BANDS, TEACHERS &DJ's
Miss Mikey May Band (Israel-Barcelona)
Born with the blues and paid her dues, Miss Mikey May is a powerful, soulful vocalist with a background in theatre, cabaret, burlesque, and social dancing. Her mission is to serve up a wild ride to the roots of blues, jazz, and soul in a dancer-friendly package.
Mikey is thrilled to make her debut performance in Spain together in a special collaboration with Victor Puertas, a master Hammond organ player and one of the top Blues musicians in Spain. Their combined forces are sure to get your feet stomping and your hearts singing the Blues!
Keith Dunn & Balta Bordoy Quartet
Keith Dunn: vocals & harp,
Balta Bordoy: guitar,
Sergi Escriu: guitar,
Jake Klamburg: drums.
American Blues legend Keith Dunn is well-known for his singing and harmonica playing in the Chicago Blues style and for his work with a long list of Blues stars like Jimmy Rogers, Joe Louis Walker, Roomful Of Blues and Stevie Ray Vaughan to name a few.
Keith and the talented roots/black music guitar player, Balta Bordoy, first worked together in 2010. For more than 25 years of career Balta has been studying and absorbing the sounds of musicians like Jimmy Reed, Eddie Taylor and Robert Jr. Lockwood to name a few. After playing a series of concerts together in Mallorca and Barcelona, they recorded their first album which led to further tours in Spain and Ukraine during 2017 and 2018. From these experiences with different line-ups the idea for their current four-piece band was born.
These two leaders are perfectly backed by some exceptional musicians: guitar player Sergi Escriu (The Midnight Rockets) with his Texan style, influenced by musicians like Wayne Bennett and Anson Funderburgh. Drummer Jake Klamburg is inspired by the grooves and back-beat of Fred Below and Earl Palmer and the improvisation of John Coltrane’s drummer, Elvin Jones.
The result is a solid Blues band that combines elements of Jump Blues, Boogie and classical electric Blues, into a unique sound featuring the soulful voice and harp of Keith Dunn and the biting and soulful guitar lines of Balta Bordoy.
Velvet Cruise (France)
When you think about softness, what do you have in mind? For some, it is the sincere melodies of a voice, for others, it is a moment of harmony played with true devotion, and finally, for yet others it is the enveloping feeling that reminds you why you are here. Velvet Cruise, it is a bit of all those things, a slightly off-the-wall voyage across Gospel, Folk, Soul, and Hip-hop seas, never forgetting its home port: the blues. Three willful musicians : an ultimate blues guitar player, a vocalist and drummer who hits the beat as regularly as a waterwheel and a singer who learned to swim in classical music water. Here they are; they will be your captains, with strength and minimalism for this vessel launched by dancers and for dancers. Enjoy your trip.
Wax & Boogie (Barcelona)
The final bit of the Cocoa Blues Exchange! This magical night we’ll listen to the musical
genius of Wax&Boogie (representing Spain in the 2015 European Blues Contest) and
the incredible voice of Ster Wax. Say goodbye to all the amazing dance partners and
friends made during the festival.
La Revolution Band (Valencia)
La Revolution Band was born as a part of a dance comunity in Valencia, Spain. An unforgettable trip, the pleasure of the music and the passion for the dance were the ingredients that move them to play together. This band was created by dancers for dancers, and what they most like is to play for those who feel music and dance as a whole thing.
They mix styles that goes from Delta Blues, Chicago or West Coast Blues to the "jazzy" or funk, always doing their particular "fusion" with roots rythms, coming from african music, flamenco or the purest latin music.
Stephen Mahoney (UK)
Slow Dancing Music
Just a voice and a guitar, the right feeling for slow dancing. Steve Honey is Franco-British, he is also a passionate dancer himself. His music is dedicated to lovers of sensual and intimate grooves. He plays styles ranging from trad' blues to modern fusion, his sound is always raw and purely vintage.
James Sedgwick (Canada)
James Sedgwick is a Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist. He began his musical career at thirteen, coinciding with the long recovery of an eye operation that would prevent him from going to school, reading, watching television or playing sports ... Few activities apart from listening and playing music.
With a cheap harmonica and an initiation method he began a career that has taken him across four continents over twenty-five years.
James subsequently studied music at Concordia University in Montreal, specializing in music theory, harmony and ear training.
Along with his passion for music is his interest in travel, and knowledge of various cultures, which has led him to live and play in France, Spain, United Kingdom, Mexico, Nicaragua and South Africa, always with his ears Open musicals, and willing to learn.
His live experience spans from the stage of a massive festival, to the intimacy of a small wedding in rural Central America. You can share the stage with legends like Jr. Wells in Chicago, Dutch Mason in Canada, or with street musicians in the D.F. or in Cape Town.
His wide musical palette begins with the Blues, and includes influences from Jazz, Country and early RnB ..
Teachers
ALINA SOKULSKA - Blues, roots and possibilities
Alina Sokulska is an internationally acclaimed jazz dance artist, choreographer, performer, instructor and researcher.
She started her path as a solo dancer since the very early age gaining experience and knowledge in many dance styles and cultures.
