The Festival
The Big Blues is the first international blues dance festival in Greece and aims to consolidate and become a meeting point of blues lovers from all around the world, for their summer vacation!
We invite you to Chania (Crete) to share in our love during six hours of quality lessons across three levels from four great international teachers.
Enjoy relaxed dances in picturesque locations, music from six special international musicians in three nights of Blues Parties and side events connecting us with territory!
The Big Blues is the first international Blues dance festival in Crete and aims to consolidate and become a meeting point of Blues lovers from all around the world, for their summer vacation!
We invite you to Chania (Crete) to share in our love during six hours of quality lessons across three levels from four great international teachers.
Enjoy relaxed dances in picturesque locations, music from six special international musicians in three nights of Blues parties and side events connecting us with the territory!
TEACHERS
The greatest students are formed by the greatest teachers:
learn from the best!
Adamo & Vicci
Adamo & Vicci
Adamo & Vicci
Adamo and Vicci started their blues dancing journey together in London, where they nurtured and grew the blues dance scene, setting up two weekly blue dance events – Sin City Blues and Stompin’ the Blues – plus Blues at The Ritzy, a monthly live music event. They created Europe's first blues dance performance troupe, The Down and Outs, and are co-organizers of Espanish Blues Festival in Madrid.
Adamo and Vicci have an incredible chemistry on the dance floor, bringing intensity, elegance and musicality to the dance.
Their passion for blues is evident in their inspiring classes, giving dynamic and energetic lessons with a focus on creativity, communication and connection within the partnership, developing a relationship with the music, and encouraging dancers to find their own blues voice.
Both trained teachers, Vicci and Adamo love to create new and intuitive ways to communicate technical concepts to their students. Their lessons are interactive and interdisciplinary involving drawing, discussions, giant elastic bands and even chopsticks!!!
They believe your body is a musical instrument and your dancing is the music you play, and will help you to discover the way your body moves in a whole new light.
By watching them dance, or joining their classes you will learn to really ‘feel’ the blues!
Bibi
Bibi has been dancing for 27 years (and teaching for 20!),
but it is only when she discovered the blues
that she found her true “perfect match”.
The overwhelming passion for blues music and dance quickly became a one-way ticket to the world. In
fact, she is a well-known face on the international scene, she travels all around Europe, USA and Asia to
deepen her knowledge, teach, share and spread all of her love and appreciation for the blues. She has
given birth also to several communities of blues dancers in Italy, teaching weekly courses and workshops.
Bibi holds a strong sense of respect for the values of African American culture, and for the importance of
researching and respecting the cultural roots and history of blues. What she loves about blues are the
breadth of blues music as well as the creativity, the freedom of expression and the deep connection and
communication with the music and the partner in the dance.
Bibi
Gas & Alba
Bibi
Bibi is also a known Dj, and for her, music is a great, continuous source of emotions, the true engine of
everything she does! She has been spinning the decks since 2014, inspiring tons of dancers all around the
globe and keeping the party jumping everywhere she went! She can Dj with different supports, including
Vinyls!
Aside from dancing, she is a nerd of body mechanics, in fact she is also a certified yoga instructor and she
holds a degree in Kinesiology and Movement Sciences.
Flouer
Flouer
Flouer Evelyn is a partner dance instructor and somatic life coach originally from New York City,
currently based in Turin, Italy. She has been teaching partner dance since 1999 and sharing her love of
blues dance across the globe since 2010. With her studies in Embodiment, MFA in dance, and diverse
movement background, what sets Flouer apart is her dedication to providing a holistic and multifacited
dance experience.
Throughout her career she has won plenty of competitions, but what really matters is that in the classroom
she has a warm and encouraging demeanor, caringly showing you how you can take another step towards
efficiency, ease, and finesse in your partnerships. Her three pronged teaching approach includes sharing
artistic inspiration, detailed technical skills, and cultural context from which the blues has evolved. .
“The reason to master technique is so the body does not prevent the soul from expressing itself” – la Meri
CLASSES
What is an advanced dancer?
A beginner dancer after a few years!
MUDDY
WATERS
You take regular blues dance classes or have attended blues dance workshops and festivals.
If you listen Two Blues song everyday…at least.
You are confident with your basics and have a pot of vocabulary that you play with on the social dance floor. You are here to take your dancing to the next level.
You want to expand your
vocabulary, refine your all important basics, and develop your musicality so you feel comfortable dancing to a range of tempos and different styles of blues music.
MUDDY
WATERS
You take regular blues dance classes or have attended blues dance workshops and festivals.
If you listen Two Blues song everyday…at least.
