List of All Workshops with Description

Led by Selim Arslanbek

Selim will teach a traditional Bashkir song from Central Asia that has been documented in the 1930s. Bashkortostan is a region in present-day Russia around the Ural mountains, home to formerly nomadic people with Turkic languages. Selim's grandfather hailed from Bashkiria/Bashkortostan and would sing and play his accordion in this style for friends and family back in the days.

Please bring your musical instruments. Accordions are very welcome as they are a common instrument in the music from this region. Sukoon will demonstrate and teach the ornamented vocal parts in Soprano/Tenor for whoever is interested to learn and sing.

Leaders: Emily Vandewalle, Tim Croes

Join us on a joyful dance tour across Europe as we introduce you to a variety of simple yet fun traditional dances from different cultures. From lively footwork to quirky regional styles, this workshop celebrates the diversity of folk dance in a relaxed, geeky, and beginner-friendly environment. Whether you want to learn something new or dive deeper into folk traditions, this dance adventure will broaden your horizons and leave you inspired.

Led by Anton Hacker

Improvised couple dance.
For advanced dancers - we want to look further into the details and possibilities of movement in Austrian music styles.
‚Wickler‘, from the German verb ‚wickeln‘ means to ‚wrap sth around sth‘ and is a term that describes well the character of this dance:
A fluent way of creating and inventing ‚figures‘, using the arms and different step patterns. Come and see for Yourself
 

Led by Hanna Kidron and Przemek Jarosz

A workshop of three Belarusian dances from different regions, to show the diversity of this region

Led by farah Serghani

Lern to move your hips and hands on oriental rhythm

Led by Yasmin Neumann

Basic informations about Blues music and dance. What is s blues idioms? Focus on the blues idiom Struttin from Memphis (history). Step, posture, connection, simple moves.

Led by Judith Benkö, Linnéa Redblad , Jamie Huddlestone

In this workshop, we, Linnéa Redblad and Judith Benkö, will teach polska dancing to music associated with Boda (a small village in Sweden), played on the fiddle by Jamie. We will focus on being able to dance together to this music on a social dance floor while having fun. We will learn to dance to the rhythms of the music, go through different movement patterns used in this dancing, and work on how to find a comfortable connection with dance partners. We will dance by ourselves and in pairs, no need to bring a partner! The workshop is open to all levels. Our teaching is based on our dance and pedagogic educations and our experiences made on many Swedish dance floors. Welcome!

Led by Roman Zimmermann

Bourrée à 2 temps is a partner dance with origins in central France. Since it’s usually danced without touching one another, connection mainly works visually and through the music.

In this workshop, we’ll look beyond the choreography and closer at the rhythm, timing, body positioning and connection. This way we’ll lay a foundation for
dancing bourrée in an improvised manner.

The workshop is for you if you …
… haven’t danced bourrée yet and want to learn a new and fun dance.
 … have seen people dance bourrée with weird early timing and wonder what that
is all about.
 … want to get new ideas on how to improvise in bourrée.

Led by Victor Auberger.

The « festnoz » culture is very much alive in Bretagne (France).

Throughout the exploration of some famous and less common dances we will have a glimpse of what these traditional bals look like. This will give us the opportunity to distinguish the specific aspects of breton dances.

At this occasion we will also question the relation between music and movement, and between ourself and the group.

Led by Nina Wasileva

Workshop Overview

For the past two years, we've been developing a small community in Bulgaria called Balfolkariya, fostering interest in various European folk dances. Inspired by the balfolk movement across Europe, a curious idea emerged: can we blend balfolk elements into the intricate Bulgarian traditional dances? So let's try?

The workshop is divided into three parts.

Workshop Schedule

1st Part: Introduction and Shyrto Dance (30 min)

• Topic: Commonalities and differences between Balfolk and Bulgarian traditional dances.
• Activities:
  • Small discussion and overall presentation of both dance styles and getting to know each other.
  • Learning a Shyrto dance from the Macedonian folklore region.
  • Demonstration and brainstorming on how to make Shyrto more "balfolky"- it's quite balfolky already.
  • The dance is in a 7/8 rhythm with a long 3rd beat, suitable tunes include the very famous "Lilyano mome" and "Ayde Yano".

2nd Part: Learning Abdai Dance (15 min)

• Topic: Learning Bulgarian dance called Abdai ( Northern folklore region of Bulgaria)
• Activities:
  • Learning one version of Abdai.
  • The dance has incredible music in a 9/8 rhythm with a long 4th beat.

