SustainaBAL - Inside Stories booklet

sustainaBAL
youth exchange
2019

Texts and artworks made by the participants of the SustainaBAL youth exchange project.
Portraits made by: Pierre Chesneau - Bloomyn Media
Booklet editing and design: Réka Livits - www.visualive.eu
Cover photo: Oriane Loiseau
Illustrations: Réka Livits (page 3), Tereze-Talita Rozenblate (page 54)
sustainabal.weebly.com
The sustainaBAL project was organized by the association “Les Coccinelles” and was funded by
the transitional solution for the Erasmus+ by the Swiss Confederation and the Movetia foundation.

How can we co-create a conscious and
connected bal folk community?
What makes us feel connected...
... to our own body?
... to the music?
... to our dance partner?
... to the other dancers we share the space and time with?
In which ways and to what extent do we shape the
dance scene? And in what ways does the dance scene
shapes us?
We have raised these questions and went on a journey
of inner and outer exploration with 25 young people from
5 different European countries. SustainaBAL was not only
an intense dance retreat - it was an international dance
community experience that brought together people
enthusiastic about bal folk dancing and music. It was
about building community, about sharing our passion with
locals, about shaping a culture of trust and transparency.
In this booklet you can read the stories of our project
participants: of the thoughts, self-reflections and ideas
around social sustainability of talented and creative
young people. They have also prepared artworks to illustrate
their stories, that further enrich this little compliation
of diverse experience.
We hope that our participants stories entice your
passion for dancing and for being in community.

The people behind the project
Cecilia Furlan
Cecilia is one of the co-founders
of the Swiss organisation „Les
Coccinelles“ and since 2010 she
organises International youth exchanges
and trainings on reconnection
to nature and oneself. Her
authentic vocation is hijacking
normality by peaceful means like
creating spaces of living community,
horizontal decision making
and permaculture.
She recently opened a sourdough
organic collaborative bakery called
“La Chouette Boulangerie”. She is mother
of a wonder girl called Camelia.
Pierre Chesneau
Pierre grew up going to all the
majors festivals like „Gennetines“
and „Chateau d‘ars“ in France. He
has seen the genra evolve and
change along the years, himself
contributing to those transformations
as a full time pedagogue. He
taught folk dances from the age of
21 until he was 31, all around Europe,
in weekly classes, workshops,
festivals and private lessons.
Now he is a „retired“ dance teacher,
and decided to only teach at
our event, SustainaBAL!
Réka Livits
Réka started dancing at the age
of 8 and since then she has tried
many genres: ballroom, contemporary,
afro, salsa, forró, blues,
ballet... She got to know bal folk
10 years ago when she lived in
Belgium - and it was love for the
first step! She used to be an active
member of the bal folk community
in Berlin, but since she moved
to Budapest, tango became her
passion nr. 1. She has worked for 10
years as a facilitator of international
youth projects, and now she runs her
own visual facilitation business based
in Hungary.

Stories and reflections of
sustainaBAL
2019

Caterina Lucia Fiamingo
Dance has the shamanic power to reconnect our souls
to their inner nature and here, at SustainaBAL, I experienced
this priviledged form of healing. What was happily
unexpected here, and therefore even more appreciated,
about this youth program is that we created togheter
a bal folk community.
Social Sustainability sounded initially quite misterious
but this concept clarified to me its real meaning little
by little as this social community was gradually shaping
itself.
Firstly, all participants were able to share peer learning
skills, through the appreciation and valorisation
of personal abilities as well as fears, difficulties in a
welcoming and shameless environment where reprocity,
gratuity, loyalty, comprehension and slowliness
made us understand what were our potential skills and
especially how to devote them to the community in
order to support and contribute to it. We built our values
and we took inspiration from our past tradition to
reinvent them into a more modern concept: the ability
to communicate it and teach it to each others but also
to other potential bal folk mates.
A community where individual initiative doesn‘t
disappear but is actually enhanced into an integrated
process where it finds a useful role for the entire
community, like finding our role in a chain dance.
Being able to put aside particolarism while sharing a
common idea or a project, and supporting each other
in this was a key element of this process.
Somehow I feel that SustainaBAL has intensely contributed
to a general personal developement of all participants:
a sort of maturation process has happened here
in these few days and all this thanks to music which
is a unique form of communication: it goes far beyond
language barriers, and European folk music has deep
common roots that we realised while showing each other
our national dances. This helped a lot in reinforcing
our common past history.
Folk dances go straight to the heart of people removing
innate fears of loosing their own identities. SustainaBAL
has given each participant the opportunity experience
the process of building up an aware community. We are
dancers but above all we are young European citizens
who discovered that dances, and especially traditional
ones, can be a concrete and powerful instrument to
build up the aware community that Europe actually
lacks and really needs to face up present times.
Nowadays, considering politically disgregative forces
which are problematically arising from each European
country, the reinforcement of the idea of community is
essential to sustain the concept of „personal identity“.
Instead of closing to each other and building walls we
should look forward to create a real community of European
citizens. In conclusion, I see a different woman at
the mirror: an adult woman who feels she can create an
„Adult Europe“ which bravely watches towards future
whith a new modern concept of identity that is „Let‘s
reinvent our roots and reshape Europe in a more integrative
way“.

