Dance Blender

I get the negative reviews. The venue was quite small for the amount of people, it was annoying to share the place with other events and the photographers made me feel uncomfortable from time to time.

But it still was an amazing event. The orga team put a lot of effort in it, you could see. Everybody (staff and people attending) were super friendly and welcoming, making you feel like part of a big group. After 1-2 days everybody had this happy smile on their face from dancing, feeling, socializing, expressing their selfs.
I really liked the topics of the many classes, great, including teachers sharing their knowledge. I leant a lot about my own dancing and improved in feeling, showing what I feel, expressing myself through dance, learning new techniques. There were special classes like for example yoga as well. You could also just rest. There was a good atmosphere. I felt safe, respected and happy. The music was not too loud, even at the parties. It was a lot of fun to dance with so many people or just sit down in between and talk to them, to make some really good connections. And overall it was a lot of fun.
I definitely would go again!

Great opportunity to think partner dancing different!

Resume - Even though I met nice people and had nice moments, I will not come back as long as this event remains the same.

Location - Very bad. Way too small, smell friture and meat at dinner time, way too hot (felt like in the hammam...). It is not normal to be 100+ in a small room for Brenderson's workshops.

Workshops - Okeyish but did not fulfill the promise of mixing dancing styles. Despite their obvious good skills, some of the teachers were paratrooped in the event without even knowing what fusion is. Workshop were mostly "exploration" focused and very few on technicity.

Music - Lack of variety, I spend half of the time feeling like I wasn't willing to dance on it. Live music was a nice idea but not good quality at all.

Overall organization - Very poor. I paid for additional options that were not filled and will be reimbursed, the care team was not well recognizable nor brieffed, timetables are awful (e.g. lunch time from 15 to 17h). The main organizer does not delegate enough to the volunteers and other co-organizers.

The Photographer - Terrible. I had a photographer at 10cm of my face with an external flash during a breathing workshop, a moment supposed to be calm and focused, and we all complained about it. Most of all, I understand the need for nice pictures but it felt way too much and fabricated.

Conclusion - There is a huge issue of vision of what the event should be. I strongly recomment the organizers to question themselves and start from the basics, including the well-being of the participants and what such an event is supposed to be.

I didn't like that we had to actively seek a partner every time we changed, It causes friction and people tend to stay together whereas other were left out.