3rd Part: Creating a New Dance (45 min)

• Activities:
  • Analysing the dance, and discussing which parts are worth keeping and which maybe not ...
  • Simplifying the steps from Abdai.
  • Adding some balfolk features to it.
  • Dancing it all together as a new creation.

This schedule ensures a fast comprehensive exploration of both dance styles, fostering creativity and cultural exchange. Enjoy the workshop!

Tutors: Diana Todorova(BG) & Arwen Sentis (FR)

Led by Liam Rickard, Sion Rickard

Welsh brothers Liam and Siôn Rickard will teach a traditional song and tune from Wales

This workshop will happen some days later. New date to be confirmed!

Led by Jilly Lukka

We will dance freely, talk about how music influences mental wellbeing, listen to each other's music and inspire each other by sharing stories about the music we listen to.

Led by Zala Pezdir

Basics of contact improvisation. We experiment with the roles of leading and following, and how a dance can evolve when playing with the qualities of flow and paus.

Led by Pierre-Marie Banholzer

Exploring the different styles of dances and songs in Cretan musical culture, focusing on the music and with a proposal of lyrics/vocal parts.

Led by Mario Lipparini

Let's learn together how to accompany the tunes with the guitar tuned in DADGAD!

Led by Amalie Malmgren Asmild

Led by Antton Curutchet

Small and/or weird instruments (acoustic and electronic) will be brought, you can also bring yours. The idea is to quickly introduce different instruments, and then try to play a tune (or at least "something") together. It will be acoustic and electronic instruments : stylophone, drum stylophone, small keyboard, alboka, one-hole ocarina that's accidently in tune, whistles, maybe i'll bring a crappy theremin too. Plus what you will bring !

Led by Anthom van Rijn

Led by Luise Doyon

Dynamis is a method to warm up the body and create more body awareness during movement. It is an holistic approach to body work, encorporating also soul and spirit into the work. The concept of Dynamis understands the human body as a complex relational field of different body systems, functional systems and elementary forces.

Led by Maya McCourt

Learn the song 'Goose & Common' in 3 part harmony

Led by Hanna-Liia Kiipus

Are you on your search for the easiest folk dance in the world? You have found it - flatfoot waltz from Estonia!

Led by Jonas Malfliet

How can we make decisions together in groups, so everybody is heard but we can still move forward? How do we share power in an effective and equivalent way? Sociocracy is a set of tools and principles to help groups organise and govern themselves. If you like to know more about consent decision making, distributed power and leadership in different circles, effective and inclusive meeting facilitation... welcome! 

Led by Ana María Ramírez Bautista

Come learn a cumbia song and let the upbeat melancoly and roots of afrocolombian music flow through your body.

All instruments welcome but most important: percussion and voices. :D

Led by Vilma Talvitie

We will learn 1-2 Finnish trad. songs (Both singers / instrumentalists)

Led by Johan Carlström, Juni Hag

Finnskogspols is an energetic and fun couple dance (and an associated music style) in asymmetric triple meter with a shorter third beat (kort trea!) from western Sweden, close to the border of Norway.
 

Led by Michael Mayr-Ebert

How to dance and move while being on the floor.

"During my workshop we’re gonna start with a warmup, then some exercises and some base elements regarding floor work. Everyone will get the opportunity to explore their bodies and how they can move using the floor, and I’ll give some tools in between. And at the end I will teach a choreographed phrase that we will work on together."

Led by Johannes Althammer

Led by Andrew Walbran

You know the basic steps of some balfolk dances, now what? Balfolk is all about improvisation, so let's add some variations to your toolbox. We'll look at four dimensions of variation: direction, rhythm, weight and style. You should be comfortable leading and following schottische, waltz and mazurka.

Led by aleksej dzykowski

communication inside the couple, doubleroling, turns

Led by Maia Mirziashvili

Led by Can Güney Aksakalli

We are going to learn a song from minor Asia common in Turkey and Greece.

Led by Naila Papanuskas

A workshop teaching two traditional Greek instrumental arrangements and lyrics.

Led by Anna Breger

In this workshop we will learn by ear 3 lovely tunes from 18th century Austria and Germany.

Led by Ida Hammarbäck, Eszter Mitro, Vanja Smith

Introduction to dances from Sweden.

Led by Cristina Da Ponte and Davide Stefani.

We will briefly explore the connection with a partner, the different possibilities of following and leading, the possible sources of expression and creativity, the different energies we can move in our dance and much more.

