DANCE TEACHERS

Lee Otterholt Lee has been teaching International folk dance at major festivals, workshops and camps in Europe, the US and Asia for the last 20 years.  He also leads folk dance trips to many parts of the world.  Whenever he can, Lee brings not just the steps, but also style, improvisation, self-expression and spontaneity back into the folk-dancing traditions where these elements are a central part of the tradition. He never loses sight of the fact that we recreational folk dancers dance because it is fun, and because these dances mean something to us just as they were fun and meant something to the village dancers before us! You may recognise his name as he arranged the steps of the very popular dance Cobankat.  He has created many professional choreographies including for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Norway

Gergana Panova Gergana is a specialist of Bulgarian folk dance.  She also teaches International folk dance.  She was born in Sofia, Bulgaria and danced and choreographed for the Filip Kutev Bulgarian National Folk Ensemble.  Gergana devoted herself to the research of folk dance traditions and for 23 years she directed the Dance Archive and Ethnochoreology department at the Institute for Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in Sofia.  Currently she is a professor of International Dance in Essen.    Recreational folk dance groups and major dance festivals all over the world have enjoyed her teaching.  She has a reputation for having a most delightful way of teaching dance and sharing her extensive knowledge, which has made her so popular with folk dancers.