EN Contenido en inglés — la residencia se desarrolla íntegramente en inglés
Madrid – Cercedilla
Cenizas
The international laboratory where dance is lived, learned and reinvented
DATES
14–22 November 2026
VENUE
El Colladito · Cercedilla · Madrid
LANGUAGE
English
CENIZAS - BALFOLK RESIDENCY
Balfolk is the contemporary face of traditional dances, the necessary change that followed the disruption of the pillars of the old rural and urban societies. And it is still changing but, how?
Cenizas is the international laboratory where dancers, teachers and organisers gather to exchange, learn, teach, confront and, essentially, grow. In its 6th edition, we will keep asking ourselves the question: what is Balfolk? We’ll commit with the dance as movement, with the specific rhythms and histories, with what an event is, with the cultural aspects of the social dance, with the pedagogy to transmit it.
Cenizas means «ashes», we are the phoenix starting its journey, again and again, in a circle that embraces all of us, and goes beyond each one of us.
We will dance together, but it’s far more than that. We will re-build our communities, share knowledge and feelings, provide each other pedagogical tools and help each other to promote culture. We are culture, we are Europe, we are the dances before we were born, we are the dances that will come soon.
The Residency
40 people during one week of hard work and hard fun will share their knowledge and energy to drive themselves and balfolk to newer lands, with a ratio of 2 teachers every 3 participants.
CONFIRMED RESIDENTS
Lou Mather – UK
Leo Visser – Netherlands
Fabien Bucher – France
Dalia Pranauskaite – Lithuania
Diana Todorova – Bulgaria
Victor Delage – France
Rafaela Calheiros – Portugal
THE WORK
40 People dancing, learning, teaching and creating together. One week of hard work from 14-20th November, ending in Fenix Festival 20-22nd November.
We will be all working on three main subjects:
Dance Technique: investigate and deepen our balfolk knowledge.
Balfolk promotion: organising is not easy, doing it sustainable is even harder. Let’s share some useful knowledge
Pedagogy: sharing and exploring pedagogical approaches with our artistic coordinators.
During the residency we will see at least 6 Dance exploration workshops with collaborative labs, 3 balfolk promotion workshops, plus 6 pillars of Balfolk (pedagogy-oriented) and 6 Balfolk out of the box and movement workshops. Moreover, we will build 3 cooperative workshops that will take place during the Fenix Festival.
Every contribution is valuable, opinions are precious, feelings are worth telling.
We will explore the techniques of our favorite dances, go through all the details, try some mixed and ideas, crazy stuff. We will also explore how to teach, explain to each other where do we teach from, where do we want to go, and try different approaches through laboratories. We will spend some time to think about how events are, what are their fragilities, which new models can we make work.
And, of course, we will dance. A lot. And we will have fun. A lot.
LANGUAGE DISCLAIMER: The Residency will be only in English. The Fénix Festival will be in English and Spanish.
The schedule will be (almost) every day:
ARTISTIC COORDINATION
Rom Brook-Hart
Based in Berlin, Rom is a physiotherapist, balfolk teacher, and occasional event organiser. His teaching is focused on the physical mechanisms behind specific dances and styles, using simple principles as a jumping-off point to build complexity without losing clarity – in other words, his goal is to make dancing feel easy.
In this edition of Cenizas, he will explore how slowing things down leads to better, more enjoyable dancing. Working with couple dances from France and Sweden, you will learn to ground yourself in your own body and in space, improve the clarity of your movements, put value into every moment of a dance, and create more space for playfulness and stylistic flourishes.
Aurora Cavazzin
Aurora Cavazzin began dancing in Turin (Italy) at six, studying ballet, contemporary, hip hop, jazz and, since 2011, balfolk. After training with the Hallet Eghayan Company in Lyon and graduate in community dance and pedagogy in Turin, she now collaborates with dance companies and teaches balfolk across Europe. In 2021 she joined Collectif Matières Vivantes to promote gender-based violences free spaces in social dances. Her approach blends contemporary tools with folk dance, centering tradition and consent. We are not talking about numbers and formulas… we’ll work on body, movement and have fun while at it!
We will borrow Rudolph Von Laban’s theories from early 20th century to go deeper on the analysis of the dances we practice: a lot of traditional dances has similar steps, but they dont look the same at all. What changes is the whole way of moving the body, the «dynamic». Each day we will focus on one particular topic: weight, flux, time, space and rhythms to understand how to read, feel and use each one of them while learning and teaching dances. Because once you know the dynamic of movement it’s easier to recognize it in the dance, then repeat and vary it in order to enrich your array of expressions. Up to you then to stick as much as you can to tradition or use them for impovisation.
