Family members and co-owners of the new Empower All Star Dance Company Jamie Farrah, left, sister Jennifer and mother Karen, alongside family friend and instructor Madalyn Cannon. The studio is located at 21 Mechanic St., Red Bank.
Photo courtesy Empower
RED BANK – Over three decades of experience in leading and participating in cheer teams brought the Farrah family to open up shop at 21 Mechanic St. in Red Bank.
Mother Karen and daughters Jamie and Jennifer are the new co-owners of Empower All Star Dance Company, which they say is the first dance studio in the area to offer classes and instruction in cheer-dance. The studio opened in August and celebrated its grand opening Sunday, Oct. 20. The Farrahs were involved in Pop Warner Cheer for over 30 years and in that time, the teams they led were named national champions 11 times.
“My mom has been involved for over 30 years, and ever since I was born I was involved. If I wasn’t cheering, I was coaching,” said Jamie, who is also the cheer coach at Monmouth Regional High School in Tinton Falls. “It just got to the point where we just wanted to kind of move on and do our own thing. We made so many friends in the community, we have a huge following of people” she said, “and they became like our family. So, we wanted to figure something out to kind of give back.”
The studio has pale purple-colored walls with purple, white and grey accents throughout. It has a mirror wall, a barre wall and a cubby station for students to put their belongings in. Classes are an hour long and are available for children ages 3 to 18. The three main class offerings right now are Pom and Jazz, Technique and Hip-Hop. Children are divided by age groups and work in teams rather than as individuals with solos.
The company also offers a Mommy and Me class Tuesdays and Thursdays for children ages 3 months to 4 years old. “That’s one of our big draws in, I would say,” said Jamie. Coaches at Empower All Star Dance Company come from different backgrounds – some from dance and some from cheer. “It’s a nice mix to bring everything in,” she added. The company has not had more than 18 children per class.
Karen said classes at the studio “absolutely” fill a void for children who are not practicing these skills in school. “Not only that, if they want to brush up on their performance skills – whether it’s cheer or whatever they do in school – this is another place” to do so. She said pop and hip-hop classes seem to be the most popular.
Looking ahead, the owners are planning to add barre classes to the schedule, 55-minute cardio low-impact workouts. They will be instructed by certified instructor Madalyn Cannon, who grew up with Karen, Jamie and Jennifer as her cheer coaches. “They’re like family to me,” she said, adding that she loves working for Empower All Star Dance Company.
Anyone looking to register for classes can do so in person at the studio, and can even try a class before registering, or on the website, empowerallstardance.com.
