Celebrate Balkan dance and music on a long holiday weekend
BalkanFest Montreal 5th edition
Dance Party
Sunday evening, May 19
With three great live bands
New venue: Le Petit Campus
Tapan workshop
Saturday and Sunday afternoon, May 18 and 19
A deep dive into drumming for Balkan dance
New venue: a private home near Le Petit Campus
And, on the same weekend …
Trakya Folk Dance Club
Horoteka
Saturday evening, May 18
Dance with the Bulgarian community
DANCE PARTY
Three bands playing for dances from Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Greece, and moreSunday, May 19
New venue: Le Petit Campus, 57 Prince-Arthur Est, Montreal, H2X 1B4
Map
| 6:30 pm: | Doors open |
| 7:30 pm: | Initiation to Balkan dancing Becky and Ariane will show those who would like to learn some of the dances we'll be doing later. |
| 8:00 pm: | Dancing to live music from our three Balkan bands: Sumak Brass Band Kutsi Merki Domaći Trubači |
The bar will be open all evening.
All participants at the dance party must be 18 or older.
$25
Register for the dance party
Or $30 cash at the door
TAPAN WORKSHOP
Next Steps in Drumming for Balkan DanceSession 1: Saturday, May 18, 2 pm to 4 pm
Session 2: Sunday, May 19, 2 pm to 4 pm
New venue: A private home, near Le Petit Campus, whose address will be shared with registrants.
Map
Percussionist Jerry Kisslinger invites you to hone your tapan skills through exploration of the dance rhythms of the southwestern Balkans. We will cover rhythms characteristic of the region, going beyond time signatures to focus on what makes the music so inviting to dancers in Macedonia: the accent pulse, the pulling and pushing of beats, changes in phrasing as tempos progress, patterns across measures, and a few dashes of syncopation. Drawing on zurna/daouli (zurla/tapan), brass, and izvorno (village dance) repertoires, including Jerry’s field recordings, we will build a vocabulary of basic beats and variations while also reviewing stick mechanics and body position.
