Fusion Circus

“Choreographing, performing, and sharing her love of partner dancing with others is the passion and focus of her life.”

Flouer has an extensive, multilayered background in movement practices. Her experiences range from competing at blues & lindy exchanges, professional ballroom & Latin shows, stage combat, burlesque, and world travel for ice skating and contemporary dance. She has both her Undergraduate and Graduate degrees in Dance.

Fascinated by the history of social dances, Flouer often brings context into her classes. With the belief that most life lessons can be found in partner dance, she strives to help people create connections within themselves, their partners, and the community as a whole. Currently, she can be found teaching full time around the world and New York City, and running her fusion events Melting Pot & Motley Hue.

Check out her website at www.FlouerDances.com.

We are excited to welcome Justin back for this festival! With over 15 years of experience teaching a dozen forms of dances in more than 30 countries, he draws from a varied background in partner dancing. But he’s not only a gifted teacher, we all remember his infectious energy and DJing that regularly keeps the party going until well after sunrise – be it at Blossom Blues or Ctrl+Alt+Blues.

He’s the perfect guide to bring us to the world of modern electronic music, the intersection between Blues dancing and EDM sometimes known as Fusion. Justin never fails to open up new horizons, gently encouraging his students to explore their movement and connection with a partner in this new playground. He points out similarities and differences between different styles of Blues and EDM with an attention to detail that can only be explained by his obsession with electronica, cultivated through countless hours on busses, trains and planes spent listening to the brand-new tracks that were released that week.

Check out his website at www.justindance.com.

Jeanine grew up in Switzerland, climbing trees, training Judo and teaching herself to ride a unicycle. Her love for circus brought her to the ESAC National Circus school in Brussels where she trained for four years. After graduating Jeanine toured internationally, performing various acts including her solo ‘Balledanse.’

In 2010, she founded the ‘Aromatic Company’ with saxophonist Caleb Trott. Together they created pieces that combine music, dance, physical theatre, and circus. Always excited about discovery and expanding the ‘playground’, Jeanine has given much of her adult life to the pursuit of specialised dance and juggling courses.

Also a passionate teacher, she has co-organised three international workshops with the 'Ministry of Manipulation', given workshops on contact juggling and movement exploration at many circus conferences, and worked as a guest teacher at circus schools in Europe (ACAPA, Codarts) and Australia (NICA). In 2013, Jeanine completed the three year training to become a certified teacher of the F. M. Alexander Technique and now uses this tool to enhance movement quality, accelerate learning and increase vitality.

Check out her website at www.jeanine.ch.

Peter has spent more than a decade in full time movement training as part of his work as a professional circus, dance and theater performer. Along with his 3-year education in Alexander Technique, he attended contemporary dance conservatory at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD), studied movement based theater at the Helikos School for Theater Creation and is an instructor of the Wutao Breath and movement system. He felt immediately at home in the Blues when he took his first classes in 2008 and has hungrily devoured workshops and intensives since then. Peter taught a variety class and performed a showcase at BBE this year, and is a regular guest teacher at the Jazz Factory in Helsinki, Finland, offering privates, group classes and professional coaching.

Check out his website at www.slackrope.com.

With a background in clowning, circus arts and personal training, Hazel takes body movement and being ridiculous pretty seriously. Dancing has always been a passion, ever since she could walk. She discovered social partner dancing back in 2010 and immediately fell in love. Hazel likes to teach to her own rules, bringing into play elements of Tai Chi, Yoga and contemporary movement.

Hazel teaches regularly at Gert Lush Fuse - Bristol’s Thursday nights of Blues & Fusion at Space 238. She has also taught in Copenhagen, Spain, Edinburgh, Milan and Germany. She loves to work with live musicians and writes a lot of the material for her Fusion classes with Bristol’s finest live fusion ensemble: The Battery Powered Blues Band!

Hazey Hoop: Circus Entertainer and Tutor: www.hazeyhoop.com, http://www.facebook.com/HazeyHoop

Blues & Fusion Dance Tutor & DJ: http://www.facebook.com/HazelDances

Photo credit: http://www.chloemaughan.com/

We offer small classes, all classes are limited to 30 participants!

Weekend pass (classes Sat+Sun, parties Fri+Sat+Sun)

• Swiss salary: 250 CHF

• Swiss Kulturlegi/Student/Reduced/not a lot of money: 190 CHF

• International: 190 CHF

• International Student/Reduced/not a lot of money: 150 CHF

Friday classes with Peter Sweet (infos)

• not included in Weekend Pass; can be booked separately without attending the rest

• Full rate: 80 CHF

• Reduced rate: 60 CHF

Volunteering: We will need your help, and we want to make the festival affordable for everyone. Let us know in the sign-up form if you’re interested in volunteering in exchange for a discount on your pass and we’ll be in touch.

See our terms & conditions.

The schedule is subject to change.

