-
CAN GROUP DANCES BE THE
FUN PART OF BAL FOLK?This is the workshop that gives you all the secret tools to finally fully appreciate them, without the strain and the pain.
The workshop that makes people dance better and enjoy it exponentially more.
SOUNDS BOLD? HEAR IT FROM YOUR
TEACHERS AND FELLOW DANCERS...
What do the organisers and participants say about the workshop?
This workshop is extraordinary: grounded, interesting and brings you to a better awareness of your dance. It gives you the beauty of simplicity, but also the challenge of pure technique. And it drives you to the collective feeling that gives real purpose to these dances.
An in-depth knowledge of dance and the mechanics of the body, an excellent pedagogy fine-tuned over many years, a generous approach to teaching, a practical understanding of musicality, a sharp vision and reflection on the dance world and its evolution. Exceptional!
Greater joy & better connection! What is unique: it's valuable also for experienced dancers and could radically refresh a perspective on group dances in bal folk.
The fascinating thing about this workshop is that you simultaneously feel like "this is so natural and makes so much sense" and like "this is a mind-blowing gamechanger".
The workshop made me much more sensitive to my own body, balance, and the interaction with my neighbors and the group. I didn't even like group dances before, now I'm eager to dance them!
Through teeny-tiny but so important details, you'll (re-)discover the beauty and power of swinging your arms, shifting your weight, holding your partner... Precise, joyful, brilliant, groovy and so powerful!
This is a workshop I have been missing: one about the underlying principles that make the dances what they are. Accessible, but deep at the same time. The result gave me goosebumps.
The workshop your scene needs for your dancers to be able to really appreciate group dances, instead of learning a cheap version of them during the bal and being frustrated soon because there is not much to enjoy.
BUT GROUP DANCES ARE EASY!
OR ARE THEY?
Much like playing bodhrán. It's easy to get some sounds. It's even easier to ruin a session by doing it.
Ever heard or said one of these white lies?
- It's just two steps there and one back.
- Hop in, you will catch it as we go.
- We don't teach this dance, anyone can do it in three minutes.
Yup. That's how we kill group dances in bal folk. But you, you can do better. How?
Let me tell you a little sob story. (Feel free to skip it, if you came just for the data.)
The night I learned that my little brother died, there was a fest noz happening… and I went. Yes, I had to gather all my strength to do that. But it was worth it. When I returned to my cold dormitory at Rennes II Villejean, I was far from healed. But the feeling of community, the shared energy, the flow, and the trance were the best plaster I could hope for.
That's the magic of group dances. They create a meaningful connection within the group. They create the time and space in which we can truly be together. Be present and focused, while letting go and forgetting everything else. Be one with the music and all our fellow dancers. Not with a single person, like in your sweet little chamallow mazurka. But with a dozen, or threescore.
And the energy multiplies.
Yet to achieve that, to make the magic happen, we all need to learn how to contribute. To give more to get more. And no, just hop in doesn't cut it.
That's what this workshop is about.
BIOMECHANICS IN GROUP DANCES
Discover simple and natural concepts that will allow you to dance with ease and fluidity, have a better connection and enjoy round and chain dances more. There might even be goosebumps*. (*reported by participants, not guaranteed)
STEP BY STEP
Work through all the layers of movement, one organically leading to another. Simple dances explained with all the complexity to make the complex dances easy.
FUN MULTIPLIED
Learn how to think about the group forms in a new way. Embrace ideas that will shift your focus and turn once boring water treading into a dance that grooves.
IN YOUR BODY
Discover your bones and muscles in a new way. Learn how to move freely and effortlessly, yet with much more energy. It will help your couple dancing as well.
UNIQUE
The concepts have been around: anatomy, physics, biomechanis, proprioception. But now you can get the first (and probably only) bal folk dancer's digest.
DANCE FLOOR SMART
Have fun rediscovering the most common bal folk dances while diving deeper in the trad wisdom. All the theory is 100% dance floor inspired and applicable.
SCALABLE
Jumpstart your community's flow and connection in just 4 hours. Or go deeper with 6 to 12 hours of weight, swing & rotation. More dances, more concepts, more joy.
Summary? Here it is!