Led by Philipp Gerhardt

A quick Polka groove, 8 dancers and the ability to quickly react to chaos - you're ready for Quadrill Improvisation! Since the 18th century this dance has been popular in Northern Germany and nowadays is again common on festivals. The outcome can be anything from easy and chilled to advanced acrobatics. In this workshop you'll learn the tools you need to lead an improvised Quadrill and start exploring more possibilities. But be careful: High risk of getting addicted!

Led by Sukoon Bablani

This workshop is about Indian Folk music appreciation. We will look at the history of Indian folk music and its evolution since the Vedic era. Knowledge on all relevant key-terms from Sanskrit, Hindi and regional languages will be given. The workshop also aims at providing basic information on how Indian folk music is different from Hindustani classical music and the relation between the two. We will delve into listening to some rare archives of Indian folk music from some Northern and Central Indian states - from Himalayas in the North and North-east to the Thar desert in the West. We will talk about the stories and themes of some of these folk songs and also learn to sing and play some of the folk songs together. So bring your musical instruments and singing voices. 

Led by Damien Rogeau

Led by Eva Pankratz

Klezmer music is jewish dance and party music of the Eastern Europe of the last century - the dances are mostly circle dances and some couple dances. The steps will we shown and we dance with music played by tha group Pallawatsch

Led by Bahzad Sulaiman

Kurdish dance is based on forming a ring where the fingers are intertwined with each other and consists of simple steps. These steps are accompanied by music with several different beats. It does not matter if you are a professional dancer or a beginner.

Led by Olivier Gemin

Sharing tunes from Bretagne

Led by Michael Ekeghasi

Learn to sing a Nigerian song, with vibrant energy. Something to share the next time you meet a Nigerian.

Led by Raphaël Basard

Learning a piece from the repertoire of serbian gipsy brass bands
Learning the mode associated with the tune, and improvisation exercises on it.

Led by weronika bereza

Micro dancing and close embrace

All you need to know to turn tiny movements into enormously pleasurable dance. You will learn about the frame, the posture and the basics of movement quality that make the difference. 

A small dance usually goes with a closer frame, called the close embrace. You will learn how to navigate this frame and explore the abundance of what it offers to you and your dance partner.

And have you heard about the breath leading?

Micro dancing is a part of many dance styles and, fortunately, is more and more present in the contemporary balfolk scene. My aim is to give you solid skills and tools to experiment with and discover your own micro experience.

The boring but important part: The workshop operates on a partner rotation basis. Because of the very nature of the close embrace, the workshop starts with the part dedicated to the consent. To ensure the group's safety, participation is only possible for those who attend the consent part of the workshop. Make sure you’re there on time :)
 

Weronika (she/her) has been into folk dancing for over 20 years and has been dancing at the Numinosum Festival since 2018. Besides balfolk, she’s also experienced in ballroom dance, blues, céilidh, contact improvisation, contemporary, and zouk. Her favourite remains fusion, which led to the creation of the What The Fusion Warsaw group. Weronika runs regular fusion workshops in Warsaw and has also taught in Germany.

Led by Helen Grange

Feel good, increase focus, keep your body & soul in good condition, and meet the demands of making music - you can use these simple ideas that are easy to implement when you are on the road or performing. Practical self-care moves and meditations for musicians and creative artists. Inspired by yoga, qigong and somatic wisdom traditions. Everyone welcome, no experience needed, no mat needed. Bring your instrument.

Led by Sami Karkar

We'll learn a couple of songs from the Pyrenean répertoire of occitan polyphonic singing.

Led by Elisa Guarraggi

Parola al Canto // Singing Roots is a collective singing workshop about the narrative and creative Power of tradizionale singing. It links the tradition of the Mediterranean singing with the vocale improvisation practices coming from Circlesinging. We'll learn one or more songs coming especially from regional traditions from Italy (especially worksongs) and we will work on It/them through steps that will involve imagination, body movement and acting. The 
 

Led by Jamie Huddlestone

Led by Maciej Furmańczyk

Kujawiak Rytla is a Polish waltzy tune. I will show people how to play it.

Led by Manon Hamard-Pibarot, Quentin Thevenin

Branle d'Alsace, Rigodon, Galop Nantais and other fun stuff: We'll teach you how to dances those typical and rare french trad dances and we'll sing / play music (ukulele and flutes) so you can dance !

Led by David Kammermeier

RoR is a network of activist percussion groups that play at demonstrations etc. We use anti-hierarchical organisation, samba-based grooves and a specific method of conducting. I can offer an introductory workshop. https://www.rhythms-of-resistance.org/de/

Led by Cédric Berner and Cristobal Araya

Learn  "Ritmo con Señas"  - a sign language and method to improvise music and dance with hand signs in real time. Everyone is welcome, singers & instrumentalists regardless of background, experience or knowledge in music. 

