Dearest Fusion buddies,
As you can imagine, due to COVID-19, we’re sad to announce that Montreal Infused will unfortunately not be taking place this year.
As always, it warms our hearts to see the eagerness of our fusion friends who had either already registered, or shared the event, or messaged us to say they were excited to attend! We hope to see you all in a near future. Till then, stay safe!
Welcome all fusion lovers, explorers, part & first timers!
This year, Montreal Blue Infusion proudly brings you
Emily Webb & Jules Bertrand
We’re excited as ever to gather social dancers from all horizons in a swirl of happy feet, open arms & dancing hearts.
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Jules Bertrand Nouyadjam is a dance teacher, performer, choreographer and DJ! He is originally from Cameroon, Africa and has been living in Montreal, Canada since the age of 10. He has been a passionate dancer for over 15 years, exploring everything from African dances, brazilian zouk, kizomba, semba, salsa, afro-cuban, bachata and hip hop. He is inspired by fusion and body isolations. Director of Interfusion Danse!
Gaétan is passionate about couple dances of all kinds. This love of variety is rooted in his interest in fusion dance. After a start in Lindy-Hop followed by a few years of absence, it was when he met BLUES and WCS that his dance career began to take shape. He has been teaching these 2 styles for 6 years now. More recently, he added a colour to his palette with Brazilian Zouk; style which he has been teaching for 2 years. Gaétan founded the Pulsation Danse school in Quebec. He travels widely in Canada and the United States to train and participate in a multitude of dance events. He has over 20 years of teaching experience in dance, guitar and martial arts. It’s always a pleasure for Gaétan to transmit his knowledge and passion for dance, to those who want to learn.
Tybaldt Ulrich, a Champion competitor in West Coast Swing and Hustle, has been teaching since the mid 90’s. He competed, taught, and performed WCS, Hustle, Carolina Shag, Argentine Tango, Lindy, Salsa, Zouk, 2Step, Ballroom, and Balboa, traveling across the country with then wife and partner Hazel Mede-Ulrich. They directed teams and studied with many traditional masters in these styles. Known for his musicality, Tybaldt has an Ethnomusicology degree from the University of North Texas, focussed primarily on Ghanaian and Afro Caribbean percussion music. His teaching tends to focus on partnership, helping people become safe, creative, conversational dancers.
Tristan Stark has been a student of somatic disciplines for over 18 years. His orientation towards embodiment is informed by his long term study and practice of Tai Chi, Qigong, Zazen, Yoga Asana, and Somatic Experiencing — a therapeutic model based on animal psycho-biology for full recovery after overwhelming and stressful experiences. The heart of his work as a teacher and therapist is supporting individuals and groups to connect to the inherent resources and deep knowing that are available through experiential Eastern practices and encouraging their integration into an experience of embodied wholeness.
Erin’s love of dance began over 10 years ago with the rhythms of salsa. Since then, her infatuation with different dance styles continues to expand as she explores as many partner and solo dance styles as she can make time for. What’s driven her dance journey has been the desire to express what the music is saying to her in a way that feels authentic to her own body. That has meant “trying on” many different styles in order to find her own dance voice – from kizomba to house dance and many things in between.
Emily Webb has been social dancing since 1997, DJing since 2012. Through thousands of hours of social dancing and organizing events Emily has fine tuned her ear to what keeps people dancing all night long. The artistry of ordering songs, creating ebbs and flows, ups and downs, and dancer bliss is what Emily is after. Emily has DJ’ed for Fusion and Alt Tango dancers across the US and Canada. Including events such as Seattle Fusion Festival, Mission Fusion Extravaganza, Mile High Fusion, Motley Hue, Blues Recess events, Portland Alt Tango Festival, Connect Tango Festival, Burning Tango and more.
Kathleen discovered fusion dancing in 2012, coming into the dance with a background in blues, salsa, contra, and bhangra. Her first foundational fusion experience was at the Las Vegas Fusion Exchange, and she vowed to become a dj in part to recreate the excitement of that incredible weekend. For the past few years she’s honed her craft spinning at blues and fusion events in New York City, and has spun Internationally at DJX Fusion Weekend and DJX Summertime in Philadelphia, Motley Hue in NYC, and Montreal Blue Infusion. As a dj, Kathleen likes to create a mood that dancers can play with – whether playful or intense, sexy or soulful. She loves discovering new artists, and she can never resist a good cover.
Jody has been sharing her love of music and movement through DJing, since 2001. She dances vicariously through each and every person on the dancefloor and it shows. Jody has a passion for sharing artists’ stories told in song and uses them to shape the room’s mood, weaving a magical spell intended to keep you moving. Danceable songs are nice but Jody aspires to play music that compels you to dance, to forget your aching body, ignore your intended departure time and tempt you to put those shoes back on as you’re trying to leave. She makes her choices with dancer inclusion and types of dances in mind. Lindyhop, Blues, Balboa, Shag, WCS, Hustle, or a Fusion of styles, she’ll spin for it and you know it’s gonna be fun!
Justin began his dance journey with Contra at a Masonic lodge in Amherst, MA in 2011. He gleefully spun in circles for a few years before moving home to NYC, where he fell in love with both Blues and Fusion. Since then, Justin has hosted at Om Fusion (Seattle’s weekly Fusion dance), DJ’d events on two different continents, and gained a deep appreciation for the community and creativity present in the Fusion scene. He’s excited to be ramping up for the second year of The Dance Thing (a camping/dancing fusion event) this June!
Raised in the Durham, NC blues and fusion scene, Bo has spent years traveling, dancing and collecting music around the world. Drawn to organic rhythms, percussive beats and candlelit voices, he weaves traditional sounds and contemporary genres together into an intimate dance experience. Currently based in Philadelphia, he has spun tunes for local dances and international events such as DJX, Recess, Montreal Infused, Motley Hue and Toronto Dance Alchemy.
Sameer aka Smooth-ee started Djing with his brother’s turntable in the 90’s. Distributing Dance and Hip Hop mixtapes for his friends and family, he would also DJ and MC at local parties and weddings. His focus would later shift to social dances in 2009 while taking salsa, bachata and kizomba lessons. Smooth-ee was then introduced to Brazilian zouk when he participated at the First International Zouk Flashmob in 2012. Since he gradually made his way as a headliner DJ and dancer in various festivals and Congress in the Americas and Asia. In 2018 he did over 130 hours of lambada training with Master Braz Dos Santos in Key West, Florida as dancing and DJing lambada has become Smooth-ee’s priority. Locally, Smooth-ee co-organized the Get Your Zouk On Festival in Montreal for the last 5 years, founded his own lambada dance organization « Ilha Lambada » with weekly lessons and choreo training and hosted the first Lambada focused festival in Canada called Lambahia. mixcloud.com/Smooth-ee