It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment Laurens fell for the enchanting sounds of balfolk.  His interest in folk music seems to have sprung from a love of classical music and a youthful aversion to modern sounds.  He was searching for a place to learn Uillean pipes, but that quest led him down a different path.

During his secondary school years at Sint-Lievens College in Ghent, around the age of 15 or 16, Laurens first encountered Boombal. He went to a Boombal in the school hall with some classmates, where he made his first, somewhat clumsy attempts at bourrée. He didn't understand much of it then, but he had fun.

He quickly got a taste for it, and a Boombal Intiem with "Donder in 't Hooi" at Sint-Lievens College sealed the deal.  However, apart from the annual Boombal events at the Ghent Festivities, balfolk faded into the background for a few years, until the itch returned and, in his mid-20s, Laurens signed up for boombal lessons.

From that moment on, things moved fast. Laurens was immersed in the world of balfolk and discovered it was much bigger than just Boombal. At the Boombal Festival, during a blindfolded workshop on leading and following, he met Emily. She immediately made him feel welcome.  Soon after, he met Tim through Emily, and a close friendship blossomed.

Today, Laurens has been a keen dancer for years and has attended Balfolk festivals like Danstage Enschede, Funambals, Prague Balfolk Immersion, CaDansa, and of course, the Boombal Festival, which he tries to attend every year.

Balfolk gives Laurens a sense of security, with its structure of rules and steps, yet it also allows for interpretation and variation. It gives him a purpose, and over the years he has learned to express emotions through dance, something he never experienced with pop music, techno, or anything else. The music touches him in a way that no radio station ever could.  May that love never fade.