Belgien

CANTECLAER   Zwevegem


HISTORY
: After a modest start in 1978, we grew in the course of the next years to a fully skilled folk dance group of about thirty dancers and ten musicians with an average age of thirty years.

With the weekly rehearsals we intend to reach a high level and we also aim at getting a tight team in an agreable atmosphere.

THE GROUP: The folk dance group Canteclaer consists of:

  •         a group of adults of thirty dancers.

  •         a youth group of more or less 20 young people (age 12 to 16).

  •         a children’s group of about 80 children (agen 6 to 12).

  •         an orchestra of ten musicians, who ensure the musical accompaniment.

TRADITIONAL COSTUMES: They are a composition, based upon traditional elements from our popular culture, e.g. the spotted handkerchief, the apron, the working shirt. Very special is the handmade bonnet with a rose pattern for the girls. The costume is uniform and is completed for some performances with typical accessories like the blue smock, yokes, caps, etc.

OUR PROGRAM: The dance program, that is mostly brought as a suite, consists of Flemish dances. These dances are to be situated in the spheres of rites, craftmanship or entertainment and are inspired by the seasons (spring, harvest) or by crucial moments of life (birth, marriage).

These partly traditional, partly recently created dances show a great variety in tyle (courtdances, countrydances), tempo, figures, composition (men, women, mixed), music and dancing accessories (sticks, swords, clogs).

A performance can, when agreed in advance, be adapted to the needs or opportunities, e.g. a festival program of twice twenty minutes or separate dances that fill an entire evening.

REFERENCE: Festival in Zwevegem. Every three years we organize our own folk dance festival with the participation of three or four foreign groups under the motto ‘The world in Zwevegem’. Canteclaer not only performed on inland festivities or festivals (Schoten, Dendermonde) but was also an appreciated guest in France(Rodez, Rennes, Libourne), Denmark (Horsens), and Germany (Lorsch).

V.V.K.B.: Our group is a member of the Flemish folk art movement V.V.K.B., a coordinating organization of which the most important aim is the promotion of Flemish folk art in all its aspects: dance, singing, flag-waving, as well in our own country as abroad.

We achieve this by:

  •         education: dance courses, management, training....

  •         research and publication of dances.

The V.V.K.B. is also intensively active on a european level with the ‘Europeade’. This is a meeting of about 6.000 folklore artists from all over Europe under the motto ‘Unity in variety’, This event takes place every year in an different european city (Vienna, Antwerp, Munich, Valladolid, Turin, Horsens,...)