Euskal Dantzak - Basque Folk Dance (Bertsolariak, Txistulariak and Danzariak 3)

This post is interspersed with pictures I took at the daily Basque Folk Dance performances in Plaza Nueva last August during the Fiesta.

In Britain, the educated classes like to make fun of folk dance, and most other people don’t really register its existence. Morris dancing is a national joke, despite being an ancient and valuable part of our culture, very elegant when done well, and sometimes accompanied by brilliantly played fiddle and accordion music.

There’s not so much snobbery in the Basque Country, where folk dance is a popular, dynamic and sophisticated phenomenon and an integral part of most Basque communities. We saw lots of it during our year in Bilbao, without  having to try very hard. Its popularity has grown with the post-Franco Basque revival, but it has never suffered the kind of dismal decline that has befallen Morris dancing, and it is dynamic and strong in every Basque community. It’s both a central part of religious and secular festivals (fiestas), and, in its more informal manifestations, a very popular social activity.

In fact, although Basque country dance is very different from Morris dancing in many respects, the two forms do have similarities, and what I’ve read suggests that they are likely to have the same origins. Although there are few facts on the ground about these origins, a theory that appears to be taken very seriously is that the origins are at least partly Moorish – a likely etymology for the word ‘Morris’ (connected also with the name of the medieval dance the ‘Moresca’), and anthropologists have pointed out many similarities in the physical and symbolic aspects of Basque and Morris dancing, as well as relationships with the world of medieval mummers' plays and so on.

Basque dance, however, has a much more complex and varied culture of dances and pageants associated with religious and secular fiestas. These contain a far more balletic, virtuosic element than Morris dancing that is sometimes quite spectacular and extremely skilful.

Basque folk dance is still mainly practised by people from the towns and villages rather than the big cities. One is immediately struck by the youth, vitality and skill of many of the dancers. Like so many aspects of Basque folk culture – verse, music, rowing, etc. – this is something that engages many young people, and that demands a huge amount of skill and practice. Just as every town around the Basque country produces its highly skilled rowing teams and folk music bands, every town produces highly skilled troupes of dancers from amongst its own population.

There are many different types of dance. Some are simple, relatively informal social dances; some are more complex, more formal dances. Of the latter, some have a dramatic or narrative element, and many of the dances are particular to a specific town and event. Some dances exist purely as dances, others are part of more extended pageants that take place on specific occasions. In many of the dances, props like swords, bows, and colourful canes are used. There are dances that are done on tables, dances that involve jumping on wine glasses, etc. etc.

In many of the traditional dances, men have the most interesting roles to play, performing a traditional ’display’ function – showing off their strength, muscularity and elegance to the women.   Whilst clearly this reflects the patriarchy of the past, it’s also extraordinary to see a society where so many men are so engaged with dance.

At the heart of Basque country dancing are a series of distinctive leg moves: like Irish country dance, the torso is kept very still, whilst the legs do most of the work. Unlike Irish dance, the arms are often held high. The high kick is the centrepiece, and one of the key moments where the dancers can show off their elegance and control. Two other important moves are (a) a kind of leg shake whereby one leg is held in the air with bent knee and the lower half is twirled, and (b) a foot twirl that involves jumping in the air and moving one’s two feet back and forth over each other whilst in the air.

Here are some photos from the internet that illustrate the leg kicks which are undoubtedly the most characteristic element of Basque dance:

And a few more pictures from the internet that capture some of the spirit and complexity of the dances perhaps better than I was able to:

Here’s a video of some stick dancing and maypole dancing in Plaza Nueva:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJNI_0vPKxU

And here’s a video of a classic example of simple male display dancing, outside the Teatro Arriaga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bThmiCSbIuQ

And here’s a couple of videos of some simpler social dancing also in Plaza Nueva:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQbhkbZZnYA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky3NZq6tZ7M

This video gives a sense of the scale of the event and the huge numbers of dancers involved:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUrI6LCYxAo

Basque ethnographers and anthropologists have done a great deal of work on trying to unearth the origins and meanings of the 400 or so existing dances. One of the leading experts (and also a choreographer) is a man called Juan Antonio Urbeltz who is regarded as the great figure of the post-Franco folk dance revival. His analysis of the metaphorical significance of Basque sword-dances is here: www.nabasque.org/Pages/Articles/Urbeltz-carnival.htm.

At the Teatro Arriaga, we saw a performance of Urbeltz’s reconstruction of a medieval Corpus Christi pageant in which angels and devils fight it out. Very extraordinary, the piece was constructed from elements of ancient Corpus Christi (‘Besta Berri’ = ‘new festival’) pageants and dances from a number of Basque villages.  The pageants are a mixture of medieval and later elements so the costumes range from medieval religious to Napoleonic military in style. This website gives an idea of the complexity of the folklore that’s involved: http://www.ysursa.com/pages/Besta-berri.htm. In these pictures from the show (taken from the internet), you can see many of the classic features of Basque dance – the varied costumes and props, the elements of pageant, the typical leg moves, and so on.

And here’s a video of part of the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQF7f57xJiU

Here are some pictures (taken from the internet) of actual Corpus Christi pageants in Basque towns and villages, complete with the characteristic bizarre hats worn by the dancers:

And here’s a video of one of them, where you can see some of the nifty footwork and splendid costumes:
http://www.dantzan.com/bideoak/http-media-dantzan-com-2009-06-14_besta-berri_ev-m2t.flv?b_start:int=193&-C=

To finish this post, here’s a lovely little video that communicates some of the Basque passion for dancing as well as showing off some of the beautiful landscape: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-UhSAJBm9E