All classes are for all levels. The two tracks differ in times (arriving on Saturday morning/leaving Sunday evening? Track B is for you. Like to sleep in on Sunday? Track A is for you). The teachers will cover complementary material.

EBY is the electronic music project created by Italian producer Alberto Stucchi. Since 2014, his songs and remixes have reached millions of listeners across the world and during his dj sets you can expect some deep basses, lovely vocals/guitars and chill/downtempo beats.

Find him on: http://soundcloud.com/ebysound and https://www.facebook.com/ebymusic.

Photo credit: Cleo Elizabeth

Fly West is the creative alter-ego of composer-pianist Ellie Westgarth-Flynn, who creates improvised soundscapes, looping virtuosic blues piano improvisations with carefully crafted sound blocks of synths, samples, songwriting, and slow beats, structured and performed in response to the movement in front of her. Her aim is to create a unique sensual soundtrack for each event she works at, viewing her work as a collaboration with the space and the dancers involved. Currently she is working towards creating pieces of music which will play themselves as dancers make contact with physical triggers in the room, in order to create a tighter, more authentic music-movement feedback loop.

She has had a life-long interest in the interplay between music and movement - before dancing herself she worked as a pianist and composer with some of London's leading contemporary dance schools including the Royal Ballet, Central School of Ballet and The Place, and studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music. She began playing piano for blues dancers at Fair City Blues in 2014, and has since played at festivals around Europe. Three years ago she was introduced to the practice of mixing music live by Mr Moo. at Northwest Recess. Since, she has performed live electronic improv at Ctrl+Alt+Blues, European Blues Experience, Double Shot of Blues, European Blues Invasion and The Tokamak, as well as creating custom soundscapes for private events and parties in the UK and and the USA. She still regularly performs as an acoustic artist for events world-wide as a soloist and with singers. This year she has recorded and released three solo EPs for different projects, two of which are available for download here:

https://flywest.bandcamp.com/album/shfktrk

Photo credits: Charlotte Speechly

Burning Bright returns for Fusion Circus to perform one of his notorious mix sets! BB creates immersive musical soundscapes combining techniques from electronic music and sample culture with genres and mash ups of tunes familiar to the blues scene to push the boundaries of the sounds we dance and party to.

This is a recording of his live set for the ctrl-alt blues festival, performed in a castle in Switzerland:

https://www.mixcloud.com/andersschmanders/slipping-into-darkness-burning-bright-live-mix/

When she was about 6, Hazel’s dad realised that no matter what he got her for her birthday, she was still going to spend most of her time playing with his stereo and it was time to resign himself to a life filled with Chuck Berry and Jackson 5. Hazel’s first foray into DJ’ing was at the Rock Society of Leeds student union where she would regularly fill the dance floor with heavy metal fans dancing to “Barbie Girl”. Her set lists have been described as ‘movie soundtracks’ because it’s all about the drama, and it’s all about the dance.

“I have so much love for this. People move to your music in a really different way” - Josephine Cahill, organiser at Tokamak 2017

Hazey Hoop: Circus Entertainer and Tutor: www.hazeyhoop.com, http://www.facebook.com/HazeyHoop

Blues & Fusion Dance Tutor & DJ: http://www.facebook.com/HazelDances

Photo credit: Kit Carruthers

Matt was the DJ Coordinator for PB&J in Portland for the last 8 years, has been social dancing for 15 years and djing almost as long in West Coast, Blues, Tango and Lindy. He has also DJed and helped coordinate at several Blues Fusion/Alt events. Matt's usually found in a corner somewhere and is easily coaxed out with promises of scotch or bourbon.

Since she found partner dance through Lindy Hop in 2003, Ally has only continued to fall in love with more and more dance styles. She has been teaching and DJing at Fusion events along the West Coast for ten years now, and her favorite thing is finding the music that each unique scene enjoys grooving to. You can find out more about her at www.allydances.com.

Laura is an international blues/fusion DJ, and she loves it when she’s able to find the perfect match between music and movement. She’s always been a music junkie and she loved being the one in charge of the playlist in her teens at school and house parties. She loves DJing both blues and fusion, the challenge of transitioning from one genre to another, from playful, energetic, “let’s get this party started” to slow, emotional, intense songs, with the aim to take dancers on a journey.

She’s been djing in some of the main European events (EBI, Blossom Blues, Ctrl-Alt-Blues, Fair City Blues, Crash!, Moose Blues, Cider House Blues, Bristol Blues Exchange, The Countdown, Recess) and in the US (Rose City Blues, DJ Experiment).

https://bluesrivernotes.com/about-us/laura/.

Fluff has been tearing up DJ decks at Blues events far and wide, his passion for Blues comes from spending over 20 years of learning and playing Blues on various instruments. He’s always hunting for new and interesting tunes, digging out tracks to thrill the dance floor or hunting down artists who nail that Bluesy vibe.