Francesco and María
Francesco and María are balfolk teachers and producers. Located in Madrid, they organise loads of events, workshops and stuff.
Among other events they organise the Bailando Entre Montañas festival and Cenizas.
As folk dancers and teachers, they’ve specialised in couple dances, studying their most intimate features and exploring the possibilities from fusions with other dances. Their approach, based on creativity, active listening and roles switching, has been recognised in these years with workshops in many balfolk festivals in all Europe (they still miss some country, though).
They’ve also participated as teachers in other balfolk residencies such as Folktemporary, Resitrad or Sustainabal and they wish to bring the spirit of these encounters into this new gathering.
Pic by Veronique Chochon
APPLY
The residency is open to a total of 35 people, it will be entirely in English and you can come with two forms of participation:
- Participants/Kamikazes: they are dancers that will not teach a workshop. If you are looking for a full week of learning and dancing, if you recently started teaching, if you are involved in the promotion of your balfolk community, if you wan tot be part of a multicultural experience: this is the place for you! You will be asked to have fun, accept the challenges, participate with enthusiasm, dance and dance and dance more. As a participant you will also have the possibility (not the obligation!) to propose topics, teach stuff, prepare a collaborative workshop for the Fénix Festival. You’ll be able to involve yourself as much as you wish 🙂
Applications: https://forms.gle/1WCjv5Tpw1yS54Gv9 - Residents/teachers: they will teach, and they will be asked to submit a workshop proposal. It can be a dance workshop with some super nice exercises you want to share and try, it could be your experience in balfolk promotion, it can be anything else balfolk related. Please, send us your proposals and we will evaluate them.
Please, submit your proposals here: https://forms.gle/XiLfdDswccjFwxbq6
More info on «How to make a proposal» at the bottom of this page.
Admission fees:
Residents: from 260€. That is the minimum we ask to cover your food and accommodation costs for 8 days and nights (Cenizas Residency + Fenix Festival). Anything more you can give will make this event more sustainable.
Kamikazes: we thought about a flexible scheme to allow everyone to come. Please choose based on your situation. Please, also consider that filling all the slots with the reduced fee we wouldn’t cover the costs.
Reduced fee: 390€ (only 4 spots)
Standard fee: 480€
Generous fee: 570€
The fee includes sleeping in a 4-6 people bedroom. Double and single rooms are available for an extra fee (but not if you paid a Reduced fee):
10€ per person/night for the double room.
15€ per person/night for the single room.
The fee includes the participation to all activities (including the Fenix Festival, which is worth 150€ alone), food and accommodation. If you can, we encourage you to pay for the the Generous fee and be glad about it. If even the reduced fee is too much, we can consider a reduction in exchange of: volunteering, social management, video and pics… Please, don’t be ashamed to ask for a reduction: believe us when we say that we understand what is a precarious living.
Fénix Festival
It is open to anyone (maximum 40 participants) willing to enjoy this wonderful experience and learn a lot. It will be included in the participation fee of the residency. If you are interested only in the festival, more info here.
The Fénix Festival will be in two languages, English and Spanish, with translators during the workshops.
Participants of the residency will also participate here, so we’ll be round 70 people.
If you have any more doubt, please check the FAQ page.
- March 16th: opening for Residents candidatures
- April 1st: opening for Kamikazes candidatures
- April 27th: deadline for Residents applications
- First-second week of May: publication of resident's team
- June 2nd. 1st deadline for Kamikazes
- August 31st: free cancellation deadline
Late submissions (for both residents and kamikazes) will be considered, but slots are not a lot and they may be already taken.
HOW DO I MAKE A PROPOSAL?
Slots for residents (8-10) are simply not enough, we know. There will be people among the kamikazes whose dance is just incredible, everyone will learn a lot.
Proposals will receive an evaluation for their features, the teacher’s trayectory and a further overall evaluation will be done to ensure a good fit among all of them, coherency and an overall artistic content.
Selection criteria:
- Interest of the proposal (explain clearly your topic, what do you wish to achieve, did you try this workshop somewhere else?) (30%)
- Methodology used (please, describe briefly which exercises or dynamics are you planning) (40%)
- Background of the teacher (30%)
After the first row of selection, some other criteria that depend on the rest of the proposals will be applied for the final selection.
- Originality (the topic is not addressed by more than one resident)
- Geographical balance: we wish for a good representation of the overall European system
- Gender balance: we will do our best to keep it balanced
- Minorities inclusion.