Florian Kirsten
Living 11 days in an environment, very much different
from daily life, I was able to explore and grow into very
new directions. Getting out of routines got me to new
ways of thinking, working and living together.
I learnt about new techniques, e.g. to empower a group
to efficiently self organize and structure a functional community,
sketching roles and tasks beforehand, distributing
responsibility efficiently. But not only functional in a organizational
way, I also learned about techniques to support
communication and emotional bonding in the group. For
example, our morning circles with the invitation to listen
without judgement and speak from the heart, made us
better understand and relate with the group.
I this context, story telling became an important skill,
practised a lot during Sustainabal. To be able to formulate
the essence of an experience or chain of thoughts in
to compact speech, so people can follow you and relate.
We basically iterated on that during every morning circle.
Socially, in the setting of getting to know a lot of new
non-German people, I practised to express my thoughts
in English, while at the same time getting also a better
feeling for the Italian and French language. I consciously
overcame prejudgements and came to very much appreciate
all the very different cultures in our group. Sometimes
our differences made working together more complicated,
but much more often it enriched the results. To
quickly bridge those differences and use them to a group
advantage, was very valuable.
A central part of our time was spent learning and teaching
dancing – here I could absorb a lot of knowledge.
From tiny hints to grand concepts, I was surprised I hadn’t
grasped yet and truly extended my perception of dancing
- I’m especially thankful for this, offering me fresh ways to
enjoy dancing.
As somebody who teaches, the time with Pierre was super
valuable – it’s all about being clear how and what you
communicate. I’ll be focused to cut out the non-essential
in my future lessons.
To create a dance together and teaching it to strangers
was a super valuable experience as well – and I am thankful
that I could grow here and am becoming a better team
player.
Finally, I learned a lot about my self. Progressed into balancing
my fear of missing out, as well as being more
concious about taking self care and through this finding
some self esteem.
I’m leaving this wonderful place full of empathy and with
a happily aching heart.

Cecilie Kjaer
This place is such a beautiful place. Essertfallon.
And in this beautiful place there are a lot of beautiful
people. And all the beautiful people are coming from
very different places and cultures, and all with different
experiences and personalites. But everybody is here for
the same reason: to share the dance.
But here there is not only the dance as an experience,
but also a matter of living in a group, taking care of
each other, taking responsability of everybody‘s comfort
(clean the social space, the toilets, dishwashing,
cutting vegetables etc.), taking care of oneself (how
to say stop when you need a break). And here there
is space for this. You experience to be in nature, with
others, and alone, how to find games and experiencing
your own body. I found a group where I could
feel myself and accepted, a group where there is
space to talk, and to listen, a group which is caring for
you, but doesnt care about your age, a group where
there is space for feelings, for fun, concentration,
but also seriousness, a group which is learning, and
sharing its experiences.
And dancing. Dancing together and alone, as couples
and groups. There is space for experienced dancers and
beginners, and everybody will learn something, about
dance, themselfs or others.
I got to see different variations of Scottish, how to feel
more confident while dancing, and understanding being
more clear in leading dances, so that the follower can
read what you want to do, but also the importance of listening
to the follower. I can also use what I have learnt in
my daily life: to be clearer about myself and my feelings,
about what I want, and also paying attention to others
and giving space for the movement of the group. I also
want to take the trust and love I experienced here with
me to other places, never forgetting that we are often
feeling similarly, and therefore not to be scared to say
what we are really thinking.

