Catalonia - Art and Culture 2018

It is Saturday and it’s a beautiful day, but this isn’t why the streets of Sant Cugat, a town very close to Barcelona, are full of people. They have come to celebrate the National Meeting of the Basto- ners [Stick Dancers] of Catalonia. There are more than a thousand of them, all of whom perform the dance that make the stick dancers beat their sticks together. Are they dancing or fighting? Men, women, adolescents, and children are involved. The youngest are hardly strong enough to hit the sticks with the expected strength, but they do their best. This dance is also tradition in One of the most popular dances takes place as the dancers knock together the sticks they hold in their hands. age-old percussion

With ancient clothes, sticks, veils, and even flower garlands around their arms: this is how many of the folkloric dances are performed in Catalonia. Beyond the sardana A group of boys and girls dressed in black per- form a traditional Catalan which is still performed today in Òdena (Paisatges Barcelona). It is inter- esting how many others have been danced in the square all morning, at a meeting of the so- called “living dances” , in other words those still performed on some occasion somewhere in Catalonia. The peculiarity of the dance of cres- pelles is that the girls have a crespella, or a flow- er garland, hanging from their arms while they perform the choreography. Eating is forbidden

© oriol llauradó

© eric medous

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500 LIVING DANCES are still danced in Catalonia

other European countries, such as Portugal, the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. These dances have their own characteristics depending on the origin of the dancers. The strength with which the sticks are beaten together and the wrist po- sition are said to vary by location. The base is always a group choreography . The dancers face each other and and carry two wooden sticks which are around 40 centimetres long. They strike their sticks to the melody per- formed with traditional instruments like the gral- la , a high-pitched wind instrument, or the tabal , a percussion instrument. The Bastoners need to have admirable strength, skills, and agility to perform the dance. They wear long trousers, white shirts, a coloured sash and rope sandals. Some wear blue velvet trousers and others have bells on their ankles that bring joy to the rhythm of the percussion. They dance and create their own rhythm at the same time. This is all part of a dance that was popular in Europe in the 15th century, but which, according to the Catalan folklorist Joan Amades, might already have been danced in Catalonia as early as the 12th century.

until the party is over. This tradition dates back to the 18th century, when young bachelors gave the girls these sweets. Another group of dancers, this time from Olot (Pirineus), dress in sheepskin and dance with shepherds poles in their hands. In the end, they will form a structure with their ‘gayatas’ and will lift one of the dancers from the floor, who will shout “Xai Be”, referring to the sheep, an animal of great importance to the shepherds of the area. The Xai Be dance has been performed since the 15th century and celebrates the end of Lent. Today there are hundreds of living dances like these in Catalonia. The variety of choreogra- phies is infinite. However, the best-known dance in Catalonia is the sardana, which is danced in a circle with participants holding hands in a ges- ture symbolising brotherhood. It comes from northern of Catalonia, and is danced to the sound of the traditional instruments played by a group called a ‘cobla’. It was considered symbol of identity at the end of the 19th century.

GROUPS making up the Coordinator of Stick Dance of Catalonia

Stick dance and a band of gralles and tabals.

© maximo lenzo

© oriol llauradó

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