Blues Dose Retreat 2026

July the 25th to August the 2nd

Penzion Statek Habří, Habří 19, Moravecké Pavlovice

FEW IMPRESSIONS FROM OUR FIRST RETREAT

RETREAT IN A NUTSHELL

  • The whole retreat runs from Saturday, July the 25th at 5 PM to the following Sunday, August the 2nd at 10 AM.
  • You can join for the whole week, or just for the first or second half.
  • Accommodation is available in the main building or in tents.
  • There will be 15 hours of blues dance classes.
  • Our main blues dance teacher for 2026 is Annette Kühnle from Germany. But she will not be the only one – at least four local blues dance teachers will accompany her. The list is a work in progress – more coming soon!
  • There are no classes on arrival and departure days. There will also be a day off mid-week to rest and recharge.
  • We’ll have two dance parties with live music – one on Tuesday and one on Saturday evening, meaning at the end of each half of the week.
  • Food will be next-level delicious – full board is included and it’ll satisfy vegetarians, vegans, and meat lovers alike.
  • The language of the Retreat is English. At least basic understanding of English is a must.
  • DIY activities – in other words „share what you love with others“ – are a wonderful way to spend your free time between classes and socials. We can’t wait to see what this year’s participants come up with.
  • Plenty of time a and space for relaxation – Perseides stargazing, giant outdoor hot tub, hiking, swimming, billiards, small pool, inspiring talks and lots of good vibes.

PRICES (SLIDING SCALE)

We are trying to make Retreat as affordable as possible for everybody, that’s why we are implementing sliding scale pricing this year again. Choose the standard price if you can afford it pls. By paying more than the standard ticket price, you enable us to offer tickets at a reduced price to those for whom participation would otherwise not be possible.

If you need to pay in more installments – let us know in registration form.

The price includes all lessons, accommodation, full board and all the accompanying program. You can buy extra drinks at the bar.

Cancellation policy: by cancelling before midnight of 30th May we will send you 50% back from the whole price, before midnight of 30th June we will refund 20%, thanks for your understanding. You deffinitely can find replacement for yourself if you can not come, in the same dancinf role. 

Confirmation of registration: If you register for full week we confirm your registration right away. If you register for half of the week we confirm your registration at the moment there is somebody else registering for the other half of the week so you together fill the whole week. We must have implemented this rule. Thanks for understanding.

whole week

Saturday – Sunday
Jul. 25th 5PM – Aug. 2nd 10AM

standard price
10.200 czk / €410

registration starts December 10th 8PM

1st half of the week

Saturday – Wednesday
Jul. 25th 5PM – Jul. 29th during the day

standard price
5.800 czk / €230

registration starts December 10th 8PM

2nd half of the week

Wednesday – Sunday
Jul. 29th during the day – Aug. 2nd 10AM

standard price
5.800 czk / €230

registration starts December 10th 8PM

supported price

If you would love to attend the Retreat but you are not able to pay standard price, let us know in the registration form. If we have extra support from people paying on the upper end of the sliding scale, we may be able to provide some additional partial scholarships/discounted places.

donor price

If you can afford to pay little extra money they will be added to scholarship fund. We can then help people who register for supported price to cover the difference between what they can afford to pay and standard price. We will keep private all donors and participants asking for supported price. If you want to help with donor price to the particular person you can do so – let us know in the registration form.

>>> registration starts December 10th 8PM <<<

LAST YEAR’S PARTICIPANTS WERE COMING FROM

CORE TEAM

Annette

Annette lives in Heidelberg, Germany, and is one of Europe’s most prominent champions for blues dance. As a teacher, dancer, DJ and organizer, she has been spreading her love for early Black American dances in general and blues dancing in particular for almost two decades, and is renowned Internationally for her expertise, dedication, energy, and kindliness. Her infectious appreciation and passion for blues music, dancing and history shines in every step she takes and every lesson she teaches.

Martin

Martin began his blues dance journey in 2018. From 2014 to 2019, he was devoted to swing dance (mostly Lindy Hop) and taught it at Prague’s Swing Busters School. He has also explored tango, boogie-woogie, contemporary dance, house dance, partner acrobatics and various martial arts. In the spring 2022 he co-founded the Blues Dose school in Prague with Pavla Tomanová, where he has been teaching regular lessons since May 2022. In June 2023, he completed a week-long Bluesology Teacher Training in Valencia, where he first met Edmilson. Furthermore, he is the visionary and organizer of the Retreat.

Tereza

Terka first encountered blues 15 years ago as a lindy hop dancer in Herräng. A few swing-outs later, she took her first blues class in Prague — and then hung up her dancing shoes for several years. She returned to the dance floor three years ago, and since then, her heart beats exclusively to the rhythm of blues. Teaching somehow happened to her along the way, and it’s still a huge — though beautiful — challenge. Besides blues and swing, she also spent some time with tango, Afro and house dance, and has been practicing yoga for the past ten years.

