Advanced summer workshop Folk & Tango with Laure Fourest & Koen Dhondt
Last update of this text: 01/03
After the big succes of the previous editions,
Laure Fourest and
Koen Dhondt are giving a 7-day dance workshop at Domaine
La Clé de Sol in Marsaz, a small village in the Drôme region in the south of France. Get ready for a great stay full of joy and fun, learning, laughing and meeting people, delicious food prepared by Anamaria, sun and swimming, and lots of dancing!
Advanced workshop
This workshop is open for people who have already followed a Folk & Tango workshop with Laure and Koen, as well as for experienced folk dancers who already have some basic knowledge of tango (at least some hours of initiation). Please read the paragraph "Level" at the bottom of this page!
Programme
Approximately 5 hours of dance lesson per day: folk couple dances, tango & traditional dances. There will be two half days free to go swimming or explore the area! Lots of free practice time. Each morning will start with 30 minutes of body warm-up (stretching, massage, etc).
This week's workshop aims to provide you with all kinds of tools and experiences to enrich your way of dancing, mainly in couple dances, but also in some trad dances. The main purpose of the tango classes offered is to refine your body skills in the folk couple dances.
- Further refine your body awareness to gain more freedom, precision and comfort
- Deepen your knowledge of each of the couple dances and learn to give relief to your dance by adapting it to their specificities
- Develop your ability to guide and/or follow, and apply it to new variations
- Refine your musical listening skills and expand your rhythmic vocabulary
- Work on your ability to improvise while doing justice to the specific tastes of each dance
- Explore the specific movements and body styles of some traditional dances
The work on body awareness in dance will allow us to dive into the exploration of this great mishmash called "musicality" and of the dialogue that we, as dancers, are led to initiate with the musical proposals that are made to us: to open our ears, to become aware of the rhythmic and melodic richness of the pieces, to get out of our usual movements by developing new types of vocabulary, to be able to choose the musical elements that we want to interpret, etc…
In our opinion, what makes a beautiful couple dance is the comfort of the abrazo, the quality of the connection, and the harmony found by the three of us: you, me and the music. This workshop will explore these three notions in greater depth.
Each teacher will also give classes around his or her own speciality. We have 2 rooms and can therefore separate the group if necessary.
- Laure: Argentine Tango, body warm-up, musicality, posture and body work based on some anatomy notions (Folk'anatomie)
The tango workshops will be used to explore body sensations and to work on the finesse and precision of the connection
- Koen: dances from the South West & Centre France, improvisations, musicality & rhythmic variations in couple dances, …
Koen will teach some traditional dances to choose from: rondeaux, congos, bourrées, sauts béarnais, branle béarnais, fandango, arin arin …
A part of the programme will be fixed on the spot according to the proposals, preferences and/or needs of the participants. Laure and Koen will give individual suggestions and corrections, so that everyone progresses.
Other activities
- Bal open for external dansers. Reservation necessary.
- Practica – a folk ball with recorded music – on most of the other evenings
- Relaxation, siesta, walks, games, swimming in a lake 15 minutes away…
Have a look at the photo albums of the previous editions
We invite you to read the text Code of conduct & dancing tips that applies for all of our activities.
Additional info
At the bottom of this page, you will find information about the level, languages, accommodation, meals, registration …