Krista Marta Kundrate
For me sustainaBAL was somenthing completely new and different. Before this project
I had never danced this much kind of dances. I did not even know the name: bal folk.
For me this was a vacation from everyday routine to tidy my mind because dancing
for me is above all relaxation. Of course we needed to work a lot too, but learning new
things is amazing.
For me sustainability in balfolk means that as long as we have people dancing these
kind of dances, they will share them with others, so we will be able to keep them alive.
During this project we taught balfolk to people during a night event in a brewery
and welcomed locals to visit us and taught them how to dance too. There were people
coming and asking to learn, so I think bal folk has a future.
I have decided to lead a lesson to my local dance group. I will tell them what bal folk
is and share the dances I have learnt here. I hope they will be enthusiastic about them
and will be ready to collaborate with me to explore bal folk deeper together.

Thibaut Perol
SustainaBAL is not a festival, not a workshop, not a
school, not a masterclass. SustainaBAL is more of an
experiment. It‘s an oasis lost in Switzerland where people
are flowing on a vibe, made of balfolk spirit, with shades
of craziness and mindfulness. This experiment is about a
comfy place where to face yourself, meet new people, exchange
on different cultures, improve in depth your dancing
no matter your level, and not enough sleep. It could
challenge your mindset, your body and your habits, in a
new (and healthy) way.
In „SustainaBAL“ there‘s sustainability. An art of living to
care about what we love inside the balfolk dancing community.
How? We can for example keep it open to new
people, without letting them alone aside ; it‘s a global responsability
to welcome beginners with one to one teaching,
with getting to know them and make them meet
other folkies. It goes also with workshops given by caring
and aware teachers, in order to explain the core to everyone,
to still make it easy and pleasant for first timers,
without forgetting about the depth. Once again, we are
all responsible, we do all create those spaces and make
them live.
I got huge slaps during the first days, facing the fact
that even after 5 years of practice I still don‘t deeply know
some very common dances. I can play with them, I can
dance it but what about the true history of them ? What
about the detailed steps and mindset? I realized that
workshops are golden, that practicing afterwards is the
key and that I shall also make some research by myself,
online and with my body. Dancing balfolk can be wider
than just having fun, it could also allow us to reach an
amazing quality of sharing.
I‘m willing to follow more workshops during the festivals
I attend, to remain open to what I don‘t know, to remember
that keeping a beginner‘s mind is super healthy. I‘m
willing as well to find the strengh and the good place to
teach dances, to share this global sensitivity, and perhaps
later to create space such as Sustainabal to bring even
more quality in bals, why not worldwide!

Deborah Gos
Humans, strange brothers, creatures of blood and chair,
We are all born, yet we are not allways one.
Away from the open sky and the forest I meet you,
I flow in you.
But the storm is coming and will leave me without force,
Up and down I roll on big waves.
But soon they live me on the wet sand and your arms
are already open to welcome me again.
Music, daugther of rain, I vibrate with you.
Let your drops take my sorrow.
Turning, sad, slow, joy, fire and stars
dance the steps,
Carry the meaning, give the messages.
In dances everything disappears
And the breath let us whole thight together for
a moment.
Can we fight darkness together?
How will the world evolve?
Will the steps still deliver their messages?
Are we prepared to stand together for love, happiness
I escape...
Crisp and clear rings the bell to gather us again.
One after another the wood open our bloody hearts,
And the lips whispers secrets.
In your eyes, I loose myself and find the origin again.
How delicious it is, I might explose
The forest answers and I learn to listen.
I follow the path without doubts
And feeling my chains, I smile

Anna Eliza Drele
SustainaBAL has been a wonderful experience of learning
Balfolk and understanding myself. I have experienced
a different kind of love for people and humanity in general.
I am a complete beginner to balfolk and this was the
best introduction I could ever wish for.
I think this project screams sustainability. First of all with
the strong connection between people and care for each
other’s well-being in dance and in daily life. Second with
the amount of knowledge that we can take home and continue
to share in our own communities or dance groups.
And last but not least with our health and sustainability of
our body’s and minds.
I have felt loved, energised, motivated and happy for 11
days in a row and I am very grateful for that and willing to
carry these feelings home.
From the very beginning of this journey I have been
wondering how all this will continue in my daily life and
how I can manage to keep up with these fulfilling feelings.
Perhaps I have already found an answer.
From now on I will say no to laziness and I will contribute
much more to fulfilling myself and the world. I will say
yes to core trainings and crazy balfolk nights. And since
my parents are Latvian traditional dance teachers, I will
share my experience with them, and help them to start
something new in our small city and carry it on around in
Latvia’s dance community as much as possible.

