ALBERT FERRAN
I’ve loved to dance since I was a child, and in 1996 I finally discovered folk dancing. Then one magical evening in 2000, between waltzes at Plaça del Rei in Barcelona, I was invited to a swing dance. That’s when I started dancing lindy. Enthralled with social dancing, I discovered balboa in 2005, and towards the end of 2006, Gloria and I began teaching this amazing dance locally and growing the scene in Barcelona. In 2011, we started teaching international workshops, and in June 2014 during a competition in the US, I had a personal crisis that made me question whether the way I danced was consistent with who I was and how I felt about partner dancing. That’s when I decided to embark on a different path.
NEUS CASTELLS
I discovered swing by happenstance at Parc de la Ciutadella, in Barcelona. The music and partner dancing captivated me, and in 2007 I started taking lindy hop classes, then solo jazz, incorporating balboa in 2009 by taking classes in Barcelona and at international workshops. Since then, I’ve extended this fascination with balboa to lindy hop and other swing dances. I’ve shared this passion by participating in jams, swing events and competitions, and by training, djing, performing and teaching classes, constantly looking to learn and discover everything that swing enables you to express both individually and with a partner. The way I see it, the definition of a successful day is one in which I have the privilege of dancing and learning something new!
NEUS & ALBERT
We started dancing and training together in July 2015, which soon led to teaching weekly Balboa classes in Barcelona and abroad, along with a desire to continue learning and to grow the scene. We quickly saw the need to dig deeper into certain aspects of partner dancing and the language we share in order to empower dancers and foster more fluid, dynamic communication between them. This led us to develop a partner-dance technique in which both partners are equal, focusing on social dancing, improvisation and the philosophical and human elements of the dance while carefully respecting the fundamentals of balboa in its original form. This is Balanced Dancing.