles I was asked to write for the Japanese dance magazine ‘Dance Wing’ has now been published in their November issue, volume 51.

This particular article looks a little at life behind the scenes of the biggest and best dance festival in the world from my perspective, including: My thoughts behind the music we perform, the challenges set to the dancers, the musicians, tempi, Marcus Hilton (MBE) and a brief snapshot of the judges dressing room and a little of what they get up to behind closed doors!

Once again there are some stunning photographs littered throughout the magazine which has now shifted away slightly from the Blackpool Dance Festival. It does however feature (for the ladies) the many different styles of ‘make-up’ used during this week, with a photo gallery and advice on how to achieve the looks created by the stunning competitors.

The DVD insert is of the semi-final and final of the British Professional Rising Stars Ballroom competition 2009, which also features the music of the Empress Orchestra.

The presentation this time is by Kenny Welsh and was filmed during the BDFI UK Congress 2009 entitled ‘Artistry in Dance’. Kenny’s lecture touches on head and body positions, pivots, rolls and turns and also interpretation of music which is often the last thing that couples think about when they are on the ballroom floor.

If you are interested in taking a look at this colourful magazine (many of its content written in English also) then please follow the link to Dance Wing

Once again your comments are welcomed as always!

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick

I wanted to say a big thank you to all that read our modest website regularly. Our pages are viewed by many thousands of readers from around 60 – 70 different countries within any one calendar month and up to a maximum of 100 countries per year.

We attract viewers from some unlikely nations such as Greenland, the Ivory Coast, Botswana, Senegal and Uruguay and it amazes me how far-reaching our music has become through the events for which we perform.

The reason I write this particular blog is because this month alone we have been read by viewers from 110 different nations – and I am pleased to welcome the readers from 10 countries that are new to our site:

Thanks once more to all, I hope that you enjoy what you read and that you will visit us again soon!

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick

As you may have noticed the Empress Orchestra website is now available to be read in Japanese and I am delighted to offer this facility to our many followers from Japan.

Though I only recognise a few of the symbols I think the site looks beautiful in Kanji (text).

There is also a new navigation bar, so you may need to refresh your screen if you visit us often.

If you have any comments you would like to share about the website, please feel free.

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick

I’ve just signed up to facebook… Haven’t got a clue what I’m doing!

Anyone wanting to join in and offer tips, advice, become a friend – Please feel free!

To join in just visit the facebook home page and type in Ashley Frohlick.

To become friends please send a personal message to let me know that you’re joining via the Empress website.

(Spam and other distasteful things will be treated with the reverence they deserve.)

Best wishes,

Ashley Frohlick