Andrea Vomeiro
I feel sustainability is not an option. It is instead a step
that is needed on different levels: environmental, economical,
social.
For me balfolk is the social environment where I find my
expression through music, dance and social connection.
I think social sustainability in a bal is to share space,
the music and the dancing in harmoniously.
This is my methapore for a general perspective on sustainability
as well.
Sustainabal was for me an opportunity to reflect on bal
folk, society and myself.
It has been eleven days of work on both personal and
group level to achieve a deep level of sustainable consciuosness
with the land that has welcomed us, with our
resources, together as a family.
I want to bring this energy with me in the further steps of
my life path, contributing in sharing this light.
Live, love, forgive and smile!

Oriane Loiseau
SustainaBAL happened at a moment in my life when I
had just come back from a long solo bicycle trip. I felt I
had grown a lot through this solitary journey and I was
really curious to live a kind of opposite experience, being
together with a group of 25 people living a community life
for 10 days.
And so I switched to wandering at my free will and spending
most of my days pedaling to a busy schedule and
rich program including dance workshops and evening
bals, creative work both in group and on one’s own, time
in nature and setting up of open social events to share
with people from outside.
It was intense but I was energized by the group dynamic
that emerged from the contribution of each personality in
the atmosphere of trust and care created by the facilitators.
Dance workshops were fantastic opportunities to go
deep into the technical aspects of dancing, while learning
a lot about the social contexts and cultural roots of traditional
European dances as well as reflecting upon their
evolution and meaning in our current society.
These 10 days were one of the most beautiful and inspirational
experience I have ever lived. I left SustainaBAL
with a boost of energy and creativity, a strong feeling of
joy and gratitude and the profound belief that bal folk can
indeed enhance social sustainability.
From the outside social dancing may be seen as plain
entertainment, yet after several years of regular practice,
I can tell that it is much more than that. Yes, dancing is fun
and it feels great doing it but I have also witnessed deeper
changes within myself, such as getting more confident
and resilient. The powerful energy of group dances teaches
us to find our position within a group and it develops
a feeling of belonging to a community; not a closed one
but, rather, a community that is rooted in shared cultural
heritage yet still able to evolve and welcome diversity.
Dancing bal folk cultivates skills and attitudes that are
essential for personal growth and interpersonal interactions
such as body awareness, listening skills, nonverbal
communication, peripheral vision, self confidence, trust in
others, autonomy and responsibility. All of this contributes
to raise well-balanced individuals who are willing to take
an active role in maintaining and developing a safer and
fairer (hence more sustainable) society.
These aspects were definitively present during SustainaBAL
through community life, teamwork, solo time, sharing
of ideas and emotions, and immersion in the beautiful
nature of the Jura region. It felt like a dreamy bubble of
creativity and love out of time and space, but I am convinced
that as we left, we all took a small seed of it with us…
now it is time to spread the magic!

Markus Müller
The SustainaBAL 2019 was an intense program, really
well structured, in which I was introduced deeply into the
balfolk dance practice and also was taught to give dance
initiation in public. I felt among creative, mindful, open
and super funny people.
Sustainability in balfolk is to create a group feeling with
a family-like connectedness. It is built by many different
individuals, who find their place and their own responsibility
inside the group with different tasks to make the
whole work. To feel part and to care for each other makes
everyone willing to learn and to share what‘s inside not
only during dancing but also before and after the bal. It
is not a goal to have one dance level/style for all, rather
to dance with diversity in the group. This feels real and
sustainable.
In SustainaBAL I experienced trust support and a
friendly pushing towards the group goal of exposing or
introducing the own dance to the public. Therefore the
participants were willing to give success to this social
responsibility and to carry and care together.
I will apply the learned and experienced as followed:
I want to reactivate my knowledge of playing accordeon
to make danceable music. With some friends I want to
organise balfolk events and create a comunity with caring
people like sustainabal.

Rosa Lopes Dias
October 2019. Middle of nowhere. Swiss countryside.
The first thing you see when arriving in SustainaBal is
a freshly written sign that reads “Welcome Home!”. This
sets the mood for the 12 days of Youth Exchange that are
about to start.
Here, in a beautiful paradise surrounded by nature, the
soundtrack is composed of cowbells, rain, spontaneous
laughter and the sound of bare feet dancing on a wooden
floor. Here I’ve found a safe space, a well organised
structure where it’s possible to disconnect from technology
and listen to my own thoughts. Most surprising of all,
I’ve found a group of strangers that welcomed each other
with open hearts, regardless of gender, age, experience
or mother tongue.
Together we’ve used balfolk as common language and
taken dancing as a mirror of what society can be.
What kind of dances/social contexts exist and what is
the purpose of each one of them? Which roles are available
in a ball/everyday life and what happens if too many
people decide to choose the same one? Where do I fit?
What is my place in all of this and how can I contribute
to a group without losing myself in it? Is sustainability an
utopia that only works in a bubble in the middle of the
Swiss mountains?
No! - and this is probably the most important idea that
I’ve taken from this experience - IT IS possible to be more
sustainable, to slow down and to simplify, both in dancing
and in life.
SustainaBal showed me that everybody has their place
in the collective, that I can keep my own voice and still be
a part of it, and that the part I choose to take can change
over time.
It showed me that you don’t need strict rules to make
things work, but a deep understanding of why things
function the way they do, of why they are built the way
they are. It reminded me to keep on dancing through life
in a conscious, mindful and sustainable way.

