This workshop explores how far we can transform a dance while still preserving its essence. The starting question is simple: how can we introduce influences from other dance styles into Scottish, mazurka, or waltz, while still clearly feeling that the dance remains rooted in Balfolk? Fusion is a fascinating field of exploration. When dancers absorb knowledge from many styles, it naturally starts to shape their movement, musicality, connection, and interpretation. This can lead to rich and personal dancing. At the same time, fusion also carries a risk: when too many external elements take over, a dance can lose its recognizable identity and no longer feel connected to its original form. In this workshop, we will investigate that tension. Rather than blending styles without limits, we will work on using selected elements from other dance vocabularies to color and enrich Balfolk dances while staying inside their frame. The goal is not to replace the dance, but to expand its expressive possibilities without losing its base. We will focus mainly on Scottish, mazurka, and waltz. Through guided exploration, partner exercises, comparison tasks, and practical dancing, participants will examine which elements can be borrowed, adapted, and integrated while keeping the dance grounded in its core structure, feeling, and social identity. We will pay special attention to questions of posture, connection, dynamics, rhythm, and intention. This workshop is for dancers who are curious about style evolution, personal expression, and the boundaries of tradition. It invites participants to explore how a dance can change, grow, and open itself to new influences, while still remaining recognizably itself.

About the workshop leader:

14 years of dancing traditional dances since 2018, teaching dance workshops. He was in a lot of dance festivals, teaching or learning different dance styles. In his teaching experience, he was teaching dances in Lithuania, Portugal (Lisboa and Coimbra), Poland (Warszawa and Krakow), Latvia (Riga), Spain (Cercedilla), France (Lyon and Gennetines), Bulgaria (Sofia), Belgium (Gent and Brussels), and the Czech Republic (Prague). He is actively dances Lindy hop, Shag and Balboa styles, so the experience is vast and brought. In 2018, he won 3rd place in a traditional polka competition, 2nd place in another Polka competition, 3rd place in Lindy-Hop competition.