Veronika

If you have been on some Swing event in last ten years in Czech Republic, there is a huge chance she has been cooking there. Swing veteran, lovely person and great cook…

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LIVE MUSIC ON EVENING SOCIALS (COMING SOON)

Tuesday June 28th

Saturday August the 1st

TRANSPORTATION

We’re helping to coordinate carpooling for participants, as well as pickups from the train station if needed. Confirmed participants already got emails with detailed info. If you didn’t get email, let us know pls! 

The drive takes about 1 hour 50 minutes from Prague / 50 minutes from Brno / 2 hours 30 minutes from Ostrava.
If you’re coming by train, the nearest station is Rožná; the closest larger station is Bystřice nad Pernštejnem – from both stations we can arrange a car ride to the Retreat location.

If you are arriving / leaving on Wednesday you can do so at any time during the day.

FOOD

Meals will be provided in the form of full board. Veronika will be doing the cooking, and we’ll be helping her out in the kitchen. You can look forward to meals for meat-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans – please let us know your preference in the registration form. There will be draft beer and draft lemonade available, as well as other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Drinks will be charged separately. Your drink consumption is helping Retreat budget.

FEW WORDS FROM THE ORGANIZER

We are all trying hard to make the Retreat something special. We want to create welcoming and safe space where you can really meet with others. We want to make you feel at home. The level of your participation is completely up to you, no pressure, but we admit we would love to encourage you to share yourself with others for example by organizing some DIY activity – see below.

If you plan to join the Retreat, please register ASAP to help Martin stay sane 😀 If you feel so we will be grateful if you spread the word about Retreat, invite your friends etc.

ACCOMMODATION

We’ll have the guesthouse Statek Habří all to ourselves. There are 22 regular beds available, so it’ll be a cozy, intimate gathering – just the way we want it. There are three four-bed rooms and one two-story apartment with two rooms of five beds each – see the photos for details. Every room has its own private bathroom and toilet. Habří is our base, we could have change the location and make the Retreat bigger, but we don’t want to – 30 participants including teachers is the maximum.

We’ll have access to a 90 m² dance hall, a covered terrace, large outdoor heated jacuzzi, a small pool, billiard, ping-pong, and Wi-Fi… If you prefer to stay in your own tent there will be few places available but for the same price as beds in the building.

address: Penzion Statek Habří, Habří 19, 592 53 Moravecké Pavlovice

BLUES DANCE

A total of 12 classes, each 75 minutes long = 15 hours for participants joining for the full week, 6 classes = 7,5 hours for those attending either the first or second half of the week. The classes are designed as Open Level.

In addition to the classes, there will be plenty of time for social dancing – two dance evenings will feature live music, the others with recorded music.

Except from blues lessons you can look forward to:
blues dance history class
blues community discussion

FUSION DANCE

Fusion dance will be part of the Retreat this year again! Evgeniya Pautova will be in charge. You can look forward to two 75 minutes classes + two parties!

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE

(subject to possible change)

 

morning afternoon evening
Sat 25/7 arrival after 17:00 welcome evening + dance social
Sun 26/7 75 min blues dance class 75 min blues dance class
Mon 27/7 75 min blues dance class 75 min blues dance class
Tue 28/7 75 min blues dance class 75 min blues dance class
75 min fusion dance class		 blues live music social
Wed 29/7 day off day off welcome evening + dance social
Thu 30/7 75 min blues dance class 75 min blues dance class
Fri 31/7 75 min blues dance class 75 min blues dance class
75 min fusion dance class
Sat 1/8 75 min blues dance class 75 min blues dance class blues live music social
Sun 2/8 departure before 10:00

 

ACCOMPANYING DIY PROGRAM

In addition to dancing, playing pool, evenings in the hot tub, swimming in the pool, exploring the negbourhood and relaxing in all imaginable ways, we would like to invite you again to join the concept of DIY activities. There will be open slots in the program and you’re very welcome to suggest and organize for yourself and others any activity you enjoy.
Whatever you love doing and feel like sharing with others, you’re warmly invited to offer it to others. Participation is, of course, completely optional – even if just a few people join in, that’s totally fine. Ic can be anything.

As an inspiration – in previous years we enjoyed this „DIY activities“:

  • ACROYOGA intro
  • ORIGAMI workshop
  • KUSUDAMA (modular origami) workshop
  • CUDDLE PARTY including introduction to the topic & exercises
  • introduction to KNITTING
  • MINDFULNESS in the nature
  • FUN MUSIC QUIZZES
  • intro to SHIATSU massages
  • nature walk focusing on EDIBLE FLOWERS AND WILD FRUITS
  • DRAWING workshop
  • a taster of FOCUSING (connecting body, mind and emotions)
  • discussion about TRAINING OF DOGS
  • SLACKLINE
  • intro to BALFOLK dances
  • workshop LEGO PHOTOSHOOTING
  • AIKIDO & BLUES DANCE – looking for paralels
  • intro to house music vinyl DJING + house party