Jurgis Popovas
1) What was SustainaBal for you?
Sustainabal for me was an experiance that broadened
my understanding of what the dances can
be all about, like how to create an overall good
environment, how to express myself and let others express
themselves, how to give and receive energy while
dancing, how dances can be joyful as well as meditative
and mindful.
2) How would you define social sustainability in balfolk?
A welcoming community in which a person can grow not
only as a dancer but also as an overall more artistic and
mindful human being. Also a place which gives and let‘s
one to give back.
3) How have you experienced social sustainability
during this youth exchange?
I have experienced it in the exchange by seeing people
around me opening up, sharing their emotions and feelings,
first about dances and then about life.
4) How would you apply it in your local contex of dance
practice and daily life?
I would use the things I learned here to teach my community
to be more positive and supportive of each other
and also to encourage people to be more open and
creative.

Sigolène Roch
SustainaBAL has been a wonderful dance and social
experience. I had the opportunity to fully be (me) while
growing up a lot in a form of community. The daily routines
and especially the opportunity to express one’s emotions,
thoughts and ideas in a safe and respectful environment
such as our morning circles has been really inspiring and
nourishing to me. I experienced also a place to dig deeper
into bal folk dancing and gained a lot of insights on « how
to teach », while understanding the goals of each kind of
dance.
This was all about experiencing (social) sustainability in
bal folk. I understood it as a way to approach dances so
that one can sustainably have fun dancing it. Also in a
way that keeps your body “safe” and capable to dance
over a longer period of time. The idea is also that the social
and group component of bal folk dances is preserved,
making sure the essence of bal folk is maintained in its
values. I also understood it as a way to take care of oneself
and each other as human beings, respecting the dance
level of everyone so that the sense of community and
togetherness can grow and be nourished.
During SustainaBAL we really could live all of that by coming
back to the roots and basics of the dances, understanding
the different aims of each specific dance “shape”.
The creative process of inventing a new traditional
dance for our country and the fact that we could teach it
to beginners helped putting all of this into practice. This
whole experience encourages me to be more confident
about what I know and can about dance and bal folk. In
the future I could put this into practice by sharing those
experiences and teaching.

Catherine Ireland
SustainaBAL for me was a very special and deeply
touching experience of growing and participating in a
community, living, learning, creating and feeling together.
As a new dancer, and coming from a place where
Balfolk does not exist, these twelve days have shifted and
deepened my understanding of dance – the opportunity it
gives for individuals to share the beauty of collective and
individual expression, and also its connection to the way
we relate to ourselves and to those around us in a responsible
and empathetic way.
One of the biggest things SustainaBAL has shown me is
the importance of caring and mutually supportive communities,
and their power to give individuals a strong
base of love and trust from which to act, so much more
nourishing than the social norm of an isolated and individualist
lifestyle. I have really felt this during this youth
exchange, where a shared love of dancing and music has
built a beautiful community in a very short space of time.
I really value the insights I have gained these last days
into a way of being myself and expressing myself honestly
in a group of people, and the questions I have been
given to reflect on about my own position and contribution
within a community, and the way I relate and transmit
feelings and signals to other people.
I want to bring this mindfulness and consciousness of
body and spirit further in my dancing, as well as into the
way I live. SustainaBAL has also motivated me and made
it seem achievable to start a balfolk community and start
teaching and sharing the dances when I go back to my
home country in a few months. I am inexpressibly greatful
to have had this experience, and I know the knowledge,
realisations and love are going to stay with me, and continue
to develop and enrich my life as I continue on my way.

