Teachers

Dance Courses for 2010

Participants will be able to follow two of the four six-session courses, two specialist and two general:

Course	Teacher
Russian	Hennie Konings
Macedonian	Ibrahim Rizevski
General (2)	Cristina Casarini

The General Course will be divided into two separate courses, both taught by Cristina. One will focus on non-partner dances and the other will concentrate on partner and set dances. There will be a number of short optional courses, run most afternoons — subjects and countries to be announced — as well as opportunities to offer workshops.

Programme

The course starts on Saturday evening, August 7th, with a social dance (registration from 1430, dinner 1800 onwards). Teaching is every morning, Sunday to Friday, with optional short courses and workshops in the afternoons. Social dances are held every evening through to Friday. The close is after breakfast on 14th August.

Course Fees

The course fee covers tuition, dance notes for those who require them, attendance at the evening dances, the hire of the dance rooms, administration, morning coffee, group photo and fees for the excursion. Tapes or CDs and a DVD of the dances will be available at additional cost.

Teachers' Biographies and photos

Hennie Konings

As the son of a Russian mother and a Dutch father Hennie Konings grew up with Russian music and dance. In 1968 he graduated at the Rotterdam Dance Academy as a dancer and a dance teacher. He went to Russia to train Russian stage folk dance. He returned to Russia many times to learn the most distinct dance styles. In 1986 he ended his career as a performing dancer.

Since then he has dedicated himself fully to Russian folklore. Within the framework of the cultural agreement between The Netherlands and the Soviet Union, he received a scholarship to continue his dance study in Moscow, including the living folklore of the Russian villages. In the mean time, being a specialist in Russian dance, Hennie Konings has become an internationally renowned dance teacher and choreographer. Through the years Hennie Konings has produced much choreography for folklore ensembles at home and abroad, but most of all he has made choreographic adaptations for recreational dance practice.

He regularly teaches Russian folk dances in many countries in Europe (including the UK), USA and Asia and he lectures on folk dance and its development. The participants in his courses are both amateur and professional dancers as well as dance teachers. Some of our SIFD members will have already admired Hennie's vast knowledge and experience of his dances, as well as his ability to teach varied dances at appropriate levels. Hennie regularly teaches intensive Russian courses in London and has introduced varied dances to the Eastbourne Festival participants on several occasions. We look forward to dancing slow lyrical circle dances, energetic Cossack dances, couple dances and quadrilles with 'the man with the red boots'.

Ibrahim Rizevski

Ibrahim was born in Belgrade and has a strong background in Yugoslavian folk culture. He started dancing in folk dance ensemble Lola Ribar in 1972. From 1977 until 1987, he was assistant artistic director and dance teacher of Lola Ribar. The ensemble held over 1200 performances all over the world. From 1978 — 1980 he was artistic director of a Yugoslavian military state folk dance ensemble. As dancer, dance teacher, choreographer, and musician, he worked with the National Theatre in Belgrade, Ensemble Renaissance, Radio Belgrade, rock group Of Goran Bregovic, and others.

In 1983 Ibrahim graduated in ethnology at the Philosophy University in Belgrade. He then worked as Curator in the Ethnography Museum in Belgrade in 1985.

Ibrahim came to Switzerland in 1987 and taught dances in Yugoslav folk dance ensemble Sloga in Zurich for ten years. He has contributed to many folk dance seminars on Serbian and Macedonian folk dances, in France, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Some SIFD members have met Ibrahim at the Eastbourne International Dance Festival and enjoyed his expert teaching of Macedonian dancing in 2003 and Yugoslavian dancing in 2006. At Swansea Ibrahim will be sharing his knowledge of Macedonian dancing with us.

Cristina Casarini

Cristina taught one of our specialist courses, Italian dancing, at our 2006 Summer school at Swansea. She also came as a participant to an earlier Summer School at York and took a lively afternoon workshop. This time we invite her back to teach our general international courses, a non-partner course and a partner course.

Cristina has wide knowledge of folk dance having studied international folk dances and songs mainly in Italy, Germany, Great Britain, France, Czech Republic, Holland, Hungary, Switzerland and Africa. She holds folk dance courses and workshops in Reggio Emilia, and elsewhere in Italy, as well as abroad. She has a particular interest in teaching folk dance to children.

Beside Italian dance, she also has a large repertoire of Israeli, Yugoslav, Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian, Turkish, Spanish, French, Irish, English, Scottish, Armenian, Polynesian, African, and American dance. Until fairly recently she danced in Terra di Danza Company, presenting seminars, workshops, courses and shows all over Italy and abroad.

Cristina looks forward to passing on some new material she has recently learnt. Those who have been taught by her, at our Summer Schools or, more recently at the Eastbourne Festival (2009), will affirm Cristina's ability to present her dances in a clear and lively manner. Her enthusiasm is infectious and we look forward to dancing with her again in Wales.

Note to International Dance Teachers

If you think you might be interested in teaching at future SIFD Summer Schools (which are held every two years) please send your details to This will help us to build a database of suitable teachers for future years.