Teachers

Yves Moreau - Bulgarian Dances

Yves Moreau lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is recognized as one of North America's foremost exponents of Bulgarian dance and folklore. He has travelled to Bulgaria almost annually between 1966 and 1986 to research dance and to record music in all regions of the country. He has also lectured and conducted workshops throughout North America and many other parts of the world.

From 1975 to 1985, Yves was special projects coordinator at the Canadian Folk Arts Council and also worked with Folklore Canada International , a private organization which coordinates cultural exchange programs and produces several international folk festivals in Canada. From 1986 to 2000, he was the coordinator of FCI's annual Heritage International folklore workshop in Lachine (Quebec) and Cornwall (Ontario).

Yves who speaks Bulgarian has been a regular contributor to various folk music and folklore programs for Canadian radio and television. He has supervised recordings of Bulgarian folk music on the Balkanton , Worldtone , XOPO, Gega and BMA labels and has presented several papers at various conferences on ethnomusicology and folklore in America, Asia and Bulgaria. In 1980, Bulgaria awarded him with the Order of Kiril & Metodi (1st degree) for his work popularizing Bulgarian folk culture in North America.

Yves teaches mostly non-choreographed village material which he has collected during his many field trips. His teaching method is clear and thorough yet relaxed. A special emphasis is put on regional styles and background information. Above all, Yves wants to share his love for Bulgarian folklore and communicate the fun of dancing. Yves has also introduced and teaches folk dances of other Balkan countries as well as dances from Brittany (France) and his native Québec.

France Moreau - Special Workshop for School Teachers 

See the special flyer & registration form

France Bourque-Moreau lives in Montréal, Québec and for the past thirty-five years has been active in Canada and abroad teaching folk dances for children and conducting special seminars to train school teachers in this field.

Her current repertoire includes hundreds of dances and singing/games from all parts of the world especially designed and adapted to various age and experience levels. Ms. Bourque-Moreau also puts emphasis on the French and French-Canadian repertoire which is widely used in the Canadian school curriculum.

She has been a regular consultant to the Montreal School Board and has helped in the production of 2 LP records containing French-Canadian songs and dances as well as a similar repertoire representative of the various ethnocultural groups in Montreal. This material is used in the Montreal School Board music and dance program at the elementary school level.

For fifteen years she performed with the folk dance ensemble Les Gens de Mon Pays with whom she toured Europe and North America. In the performing field, Ms.Moreau has choregraphed French-Canadian dances for Les Gens de Mon Pays and many other performing groups in Canada and abroad.

In the summer of 1984 and 1988, she taught French-Canadian folk dances at the annual Folklories (gathering of French choral groups) in France. In October 1989 she returned to Australia as a guest specialist under the auspices of the Australian Association for Dance Education (now Ausdance ). She has made special presentations on folk arts programs for children during CIOFF International folklore festivals and conferences. In 1998 she was part of the Canadian official delegation to the Unesco Cultural summit held in Stockholm. In 2006 she was invited to teach French-Canadian and children's dances at the Winterlager Dance Camp in Switzerland.

Richard Powers - Vintage Dances

Richard Powers is one of the world's foremost experts in American social dance. He has been researching and reconstructing contemporary and historic social dances for thirty years and is currently a full-time instructor at Stanford University. Selected by the Centennial Issue of Stanford Magazine as one of Stanford University's most notable graduates of its first century, he was also awarded the Lloyd DinkelspielAward for exceptional contributions to education at Stanford. In addition to his Stanford responsibilities, Richard is busy teaching workshops across the country, in Europe, and Japan, where he has returned twenty times to teach.