May 10, 2026
Mélissandre T-B & François-Félix Roy
Step Dance and Guitar
Workshops and Concert
Sponsored by Montpelier Performing Arts Hub
Christian Rouleau
Québécois Step Dance (Gigue) Workshop 12:00 - 1:15
with Mélissandre Tremblay-Bourassa
Ready to make some noise?
Jump into this high-energy introduction to Québécois step dancing and turn your feet into instruments. You’ll learn fun, accessible rhythms, build coordination, and tap into the infectious groove of this tradition. No experience needed.
This workshop is all about letting loose, having fun, and discovering what your feet can do. Warning: side effects may include spontaneous tapping!
Québécois Repertoire Workshop 1:30 - 2:45
with François-Félix Roy
Play traditional tunes and ready to level up your Québecois style?
Join François-Félix Roy (guitar, voice) for a lively, hands-on session diving into the driving rhythms and unmistakable feel of Québec traditional music. Explore core stylistic elements, try out foot percussion, and learn a tune you can take straight to your next jam.
Come ready to play - and don’t forget your dancing feet! Open to all melodic instruments.
Concert 4:00 - 5:30
with Mélissandre T-B & François-Félix Roy
and Fiona and Emmett (opening)
In this duo, delicacy and power find each other. François-Félix Roy draws from Québécois traditional tunes, Scandinavian melodies, archival songs, and mouth music to build a rich, layered guitar repertoire. Mélissandre T-B responds in movement — her distinctive language weaving Québec step dance, ballet, and contemporary forms into something spontaneous and precise at once.By turns playful, dramatic, and virtuosic, their performance is a conversation between two artists who share a deep reverence for tradition and a restless creative curiosity. The result is a finely crafted encounter where music and dance don't merely coexist — they listen to each other.
_JPG.jpg)
Christian Rouleau
Mélissandre Tremblay-Bourassa
Mélissandre T-B is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is rooted in the body and in movement. Trained at the Jeune Ballet du Québec, she has built a performance career that spans jig, ballet, and contemporary dance — bringing a rare technical range to everything she creates. As a performer, she has danced for Cirque du Soleil, Epcot Center (Disney World), La Bottine Souriante, and Les Sortilèges, and her choreographic voice draws fluidly from all three traditions to create work that is both rigorously crafted and viscerally alive.
Her interdisciplinary practice extends into poetry and film: her video work Rouge pamplemousse, which fuses spoken word with contemporary jig, premiered at FIFA 2021 and was a finalist for the Grands Prix Desjardins de la culture. A two-time finalist for the CALQ Award – Artist of the Year in Lanaudière (2021 & 2022) and winner of the Performing Arts Award at the 2018 Desjardins Cultural Awards, Mélissandre has been working professionally as a performer, choreographer, and director since 2003.
FB: Melissandre T-B
IG: melissandre.tremblay.bourassa
François-Félix Roy
François-Félix Roy is a rising voice in Québécois traditional music — a guitarist and singer whose playing breathes new life into the French-Canadian repertoire. His approach weaves the spirited energy of trad music with the intimacy of folk singing: from rousing war songs to quiet laments, all grounded in the rhythmic pulse of foot percussion and the delicate textures of fingerstyle guitar. His arrangements honor the tradition while making it feel immediate and alive.
His debut album Peines perdues (2023), produced by Éric Beaudry (De temps antan, La Bottine Souriante), has brought him to stages across Canada, Italy, and Denmark. A winner of the Aldor Emerging Artist Award at Festival Trad Montréal and a Canadian Folk Music Award nominee, François-Félix is also a dedicated mentor through the Ensemble Trad Jeunesse — making him as compelling a teacher as he is a performer.
Fiona & Emmett
Siblings who have been sharing a stage for over a decade, Fiona and Emmett Stowell are a well-regarded presence in the Vermont folk scene - young musicians whose instrumental skill and close family harmonies have earned them a reputation well beyond their years. Their repertoire roams freely across the trad map - New England, Cape Breton, Québécois, and Old-Time - but Appalachian old-time sits closest to their hearts, and it shows in the unadorned, lived-in warmth of their playing and singing.
Fiona is a fiddler, singer, and step dancer; Emmett is a multi-instrumentalist - piano, banjo, guitar, and voice. Together they were core members of the Young Tradition Vermont Touring Group for many years, and both were mentored by the late, legendary Pete Sutherland, whose spirit they carry into every performance. They have represented Vermont at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., and are beloved fixtures at contra dances and festivals across the region.
FB: @FionaandEmmett
IG: @fiona_and_emmett
