February has been a very intense but also enjoyable month for me.

We had the very first Dance and Speak Italian workshop (Balla e Parla Italiano) in Chester as well as the walkshop Discovering Art (Alla Scoperta dell’Arte ),

Both are workshops for everyone who wants to learn Italian in Chester and is looking for a real Italian experience.

However, they cater for different levels: the Dance and Speak Italian workshop (Balla e Parla italiano ) is for people who have at least a beginner level of Italian (or some knowledge of it) whereas Discovering Art (Alla Scoperta dell’Arte ) is for people having with at least a lower intermediate level of Italian.

In this blog post I’m going to tell you how it was to run for the very first time one of these creative workshops. And… I’ll do it in Italian.

Fear not, there is also the English translation which will allow you to learn more words. 

And here is the best part: you can read AND listen to my Italian story for beginners, so you can practice your reading, listening and pronunciation at the same time!

I’ll start by telling you how my first Dance and Speak Italian workshop went.

Listen to the Italian story for beginners below and read along + download my Italian short stories study guide with more short stories and learning activities right here

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Il primo workshop (the first workshop)

E’ sabato quindici febbraio, Ed e un giorno molto speciale. E’ il giorno del primo workshop “Balla e Parla Italiano“. Mi alzo alle otto e dopo aver fatto colazione e raccolto il materiale per la classe, esco di casa.

It’s Saturday 15th of February and it’s a very special day. It’s the day  of the first “Dance and Speak Italian” workshop I got up at eight and after having had breakfast and collected the material for the class, I get out of the house.

Sono le 10 di mattina a Chester. E piove (che sorpresa!!).

It’s 10 am in Chester. And it’s raining (how surprising).

Corro sotto la pioggia. Non voglio fare tardi poichè ho un appuntamento con la proprietaria del Old Custom House, un pub in Watergate street a Chester. La proprietaria è stata molto gentile poichè si è offerta di aprire il pub in anticipo per me. 

I run under the rain. I don’t want to be late as I have an appointment with the owner of the Old custom House, a pub in Watergate street in Chester. The owner is very kind as she offered to open the pub early for me.

Arrivo al pub alle dieci e trenta tuttavia … è tutto chiuso. Allora, provo a telefonare per farmi aprire la porta, ma… nessuno risponde. Comincio a preoccuparmi: “Non è che hanno dimenticato che oggi ho il workshop ‘Balla e Parla Italiano’?”

I arrive at the pub at 10.30, however…everything is shut. So, I try to phone to make them open the door, but… no one is picking up the phone. I start worrying, “Have they forgotten about me having the workshop ‘Dance and Speak Italian’ today?”

Chiamo altre tre volte, ma risponde solo la segreteria telefonica. Intanto, la pioggia cade incessantemente. Chiamo ancora una volta e finalmente qualcuno risponde al telefono. E’ la proprietaria del pub: “Sto arrivando!”

I call three more times, but I get only the voice mail. Meanwhile, it’s pouring. I call one more time and finally someone answers the phone. It’s the pub owner, “I’m coming!”.

La proprietaria mi apre la porta: “Ciao, dolcezza, non preoccuparti non ci siamo dimenticati di te/ Scusa il ritardo ma chi doveva venire ad aprirti non si è presentato!”

The owner opens the door, “Hi, hun, don’t worry we didn’t forget about you. Sorry for being late but who was supposed to open you didn’t show up!”

“Finalmente!” penso, tirando un sospiro di sollievo!

“At last!” I think, with a sigh of relief.

Vado al piano di sopra del pub, dove comincio a sistemare la stanza in attesa del workshop. In pochi minuti, tutto è pronto. La musica, il testo della canzone da tradurre con i movimenti di danza, i portablocchi per i partecipanti e tutto il resto.

I go upstairs where I start to set up the room waiting for the workshop. In few minutes, everything is ready. The music, the song lyrics to translate with dance movements, the clipboards for the participants and everything else.

L’obiettivo di questo workshop è imparare nuove parole ed espressioni in italiano con l’aiuto di una canzone italiana e i movimenti di danza. Abbiamo un tema: fare un’invito e organizzare un’uscita fuori.

The aim of this workshop is to learn new Italian words and phrases with the help of an Italian song and dance movements. We have a theme: to make an invite and organise a day out.

Questa è una classe per tutti coloro che vogliono imparare l’italiano e amano la musica e ballare. E’ adatta a tutti i livelli, dal principiante in su.

This class is for everyone who wants to learn Italian and love music and dance. It’s an all level class, from beginners onwards.

Alle undici  i partecipanti cominciano ad arrivare. E’ un piccolo gruppo, quindi ognuno di loro potrà avere la mia completa attenzione.

At eleven all the participants start arriving. It’s a small group, so every single one of them will be able to have my undivided attention.

Alle undici, arriva anche Chris, pronto a a documentare questo primo workshop di Balla e Parla italiano. Se vuoi, puoi guardare il suo video su TikTok o sotto.

At eleven, Chris arrives too, ready to document this first “Dance and Speak Italian” workshop. If you want, you can watch his video on TikTok or below.

Quando tutti sono arrivati, come in tutte le classi di ballo che si rispettino, cominciamo con un …riscaldamento,  La canzone su cui balliamo ha dei verbi in italiano e noi ne mimiamo (o balliamo!) il significato.

When everyone arrives, like in all dance classes, we start with a… warm up. The song we dance has some key verbs in Italian and we mime (or dance) their meaning .

Dopodiché, ci focalizziamo sul tema del giorno. Facciamo diverse attività (principalmente fisiche) per memorizzare il vocabolario di oggi fondamentale. Poi traduciamo la canzone del giorno con dei movimenti di danza

After, we focus on today’s theme. We do different activities (mainly physical) to memorise the main vocabulary. Then, we translate the song of the day with dance movements.

Infine, facciamo un esercizio creativo per usare il vocabolario imparato oggi. Questo è uno dei miei preferiti perché fa pensare molto gli studenti come strutturare le frasi in italiano.

Finally, we do a creative exercise to use the vocabulary we learn today. This is one of my favourite exercise because makes students think how to structure sentences in Italian.

I partecipanti si sono divertiti moltissimo e sentono di aver imparato molto alla fine della giornata.

The participants have had lots of fun and feel they’ve learned a lot at the end of the day.

Ecco alcuni dei loro commenti.

Here are some of their comments:

“Actions with words help you learn so much quicker!”

“I liked that it was a small group size and I didn’t feel intimidated. I also really liked the preparation tasks for the class which presented very good ways to learn words and spellings.”

“This class made me think! I learned how to structure my sentences in Italian by taking words in a song.”

“It was the best way to learn because we had fun with it!”

Se vuoi unirti a loro la prossima volta e divertirti con noi a imparare l’italiano ballando, puoi iscriverti al workshop Balla e Parla italiano qui.

If you’d like to join them next time and have fun learning Italian through dancing, you can sign up for the Dance and Speak Italian workshop right here

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If you enjoyed this story, you’ll also enjoy my Italian short stories study guide with more short stories and learning activities right here

A presto,

Ermy***