Alina's blues classes are based on a methodology of the development of our body to understand it as an orchestra where every part of it is a musical instrument. to play blues music with our body and be creative with it we need, first of all, learn how to refine it by developing isolations and groove; learn how we connect to the music, its structure and timing; and finally, how we go beyond that to enhance our creativity and find unique decisions in our improvisation. On this class we try to go deeper into the African-American dance tradition, researching it regarding African roots in order to find our dance voice of today.
ANDREA BALLESTERO & RAUL NAVALPOTRO - Tango-Fusion
Andrea and Raúl are international Tango teachers for over a decade and dancing for over 15 years. Both of them got influences from other dances, but very soon they fell in love with tango. Their beginnings in tango went hand in hand with Tango Nuevo, which is closely linked to fusion. They believe that everything adds up, so they are convinced that fusion tango can contribute a lot to your own dance style. They keep their specialization in Tango Argentino.
In 2012 Andrea founded a Tango Argentino School in Barcelona, Living Tango Barcelona, and since then, she teaches and has events there. Raúl instead, was living in 8 different countries while he has been traveling to hundreds of international dance events. He keeps teaching, Djing and dancing tango and most of the swing styles regular.
Tango-Fusion, as other fusion dances, is a mixture of different dance styles to form a new one. In this particular case, it is a partner dance and can be performed in response to almost any song. Its greatest influences come from Argentine tango, Tango nuevo, slow lindy, blues, West Coast Swing, and other dance styles.
It is typically an improvised, lead-follow approach to dancing that emphasises musicality and incorporates dance partnering techniques such as connection, extension-compression, balance and frame. The aim of this dance is to boost your creativity, challenge your mind, and help you express yourself in a different way. In short, it will help to improve your dancing skills. This class is for all levels.
OSMAR FUSION - Funk&Soul
Funk Soul The essence of black American musical expression has its roots in spirituals, work songs, praise shouts, gospel and blues. In more contemporary music, gospel, blues and their variants tend to merge. Funk thus becomes an amalgam of soul, jazz and R&B. Funk Soul is a music style and a dance.
DJ's
DJ EUSEBIO (DJ Coordinator)
With almost a decade dancing and DJing at Blues and Swing local parties and international festivals, Mr. Eusebio is a reputed and experienced music selector, the perfect Master of DJ's, the one in charge of controlling everything related to music, the other DJ's, the person in charge of DJing the competitions... but his main duty is not to let you rest from dancing in the whole weekend.
DJ Fluff (UK)
Fluff has been tearing up DJ decks at Blues events far and wide, with a passion for blues stretching back 20 years, his experience dancing, playing, DJing, and organizing blues events is hard to beat. 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.
Eric Duprat (Toulouse - France)
Eric has danced the Rock&Roll during several years and then discovered the world of swing in 2007. He began with lindy hop and balboa, but fell in love with the blues in 2009. Since then, trained by the biggest international teachers, he now gives regular classes in Toulouse and in some workshops.
But as dance is inseparable from music, he started to DJing and has been DJ in most European blues workshop for several years.
Having an eclectic music, from the old blues to the most recent, he likes to keep you on the floor until dawn.
The Ramones (Barcelona)
From Barcelona, we get the residents "The Ramones", a Dj duo who delight us with their politically incorrect Fusion, that will not leave you indifferent with their Down tempo mixes and productions, including great influences of the Blues and the most innovative electronic music.
Thanks to their past and electronic background, combined with their passion with dancing, they will make you desire the party to never ends.
Greta Kroketa (CZ-Barcelona)
Lover of music and dance, Greta Kroketa, is a classic in the local Fusion scene. For the past year she has been promoting events so others can become familiar with Fusion, and she has been organizing Flow Fusion dance parties within the Barcelona community. She has played en in the local nights and festivals and as well in Berlin, Madrid and Copenhagen.
What she likes about fusion is its expressivity, fun and freedom.
Greta Kroketa enjoys exploring music and sharing it with dancers! Her DJ style is inspired by electronic music and even she has energetic style, she will give you smooth and sensual moments as well.
Get readyyyyy!!!
Luke Saint (UK)
Luke is an avid collector of records across all musical genres and enjoys digging deep in record stores to find hidden gems. As a blues and swing dancer, he also enjoys sharing his musical finds DJing at local dance events in Barcelona, and always endeavours to drop in at least a couple of rare, unknown tracks into his sets.
Dj Deb (Barcelona)
A music lover. She’s been dancing for several years, looking for different styles all around the world. From Blues, West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop... she found in Fusion the perfect combination of creativity and freedom. Performing as a Dj in local parties and festivals, she likes flowing from one style to the other, finding a smooth rhythm every time she changes song and creating an atmosphere in the dance floor. That makes any of her sets a unique piece.
Helen (Barcelona)
I I got into the world of blues 6 years ago and the fascination has led me to know and love music and dance. I love to travel and go to festivals abroad and meet other communities. I have also been playing at parties and festivals long time ago. I enjoy the sessions with a variety of blues styles, which my favourites are Chicago blues, jazz and funky blues and the blueswoman. I like to think the sessions as a trip that we make together towards unknown and exciting territories.