Led by David Hart

Some beginner to intermediate set dances from the Scottish Country Dance tradition

Led by: Helen Le-Mar, Lewis Williamson

We will teach some Scottish tunes including one or two from the Orkney Islands where Helen is from. All instruments welcome!

Led by Francesca Paleka, Mia Reba, Ana Horvat, Lucija Maroević, Ena Hadžiomerović.

Led by Francesca Paleka, Mia Reba, Ana Horvat, Lucija Maroević, Ena Hadžiomerović.

Led by Francesca Paleka, Mia Reba, Ana Horvat, Lucija Maroević, Ena Hadžiomerović.

Led by Stefania Crocetti

We'll learn 2 traditional songs from Abruzzo region - readapted to be sung in polyphony. No experience needed, everyone can join <3

Led by Claire Hiegel

Based on two occitanian songs we will travel through the possibilities of drone and polyphony. Special warmup for this repertoire, collective singing, contexts. And maybe, thanks to the size of the group, a place to try some improvised harmonies.

Led by Rachel Groves

Led by Rita Garland

Led by Frederik Iggena

Led by Tomas Jan Milner

Move your first steps in southern Italian tarantella.

Mostly will be pizzica pizzica.

Led by Sara Caballero Rodríguez

The course is focused on vocal practice and mastery of traditional Spanish music.

– Repertoire
– Learning to play palos and songs: styles, tones, accompaniment roles, songs

Course objectives:
– Know and master the musical codes of the main pieces of the repertoire
– Sing songs of the tradicional Spanish repertoire

Join Swedish musicians to explore traditional tunes like polska, vals, and schottis. Bring your instrument or come ready to dance!

Leaders: Viktor, Oskar, Ebba, Kristina, Juni and Viktoria

Led by Sonja Møller and Leo Friis Larsen

An introduction / brush-up on the danish couple´s dance Sønderhoning. Intermediate dancer level.

Led by Thomas Samuel Thomsen

Easy traditional tunes, from the Island of Fanø in Denmark. This tradition combines the Scandinavian love for dancing in three, with the danish love for playing melodies in two.

Led by Romina Adorno

Led by Paul Sinclair.

We're shining a spotlight on some of the amazing female musicians and composers active in the Scottish folk scene today! Come along and learn a few great tunes they've written, plus find and share recommendations of where to go to hear more of their music. We'll learn the notes by ear as well as talking a bit about style and chords/accompaniment. All instruments and genders welcome!

Led by Angelika Hudler

1) Learn a tune from Vienna (NOT Johann Strauß etc, but rather something like "Schrammelmusik"! "Weana Danz" - Viennese Dances are a bit like the chromatically enriched version of Alpine Tunes. A lot of rubato, and also quiet jazzy tensions like 7th, 9th, even 11th!

2) From other parts of East Austria (Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Styria, Salzkammergut) we will dive into the rhythmically diverse "Landler"-style, which can be in 3/4 or in 4/4 or just anywhere between. For some fast rhythmic spice we'll learn a "Schleuniger", a type of fast tune for skipping and holding hands, the groove can reach from 6/8 to 5/8!

3) If we still have time we'll learn another traditional tune from Vienna, a Serbian tune.

Led by Hakim Guettat

Led by Maryan Yanchyk

Led by Lydia Mentink

Important: The workshop will be for max 15 people. I could do another workshop on 2nd January, if the group will be full the first time

Explore your own voice! Breathing techniques are helpful, but your voice is mainly....you!
We' ll do some vocal exercises and we ll try to find harmonies together. And you ' ll probably find out that you reach higher or lower notes than you think you can.
I am a music therapist in the Netherlands and I make a lot of music without sheet music. Just follow your ears 

As an introduction to the Polish dance music set later on that evening, there will be a little workshop, directly on location.

Led by Bennett Konesni

Worksongs of Forest, Farm and Sea from Maine, USA.

Have you ever thought: this project would be easier if I had a good song for it? Come learn songs that have helped the farmers, lumberjacks, and sailors from Maine, USA, get their work done for hundreds of years. Sea Shanties, Logging Songs, and Farmer's Ballads are all part of Maine's rich musical tradition, and Bennett is a recognized leader in using and sharing these songs on his Garlic Farm, in his 38 foot 10-oar rowboat, and while stacking wood with his "Mighty Worksong Community Chorus." Come learn a song or two you can use with your own work, whether in your garden or simply while washing dishes in your kitchen.

Led by Hermann Härtel jun.