At the NHM 2013 in Järna (Sweden), Vincent Michaud gave a workshop on the relationship between dance and music exemplified in the gavotte bigoudenn, a dance from Finistère (= finis terrae, the westernmost department of France).
The workshop had two parts:
In part 1 (dance), Vincent taught the participants to dance the gavotte bigoudenn. Dance is the tool we need to gain a thorough understanding of rythmical patterns, stressed-times in the musical phrase and style. The dancing workshop was open to all, even those who don’t play music, or don’t want to be spoiled by terrible wirestrung horrors, or fear the madness of the teacher.
In part 2 (music), participants learnt to play these dances by learning their separate formulettes in order to bake individual suites of dances, using the rhythmical patterns we found during dancing, and blending techniques in order to produce the wanted bright, chic and energetic style.