Biomechanics in bal folk group dances is an intense, focused workshop for a small to medium-sized group of participants (16 to 40 people). It promotes natural movement to remove pain and strain, prevent injuries and create a more connected, better dance experience in group dances.
The work itself is a mix of proprioception and mobility exercises inspired by Franklin method, Feldenkrais, tai chi and contemporary, all applied to bal folk and traditional dances. Although academic-sounding and science-based, it's actually light-spirited and enjoyable.
4–12
Hours Of Learning
16–40
Uplifted Dancers
8–16
Folk & Trad Classics
1
Aim: Better Bal Folk
Meet the teacher
Mikuláš Bryan has been sharing his love for dancing since 2003, with teaching experience ranging from small, focused workshops to classes for several hundreds of people at festivals like Gennetines or Boombal. He studied folk dancing in Brittany, dancing and performing with Cercle Celtique de Rennes, but also took a deep dive into couple dancing at several blues camps.
His other dancing background consists of tango, swing, salsa and balboa with occasional jazz and contemporary workshops. While approaching every dance with deep respect for its roots and traditions, he always aspires to expand its horizons and create a bridge between tradition and modernity. As he does it with his bands ba.fnu, BAL LAB, Yanyk and solo project Mr. Folxlide.
He put his heart and soul into this workshop. And it's literally the only thing he wants to teach now.
Want to know more? Hold tight!
The FAQs are just one scroll below. Yes, pricing included.
In a perfect world, it would be amazing to have
- 600 EUR for one day and
- 1 000 EUR for two days of teaching.
Plus extra expenses like
- travel costs (usually a train from Prague, but I can be persuaded to take a bus or fly),
- food (no special wishes) and
- accommodation (being hosted by fellow dancers is totally fine).
But since the world is rarely perfect, and I know all about the struggles of a balfolk organiser, I am open to your suggestions.
The best case scenario is having a room that fits all the dancers in one comfortable circle. So the actual size of it depends on the number of people you want to have at the workshop.
If finding a room big enough is a hassle, we can make an oval that splits into two or more circles for some parts. It's not perfect, but still good enough. We will be splitting for some of the dances anyway for different pedagogical reasons.
Working in concentric circles isn't a good fit for some of the dances, so if you want the full experience, I would suggest not to. But we can still work around it if there is no other option.
This is an easy workshop: apart from the
- big enough dance floor and
- the right number of people, we just need a
- good sound system.
And a roof, if you expect heavy rains.
If your scene is small or young, or your country even poorer than Czechia (that's tough, and I feel you!), let me know. We'll figure something out.
For the workshops I really want to be part of the circles and chains, I feel it is an important part of the transmission. There can surely by live music after the workshop, though!
I can play a solo bal as Mr. Folxlide or solo on a diatonic accordion, or even better: invite one of my bands: ba.fnu, BAL LAB or Yanyk. All of them cover enough of the dances from the workshop to make it worth it.
We can talk about the details and find what works for you.
That depends largely on the length of the workshop. In general, there are two groups of dances:
- bal folk standards like
- hanter dro,
- an dro,
- rond de Saint Vincent,
- rond d'Argenton
- and more
- and less known dances that are great to demonstrate and embody some important movement principles that we can later build on, such as
- rond paludier,
- rond de Barbatre,
- rond de Sautron
- and others.
Most of the dances are from Bretagne and Poitou, because these two regions have the strongest presence on the contemporary bal folk dance floor when it comes to group forms in chains and circles. (Also because I know them the best and like them the most. The workshop has some selfish undertones – I simply want to dance the dances I love with more people.)
If you have special requests, we can see if they fit within the scope of what we have the time for. Usually it's possible to make it happen.
Both. No, really. From my experience so far, it seems that even the advanced dancers usually don't give much importance to the group forms, so they always learn something new here. With complete beginners, we just set a slower pace and explain even the basic dances. Mixed groups work just fine, with the more advanced dancers uplifting the group and making the progress faster and easier.
In general, it's nice to have people that danced at least something, can hear the music and walk in rhythm. The rest we will learn.
In theory, but I wouldn't recommend it. Honestly: the perfect number would be around 16 people, I am just trying to be realistic about the price.
If you insist, we can try to make it happen with more than 40, but it's important that the room has enough space to divide all the participants to smaller circles of around 16 people. Some of the dances just don't work great in larger numbers.