Lucas Louistisserand
What SustainaBAL mostly represents for me is a broad
learning experience. I learned about a few traditional
dances, both their concrete design and the cultural and
social context that works hand in hand with said design.
This contextualized approach to learning a dance is a big
novelty for me that I had the opportunity to experience
teaching as well. Additionnaly, in SustainaBAL I also learned
a lot about myself and I got to experiment community
life with people from different backgrounds and cultures.
I am convinced that balfolk is a powerful social tool. It is
a space and time to fullfil various social needs: to express
oneself, to feel part of a group or community, to find closeness,
love and support, to have fun, to deal with issues
between people or groups of people...
SustainaBAL reinforced and illustrated this idea since I
got to discover in more details and with a complete contextual
input the different aspects of this social tool, and
how its design does make it suitable to fullfil those social
needs. I also experienced its power at the same time
within the participant‘s group: dancing accompagnied the
ups and downs of the group‘s dynamics.
This youth exchange broadened my outlook on how to
approach the learning and teaching of traditional dances
and I look forward to applying that to even other dance
families (e.g. tango). But most importantly, the lesson I learned
was on how to be curious! How to dig deep into the
social and cultural context of something new I am learning
to try and get the most complete idea of its richness.

Loes Hendriks
The feeling of SustainaBAL for me was one of friendship,
group feeling and creativity in dancing and being.
I have experienced happiness, love, musicality, calmness
and connection with the group and the wider Balfolk
community. The project is a wonderful experience from
and for dancers. Balfolk as a whole needs a bigger focus
on sustainability.
For me, this means 3 things:
● Teachers, musicians and event organizers need to be
paid a decent salary. Without these people, there would
be no dancing.
● The feeling of involvement in the community needs to
be increased. This means being welcoming to new dancers,
but also involving more experienced dancers in the
social group so that they stick around.
● Dances need to be taught and danced with respect for
the cultural traditions they come from, but also fit to modern
times. For me, this means a bigger focus on inclusivity
and equal gender roles.
These thoughts about sustainability have developed
through the wonderful workshops by Pierre, but also
through discussions with him and the other participants.
I have been dancing Balfolk seriously for about 7 years
now, but before coming to SustainaBAL I have never felt
directly involved in the community behind all the balls
and festivals. Here this changed. I have started to feel like
I have a personal responsibility to make the Balfolk scene
a better, more welcoming and inclusive space. I feel like I
have a drive to become more involved in the scene.

Chiara Malesani
For me SustainaBAL was, first of all, an experience of
community living. I felt part of a network of relationships
based on mutual caring, genuine curiosity of getting to
know each other and willingness to create a positive enviroment
for the personal and the common growth. The
relationships between us have been the most precious
and empowering gift from this experience.
It was also an opportunity to understand at a deeper level
the treasure of cultural and social meanings carried by
each folk dance. Thanks to what I learnt during this Youth
Exchange I can dance with more consciousness.
SustainaBAL was for me an inner journey too. I got to
know myself better and I could dance daring some steps
outside of my comfort-zone… experiencing with pleasure
that, when I do trust myself, I can go far beyond the limits
that are in my mind.
I belive that BalFolk is socially sustainable because it
meets the needs of play, expression, celebration, connection,
community of people. To me BalFolk is a way to meet
all these human needs that, in a society based on capitalism
and consumerism, often remain unmet.
To me social susiatinability in BalFolk means also to be
inclusive: what I love of BalFolk is that elderly, youth and
children can dance together and, in the same dance, both
experienced dancers and beginners can have fun. I think
that when BalFolk is intergeneretional and intercultural,
becomes a regenerative process.
BalFolk is socially sustainable also because it recovers
from the past the diversity of cultures and traditions that
are part of human cultural heritage and, in the globalization
age, are at risk of being forgotten and replaced with
one single mass culture.
I experienced social sustainability during this youth exchange
in the mutual caring we had for each other and in
the pratice of deep listening and speaking from the heart.
In the community and self-organized management of
tasks, in the attention for the enviromental impact of our
life-style, in the reflections on the meaning of leading and
following, on our social roles and on our impact in the society,
in the activities directed to promote the personal
growth of each of us, in the two events in which we involved
external people and we taught them some dances.
I want to give more space to dancing in my daily life:
during this youth exchange I could appreciate once again
that through mindful dancing I connect deeply to my
body, to my soul and to the others. I want to let go of the
self-judgment and the fear of not being able to do it (for
example, I want to try to lead in couple dances and I want
to feel free to invite people to dance with me even if I’m
a beginner).