- Balance between new faces and Cenizas veterans
So, bear in mind that a rejection may come not from the overall quality of your proposal, but from the artistic fit with the rest.
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: April 27th. We may accept ideas after that date, but remember that last year we had more than the double of requests than the number of available slots during the first row, so better be fast about it. https://forms.gle/5zLMNtQFx9gQ44Xr5
Feel free to share your idea, feel free to ask for feedback before submitting. Feedback can’t go into the object of your proposition, we will not suggest you what to do, but we can ask you to specify more some aspect, we can clarify what do we mean with methodology and so on.
Dance Exploration:
This year we don’t have a theme as such: this year, if you want some guidance choosing a topic, ask yourself the question «what’s my best workshop?».
If you have any doubt, write us: there are no stupid questions and we know that we are often less clear than we think. Send it to folquemadrid@gmail.com
For proposals, again, here is the link: https://forms.gle/XiLfdDswccjFwxbq6
PRACTICAL
WHERE AND WHEN (AND HOW DO I GET THERE)
The residency will take place in the Albergue “El Colladito” in Cercedilla, a beautiful place in the mountains.
The place is at 1:40h of local train both from Madrid and from the airport, then 5 minutes walking (uphill) from the train station.
The residency will take place from November 14th to November 20th 2026, followed by the festival 20-22nd November.
There will be bedsheets, pillows and blankets at the place. Please bring your dancing shoes, comfy clothes, party clothes, and also some food or drink you wish to share.
Sleeping & Food
Sleeping: as residents and kamikazes, you’ll sleep in a 4 people room included in the price, double and single bedrooms can be booked for an extra fee.
Food: you can choose an omnivore, vegetarian or vegan diet. Besides that, you’ll be asked to specify any intolerance or allergy you have and the kitchen staff will provide. If you have multiple stuff (vegetarian, lactose intolerant, with an allergy to hazelnuts) don’t worry: they will take everything in account and, if needed, they will prepare a special meal just for you.
Diet alert: in this kind of events if you choose «omnivore» there will be meat basically in every meal. So if you are not so sure about it we you suggest to choose Vegetarian and avoid some global warming. Or you can share your meals with some other participants 🙂
Registration fee
Registration fee will be of 100€. You will be asked to pay the rest after July 1st, or directly at the place. If you cancel before the 31st of August, you get everything back. Otherwise, you’ll receive everything but the registration fee.
If you know someone who may be interested into participating, please spread the word!
Who are we?
Folqué is a balfolk association based in Madrid. We promote balfolk locally and we teach in festivals of all Europe. We also have other nice and chill events: if you wish to know about them, check our website: www.folquemadrid.es or follow us through our social networks. @folquemadrid
Oh, yeah, it’s in Spanish 😉
For more information, we leave you with some video of us.
Any question?
Organised by Asociación Folqué? Madrid.
Venue: Camino de los Campamentos, 1, 28470 Cercedilla, Madrid · www.cercedilla.elcolladito.com
María: +34 652 483 969 · Francesco: +34 617 123 144
folquemadrid@gmail.com
Frequently asked questions
The things people ask us most about the residency. If yours is not here, write to us — we answer everything.
Cenizas is open to dancers and musicians of any background who want to spend a week working deeply on Balfolk. Places are limited and we read every application — tell us where you are in your practice and what you hope to find here.
Some experience helps, but the residency is not a competition. If you can follow a basic mazurka, scottish and bourrée you will be fine. If you are unsure, write to us and we will talk it through.
Residents stay for the whole week and follow the full programme. Kamikazes join for a shorter stretch, taking part in selected sessions and the evening bals.
Accommodation at El Colladito, meals, all classes and sessions, and the evening bals. Travel to and from the venue is not included.
English is the working language of Cenizas, both in class and in shared moments. Spanish is spoken informally and we help with translation whenever it is needed.
El Colladito is in the mountains near Madrid. Most people arrive by car and we open a shared-ride list a few weeks before. There is also a bus from Madrid plus a short transfer.
Dance shoes you can wear indoors, comfortable layers for the mountains, a water bottle, your instrument if you play, and something warm for the evenings. Bedding and towels: to be confirmed.
Cancellations made well in advance are refunded minus a small administrative fee; closer to the residency the refund is partial, since places and food are already committed.
Still not sure? folquemadrid@gmail.com — we read every message.
Asociación cultural con sede en Madrid dedicada a promover el Bal Folk: música y danza tradicional europea, viva y en constante evolución.
© 2026 Asociación Folqué? Madrid
★ UE — Proyecto BASIL cofinanciado por la Unión Europea (Erasmus+)