You are confident with your basics and have a pot of vocabulary that you play with on the social dance floor. You are here to take your dancing to the next level.
You want to expand your
vocabulary, refine your all important basics, and develop your musicality so you feel comfortable dancing to a range of tempos and different styles of blues music.
BIG BILL BROONZY
You take regular blues dance classes and attend blues dance workshops and festivals.
You are an experienced blues dancer and feel comfortable dancing to all tempos and different styles of blues music.
You listen 4 Blues songs everyday…at least!
You have strong lead/follow skills and understand the importance and role of each partner in blues dance.
You are here to take your dancing to the next level. You understand that great basics make great dancers and would happily spend classes on refining your technique and layering on top of it.
BIG BILL BROONZY
You take regular blues dance classes and attend blues dance workshops and festivals.
You are an experienced blues dancer and feel comfortable dancing to all tempos and different styles of blues music.
You listen 4 Blues songs everyday…at least!
You have strong lead/follow skills and understand the importance and role of each partner in blues dance.
You are here to take your dancing to the next level. You understand that great basics make great dancers and would happily spend classes on refining your technique and layering on top of it.
PARTIES & MUSICIANS
PARTIES & MUSICIANS
The Blues is danced in three:
You, me and the music!
Hot Shots
The project started in 2017, in collaboration with 'Slow Town Blues', a local blues dance school and association in Turin, Italy. The band has participated since the first edition of 'The Big Blues' and continues playing in events in Italy and the rest of Europe. In 2021 the band found its actual formation with Samuele 'Chico' Di Nicolantonio on guitar, Alessio Boschiazzo on drums and the Tabasco brothers, Boris, singer/harmonica player and Marco on bass. Their repertoire goes from the blues classics to some blues rearrangements of contemporary pop and rock music. Originals played with a fresh and irresistible sound, making you dance all night long, from Buddy Guy to Ben Harper.
Boris (Andrea Bo’ Rasco) is a natural-born frontman and a passionate student of afroamerican music. His great technical skills with the harmonica and a fine musical sensitivity allowed him to spread his blues soul through the years, in many musical projects, such as Night Riders Blues Gang, Inside Outside and Fratelli Tabasco.
Gloria and The Doctor
Gloria and the Doctors (Gloria Turrini and Riccardo Ferrini) are now well-known and esteemed names
among the professionals of the Italian music scene who, against all tendencies, starting from the roots
of the Blues let contaminate their path with other sounds of black matrix between trad jazz, gospel,
blues and funk.
The certainty is that the powerful dark notes of Gloria Turrini’s contralto, enriched by its strong and
brilliant personality, revive the music of the past through an energetic and exciting show where transpire
dynamics that go from the most romantic and sweet side of ballad up to the most hypnotic grooves of
blues and funk. It is no coincidence that in the course of her career many great Italian an international
musicians have turned to her and her incredible voice.
Andrea Mingardi, Max Gazzè, Giuliano Palma, Jackie Allen just to name a few.
A similar professional path is the one undertaken by Riccardo Ferrini, a highly esteemed guitar player
and with a career studded with collaborations alongside the Honey Island Swamp Band, Andy J Forest,
Jerry Dugger, Roberto Luti and many others, where thanks to his very personal style, he has been
conquering his vast share of audiences on both sides of the ocean.
This is the mix of characteristics that make Gloria and the Doctors a rare pearl that always knows how
to reach its maximum during the live performances.
All these fundamental experiences, accumulated over the years, merge into "Dat Nola Trip", recorded in
New Orleans and released for Brutture Moderne di Ravenna (Italy) in august 2023, demonstrating the
complete maturation of the artists.
Gloria Turrini and Riccardo Ferrini on resonator guitar, creators of this beautiful album, with 9 tracks
where 8 are original songs, have chosen to embellish the recordings with the help of amazing
musicians.
Andy J Forest (harp), Roberto Luti (guitar), Robert Snow (upright bass), Rosalynn Deroos (clarinet).
Once again blues blends with other genres to reach not only a wider audience, but also to touch
emotional strings that are difficult to reach, demonstrating, if ever there was the need, its
interdisciplinary and interracial value. And once again a woman carries on an original and winning
project, confirming - again in this case - that only together both halves of the apple can become a tasty
and succulent musical fruit.
ACTIVITIES
We want to honor all of your five senses:
1. Sight: Fantastic panoramas
2. Touch: Unique connections
3. Taste: Typical Greek cuisine and drinks
4. Hearing: Wonderful Blues music
5. Smell: The scents of Greek nature
All together? Don't be shy...
Swinging ZOO asd
Via Morgari 12, 10125
Torino Italy
C.F. 97835960010
The Big Blues