Luca Cedolini
SustainaBAL for me has been a meaningful and valuable
experience to re-discover folk dances from new perspectives.
Questionning the structures and the movements
of the traditional dances helped me to appreciate the
social meaning behind them, and understand how
shared responsibility in dance is a way to connect with
other people.
I think bal folk really enhances social sustainability, as
it encourages a welcoming and supportive way to be
together and to share different emotions (as each dance
has its own character). I think balfolk also has the potential
of helping sustainability unfold on other areas of life.
For example:
I‘ve experienced economic sustainability in bal folk, as
a way to re-think about economical exchanges: many
events are tip-based and it is possible to contribute to
their realisation by helping during their preparation and
implementation. In SustainBAL I felt economic sustainability
in the fact that our presence here has been possible
also thanks to the founding provided by Movetia Foundation.
Feeling gratiteful for this experience motivated me to
share in turn with gratitude and joy. Environmental sustainability
is also often implemented in folk events, by considering
and designing events in natural venues and taking
into account environmental impacts.
In SustainaBAL I have experienced this sustainability
through the venue - the beautiful Jura‘s hills, covered
with woods and little pastures, and crossed by marvelous
streams; in the natural house that welcomed us; and, of
course, through the Nature Quest, that helped me remember
that it is possible to find answers to many individual
and collective questions through connecting to our
inner, wild side.
During SustainaBAL I‘ve experienced all these different
ways of living sustainably, also thanks to the „implicit curriculum“
of the project. I believe this context helped me
be (consciously and unconsciously) more healthy and reactive
to the physical and social environment. During the
morning circles I felt we trained our capacity to express,
to share what we felt and to support each other individually
and as a community.
Through the dance classes we had a (professional) glimpse
about how to build together a certain type of „energy“
and character in a dance.
I would apply what I lived in this experience by organising
dance events as much as I can in natural environments,
exploring and de-constructing the dynamics behind
movements in dance, in order to bring their meaning
to consciousness.
Also through this experience the desire grew in me to
collaborate together with other participants I met here
and people from outside to organize a dance event. The
way we related to each other during SustainaBAL inspired
me for a communal and horizontal way to organise
events.

Tereze-Talita Rozenblate
SustainaBAL for me was a very big and strong experience
to be and to live in a community where we all create,
learn, listen and tell each other our feelings and try to
open up more. For me it was a bit difficult, because I’m
a bit afraid to be myself in front of people I don’t know. I
need much more time to open up, than twenty days. But
everything worked very well. I don’t know how, but now
I feel trust in others. It just happened, I didn’t see how. It
was a big lesson. I learned how to be free at the dance,
how to trust my partner no matter if the person is man or
woman. It felt wonderful. I felt dancing on a next level, it
can be such a strong way to connect with myself and my
partner.
It is passion, you have to feel it, you have to live it, you
have to be in the moment and tell others how cool it is to
be part of this. For me it took time to feel it deeply.
I really felt this big passion to strongly learn more about
bal folk dance.
I will try to keep my passion and to interact with others
like I have done here. Definitely I will make some kind of
event to tell my bal folk friends about my experience and
knowledge I got here.

Jeanne Liecthi
I experienced SustainaBAL as a world by which I got
very inspired. I learnt to open my heart and see the
beauty in every single person. Together we created
a family; we helped each other and we became more
powerful.
To me social sustainability means to create a way of
living so that future generations will also have a possibility
of personal expression through dance. I think that
this can be done, if the community creates a positive spiral,
is tolerant, encourages others and accepts its members.
Maybe some people can give more and others less,
but together we have to find a balance between give
and take.
During SustainaBAL I got a lot of new ideas and I found
it amazing how the dance reflects my personal social
life. For example, I can dance alone and fully express
myself, or dance in a couple and be guided, receive impulses
and give something back. You learn to listen, take
care of and connect to each other, while being conscious
of the group. And finally, in a chain dance, the whole
community has to move the same way; otherwise we
can’t find harmony.
The essence of this event, that I will tale back to my life,
is an inner attitude of an open heart, the deep wish to
live in a community, and the knowledge that dancing is a
powerful medicine. Finally, I understood that dance is a
great teacher to learn how to interact with other humans
in a beautiful and conscious way.

Michael Niel
SustainaBAL was an experience. Not the kind that will ensure I
have impressive stories to tell my grand-kids, but rather the kind I
will live with and bear in my heart and mind.
Sustainability in bal folk... How to keep the dances alive, the dancers
passionate, and stay true to the purpose of each and everyone,
of each and everything?
I believe I learnt the answer lies in the essence of each dance,
music, as well as the reasons that compel us to come together and
agree to create something, be it as a duo or a group made of many
individualities.
Now, in my mind comes the question of sustainability in community.
Isn‘t this topic strangely similar in many ways? Isn‘t there a
necessity for one to trade off some of one‘s freedom of expression
and peculiarity in order to connect with others in a healthy and
sustainable way?
For now, my mind seems not to be able to seize the full weight of
that question. I am however deeply happy that sustainabal opened
that door for me.

