Jolanda (owner behind Den Gröna Fenixen) has almost twenty years of experience as a social dancer, organizer and teacher of Balfolk, Blues dance and Swedish folk dancing in seven different countries and a multitude of international events. As a teacher, she specializes in connection, flow and has an eye for detail and body awareness. She makes it one of her spearpoints in her classes that everybody can feel safe to experiment and participate on their own level and style.
Expect the unexpected!
Do you want Jolanda to teach at your event, do you want to organize a workshop with her, or do you simply want to dance with her? Please get in touch!
Dance is like an onion…
… It has layers!
Your own body, your partner(s), the space, the music, the others in the room, everything can influence your dancing.
To Jolanda, this connection is what puts the social in dancing. How do you encompass what your partner’s body does, what is the music giving you, what is happening around you? All these questions and more are the foundation to Jolanda’s teaching and dancing, before even taking a single step!
Breathe!
Never underestimate the body’s own movement. Breathing comes naturally to everybody and so does dancing. You maybe just don’t know it yet! The most powerful dances can flow from a single breath. Jolanda dances soft and minimalistic, but tries to keep all her workshops lighthearted and fun!
What movements do you already have within yourself and how can you use those and your partner’s in your dancing? And how does a single change in for example your balance or posture change the way you move? Dancing doesn’t need to be choreographed to be a great dance.
Drawing from a wide background in different dance-styles and different teaching styles, Jolanda always tries to connect to the people in front of her and draw out their own styles instead of trying to fit them into a regime of pre-fixed steps. A freedom that might be daunting at first, but liberating!
Flow…
That within social dance only one can lead, the guy, and one can follow, the girl, is outdated and overrated. In social dance, there is a constant flow of communication that has nothing to do with ones gender or even always with the role within the couple.
Everybody in a dance should feel safe and respected and has the possibility to influence the direction of a dance. Both in her workshops as on the dancefloor Jolanda tries to promote an open communication in dancing.
With animals!
Being a professional dancer laid the foundation for the partnership with Ulvens Djurliv. Training with animals and social dancing has more overlap than one at first glance suspects. The easy connection between dance and dogs is for example freestyle heelwork to music!
But did you realize dogs look at us almost like a dancepartner? Did you know how much attention they give to body language in their human? Even your chickens or horse could be viewed as a dancepartner!
Do you want to learn more about Den Gröna Fenixens activity with animals and dance, look here!
All pictures on this page by Ronald Rietman, except ‘Breathe’ by Christine Alsemgeest and ‘Flow’ by Eric Thézé