Balfolk Auckland

30/05/2026

Super clip of the bourree boussole

28/05/2026

Morena Auckland Balfolks,

We had a fun Balfolk session on Monday and everyone was keen to keep dancing next Monday.

It was good to revisit the Valse Fair-ground figure with the Valse Magique refrain, and with the simplified version it fitted very nicely with the music, particularly with the 3/1 figure at the end of the sequence it had a nice suspension before the sequence was repeated with the new partner. We will start videoing these sequences so that we can have a record of all the figures you can use in your free vase.

It was great to make another foray into the Polska. I mentioned that there is a repertoire of extraordinarily beautiful Polska music so here are a couple of links to very fine polska tunes.

Here’s the wonderful trio Vasen playing Bisonpolska https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ8wo0VzBCQ

And here is The Curious Bards with Polonaise # 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP0Rmv9TxIM

We also revisited Bo***ée du Velay. This was working well, but it seems to me to be a bit claustrophobic, so we could give it a bit more space so that all four dances have room to stretch their legs and enjoy the spiralling momentum that you can see in this video clip

Bo***ée du Velay @ 6:50

Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YA2BQyZ8-U&t=496s

A reminder that YES there will be Balfolk next Monday evening

Kind regards

Michael

Gran Bal d'Europe 2007- Les bo***ées à 3 temps du Velay

09/05/2026

A pleasant laid-back evening of dance Monday led by Dan to the music of Tralala Lovers for most of the dances.

We started with the Rond Paludier, followed by the Valse Magique. Then did some free dancing with the Scottish, followed by the Congo de Captieux (see clip).

Then another round of free Scottish dancing, a lively romp through the Galopede, and a traversal of the more measured Hanter Dro.

Closed out the evening with the Gavotte de l'Aven.

See you the coming Monday!

02/05/2026

Monday was Anzac Day in New Zealand, so we marked the day with a cup of tea and some Anzac biscuits after a great evening of dance.

Started the evening with a Menuet en promenade and the Newcastle Circle to get us warmed up. Then spent the bulk of the evening working on two new exercises:

Revisiting a choreographed Reinlender routine that we looked at some time ago. A bit challenging, hopefully we’ll come back to it over the next little while and bed it in;
Continuing with the Avant deux à Coutant, a fast footwork dance from the Poitou-Charentes region devised in the late 19th century by Albert Coutant, a traditional fiddler from the region. Here is a clip of it in a Balfolk context:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmRl9fwuhAM

For interest, there is also a Cajun version of the tune by Michael Doucet, which he called “Avant deux de Poitou”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OckB_4NF9VM

We closed out the evening with a rousing rendition of Redwing.

Looking forward to dance tomorrow.

8 likes. "Potpourri Cadjin"

25/04/2026

Great night of dancing last Monday. Started with the rondeau that we call Town and Country, a melange of an elegant measured first half followed by a more rousing Rond de Quercy as the second half.

The evening was punctuated by a couple of favourite romps - the Branlou and the Chapelloise.

In between, we continued working on the choreographed Valse routine of the last couple of weeks (see clip) and the Avant Deux a Coutant.

Looking forward to Monday night - Anzac Day holiday but we will be dancing.

18/04/2026

Morena Auckland Balfolks,

It was a such a fun evening of dance last Monday night. We made real progress on the valse, learned a completely new dance - Avant-Deux à Coutant - and revisited Bo***ée d’Aurore Sand, a particularly lovely dance from the early C20th.

It was super to have a good blend of beginners and experienced dancers last evening, although we still need to address the issue of how to find an opportunity for experienced dancers to continue to advance in their dancing and to learn some more complex dances, while still making class welcoming and accessible to beginners. Perhaps having two hour-long classes - Beginners, followed by Intermediate - with the opportunity of Intermediate dancers participating in the Beginners class for free. We invite other suggestions and we will keep you posted on thoughts and responses.

From Monday evening, here is a link to a reasonable rendition of Avant-deux à Coutant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUE-QP2Jvb8

And here is a lovely iteration of Bo***ée d’Aurore Sand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lpwe27wrwg

You will find many slightly different versions of this dance on YouTube, but this, despite the quality of the footage, I think is the most nicely danced.

Hope you all are having a great week.

Kind regards

Michael

34 likes, 1 comment. "Bo***ée d'Aurore Sand ; Vidéo 1"

09/04/2026

Really enjoyed dance last Monday. Highlight was continuing with the Valse workshop, working on a new routine that includes a lilting promenade, some do-si-do (comes from the French term dos-à-dos, back-to-back) type turns and some elements borrowed from the Valse Magique.

We also returned to the Rondeau that we call Town and Country, a couple of sessions of the Cercle Circassien and promenade style of Minuet (see clip from recent bal), based on the Swedish Menuett.

All good fun. Looking forward to next Monday after the break for Easter.

29/03/2026

Great night of dance Monday. Lots of regular favourites - Rond Paludier, Newcastle Circle (see clip), An Dro, Polka Promenade and the Valse Magique.

Highlight of the night was the workshop learning new valse choreography. Everyone - regulars and newcomers got across it pretty quickly - very encouraging and great fun.

Looking forward to tomorrow night.

18/03/2026

Super dance night Monday, led by Claire and Dan, starting with the Rond St Vincent and rolling into the Cercle Circassian, once again with a well-balanced mix of regulars and newcomers.

We then moved onto the Bo***ée des Grandes Poteries (see clip from the recent Folk Festival) and spent some time refreshing on the Scottish.

A lively time with the Repasseado was followed by a new exercise that Claire took us through, then a revisit to reinforce the Scottish, closing out with the Andro.

Looking forward to next week!!!

20/02/2026

Morena Auckland Balfolks,

It’s great to be back dancing on Monday evenings. We have been underway for a couple of weeks and classes are going well with a combination of regulars and newcomers.

This Monday we revisited the Bo***ée du Velay, a 3 temps bo***ée with a nice pattern of movement in the 2nd part. As well as mastering the pattern of the dance, we also looked at a new way of dancing the 3 temps rhythm that is very useful for dances like this one that require a certain ease of locomotion to allow them to be fully realised. I thought I would share a video of this dance so that you could get a visual image of the lightness of this particular way of dancing the bo***ée.

In this video, from Gennetines 2007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YA2BQyZ8-U&t=556s our particular version of the dance can be found at 6:58.

Notice, how light and agile this stepping allows the dancing to be; and because of this the pattern of the dance is open and spacious, whereas ours tends to be a little constrained and congested. We will continue to explore this manner of dancing the bo***ée.

We also looked a simple under-arm turn for valse, that can be inserted both in Valse Magique, but also anywhere in your dancing of a free valse. The newbies this week did a good job as they had to contend both the basic valse figure, as well as learning the under-arm turn for the Passenger. The ease with which the regulars learned the new figure was a reassuring confirmation of how well you have integrated the basic valse figure. Bien fait tout le monde.

Till next week

Kind regards

Michael

Gran Bal d'Europe 2007- Les bo***ées à 3 temps du Velay