Marlieke Luit
The SustainaBAL experience was an amazing one.
It was very inclusive, very open, and a very different way
of experiencing dancing than any other dance events. We
were taught not only dance steps, but more importantly,
the social structures and dynamics of dancing.
We were taught the roles dances used to play in society
and the roles they play now, how to connect deeply and
truly to a partner, and how to find joy in a dance. In a way,
we were taught to listen with our bodies and our hearts to
others. These lessons are very valuable ones.
In the balfolk community, I‘ve noticed a tendency to
form close groups of friends, and sometimes people feel
above dancing with the newbies. This can be harmful to
the community in the long run, because it can deter new
people from joining.
Social sustainability can only be reached if we, as a
community, are open and inclusive to the outside. Great
joy can be found in showing new potential dancers the
treasures of dancing.
During SustainaBAL there have been two such moments
where we got to teach balfolk dances to new people. Both
these moments really showed the joys of both teaching
and learning and the value of making people feel welcome.
SustainaBAL felt like home, like a family. But that family
opened its arms to everyone willing to join. The mutual
teaching and learning experiences are something I‘ll never
forget. I hope I will be able to hold on to the feelings
of inclusivity when I‘m back home. I want to make people
feel as welcomed to balfolk as I felt welcomed here.
Thanks to this experience.
I feel equipped to be a better listener and to let go of
prejudice and judgement. It has also given me the confidence
to be myself and to not expect more OR less of myself
than that. I can trust in my own skills and talents and
use them to help others. And give others the confidence to
do the same in return.

Elise Grandjean
During these days at sustainaBAL I could experience how
much dances were the expression of community. Dances
have a such important role in traditions and reflect so
many aspects of the society they come from! Just like ritualised
communication, they could reinforce the feeling
of belonging to a group, help resolve tension and conflict,
allow personal expression and creativity, and sometimes
bring healing to collective trauma. Through cultivating so
many different energies and links, and while caring about
respectful physical contact and movement for our own
body and the other’s, dances have an amazing power to
deeply connect people to themselves, to the others and
to the collective.
I would like to keep from this wonderful experience the
capacity to accept in my life all the diversity of energies
that make me up, welcome them, live them, dance them
and always play with disbalance to look for the balance…
Traditional dances and bal folk are the reflection of
societies, but they can also be the spring where communities
fill up and learn how to build a sustainable life
together. Self caring, being fed by music and common
energies, fuelling and supporting group dynamics, roles
and trust, games between musicians and dancers, leading
and listening, accepting diversity and richness of each
movement and each body (including our own), creativity
and feeling the spirit of traditional dances… We can really
learn such deep and essential knowledge about ourselves
and groups dynamics! How could one be tired of all of
that? Dancing is living and living is dancing.

Johanna Wakonig
Participating in SustainaBAL gave me a deeper understanding
of how dancing and communitybuilding can enrich
each other.
It was a prescious time full of inspiration and opening. I
feel very privileged and grateful about being part of this
special happening.
We came to develop our dancing skills, and it was very
prescious to me to discover the wisdom and intention within
traditional dances.
I could also understand that having a great dance experience
is not only about tequnique but also about trusting
and taking care of each other. It‘s not so much about
being a beginner or an advanced dancer – rather, it‘s a lot
about respecting each other.
In SustainaBal I found a very warm and welcoming environment
which invited me to open up and express myself.
I could experience that dancing is a lot about being in the
presen and sharing energy in a conscious way. Then the
beauty is revealing!
I feel that a dance is keeping it‘s vitality over time if we
stay connected with curiosity and openness.
Through different ways of sharing and creative activities
we came to know each other and an atmosphere of trust
was arising.
I could experience that it is possible to create an aware
and inclusive community through balfolk dancing and
creative work in which you can find space for individuality
but still everyone is hold by the vessel of the group.
And this is what society needs in these times!
As we were a group of different nationalities, we have
also learnt through diversity, and we could get insights
into traditional dances of many countries.
And still we could deeply feel a connection- our common
European roots and that it is time to come together and
share the traditional wisdom to overcome limits.
During these days a lot of transformation happened on
both personal and collective levels. I think we could feel
the strong potential of creating a mindful comunity!
I am feeling very inspired and encouraged to share my
new experiences and skills with the world!
Dancing can bring so much joy. It‘s medicine to me.

Tiphaine Peduzzi

Janis Rozenblats

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