Month: January 2026

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Airboxes: workshop and bal, Sunday 1st February

The fantastic Airboxes are back in Sheffield for us!

Two men. Two melodeons. A lot of energy on a big stage.

Airboxes are a dynamic accordion duo from Flanders. With their compelling musical cameraderie Bert Leemans (chromatic) and Guus Herremans (diatonic) perform original compositions for balfolk dance transporting their audience to a magical world. We are thrilled to be able to host them again in Sheffield.

See more about the band at: www.airboxes.be

Here’s the plan:

3.30pm-4.15pm Beginners dance workshops
Come and learn the basic dances. This is suitable for absolute beginners or those with some experience, or come along and help if you’re more confident. Musicians Jo Veal and Anna Pack will be playing music for the workshop.

4.30pm-7.00pm Airboxes Bal
Both dancers and music lovers will enjoy the energy and complexity of the duo and their compositions. Dancers can revisit traditional balfolk dances in couples or communal groups, or invent dance moves, inspired by the rhythms and melodies. Music lovers can sit and absorb these atmospheric compositions and the inspiring playing. An interval provides an opportunity for chatting and rehydration.

7pm-10pm Shared meal and session
Bring and share buffet style. All welcome to join! There’ll be a bar too for 7pm-9pm offering beer, wine and some soft drinks; please don’t bring your own alcohol.


Venue
Walkley Community Centre, Fir Street, Sheffield, S6 3TG
This is a lovely hall, with a great dance floor, plush curtains, and an impressive stage.  There is (limited) parking round the side of the venue.

Tickets
Bal + beginners dance workshop: £8/£12/£16

Buy tickets via Ticketstripe in advance and secure your place at this fabulous event!
(Tickets may be available on the door, if they haven’t sold out in advance.)

Save the date and tell your friends!

All the best,
Eurosesh xx

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Thursday 8 January: Eurosession plus Sociable Bourrées workshop

Come and play with bourrée formations

As we recombine after festivities and frosty nights, for January’s Eurosession workshop we welcome Andrew Swaine and Anna Pack. See more about the workshop below, and join us on Thursday for some interesting adventures in the land of bourrées. 

As usual, we’ll follow the workshop with a more eclectic Eurosession, in which you can contribute dance tunes, request your favourite dance, or relax, get a drink, and chat.  For the workshop and for dancing, we recommend wearing comfortable shoes that can turn easily.  And of course, bring an instrument if you’d like to play in the session. 

Dance workshop: 8pm – 9pm
Eurosession: 9pm – 11pm
Venue: Shakespeare’s Pub ~ S3 8UB

About the workshop

Bourrée workshop with Andrew Swaine and Daisy Black, Chippenham Folk Festival 2025. Credit: Sawney White Bird on YouTube

If you are interested in shapes and tessellating movements, this will be a great workshop to get to. Bourrées are often danced opposite a partner, coordinating between partners to swap position and introduce variations. In this workshop, building on that basic framework, you can learn some interesting bourrées for larger numbers of dancers, improve your capacity for nifty turns, practice moving with unflustered smoothness, and give your brain a minor workout in readiness for the year to come. 

Andrew Swaine is a caller who is a whizz at guiding a large roomful of people through complicated shapes for ceilidhs, contra and playford as well as balfolk.
Anna Pack is a musician and dancer who performs and teaches driving danceable rhythms on diatonic accordion. 

Donations
We suggest £5 for the workshop and/or the session. Any extra helps us to offer affordable entry to our events, and provide fair fees to our experts and helpers. We accept cash, or PayPal transfers (see our donations page), or you can instead contribute by teaching or playing for dancing.

Caring for others
We welcome diversity in our community, and encourage you to look out for everyone’s well-being.

Get involved
If you like organising gigs, getting publicity out, playing for or teaching a workshop, or can offer any photographs we could use in publicity, then we’d love to hear from you.

See you soon, x Eurosesh

Reminder – we’ve an exciting gig with Airboxes coming up:
Sun 1 February: Intro Workshop, Afternoon Bal, Session and Shared Meal.
More info coming soon on Facebook