Jaap Leegwater is a folk dance instructor and choreographer from Amsterdam, Holland. He became interested in Bulgarian dances after a meeting with Bulgarian choreographers and dance ensembles on a tour to Holland. Since 1970 he has engaged in Bulgaria’s rich dance folklore and spent many months in Bulgaria. He has studied at the State Choreographer’s Schools in Sofia and Plovdiv and has taken part in the rehearsals of several dance ensembles, both amateur and professional. During his latest stay in Bulgaria he travelled all over the country, visiting villages where he collected many authentic dances and songs with the help of the elderly inhabitants. The material he collected in Bulgaria forms the basis of the Bulgarian folk dance courses and workshops he is giving throughout Holland and Belgium.
He made a record with Dutch musicians playing Bulgarian folk dances and published several articles and booklets on Bulgarian dancing folklore in his own country.
These activities contributed to the increasing popularity of Bulgarian folk dances among many Dutch and Belgian amateur folk dancers. Mr. Leegwater still undertakes study trips to Bulgaria, not only to collect new material, but to improve his own knowledge of the style, character and interpretation of the Bulgarian dance.
On this album you will find a collection of fourteen popular folk dances and songs which he especially selected for his dance classes from previously issued Baikanton recordings.