euskalkultura.eus

The group of musicians and dance masters have signed an agreement of collaboration with the University of the Basque Country to promote traditional music and dance in a university setting, even though its activities will also be open to the public.  The musician and dance masters from Aiko Sabin Bikandi, doctor of Ethnomusicology at the University of London and winner of the Premio max 2015, will be in charge of teaching classes.  His first activity will be a dance workshop on December 15. 

Vitoria-Gasteiz.   Javier Garaizar, vice-president of the Araba Campus at the University of the Basque Country, and Sabin Bikandi, representing the Aiko Taldea, have signed an agreement of collaboration to promote music and traditional dance in the university setting.  Aiko Taldea is a group of musicians and dance masters that have created a new style of teaching dance and help people enjoy traditional dance.  Throughout his ten year career, more than 4,000 people have participated in his hundreds of courses, workshops, dances, and performances by the group.

Now, at the university community at the Araba Campus the Student body, professors and other workers – as well as anyone else interested, as all activities are open to the public, can enjoy another way of learning and doing dance that is progressive, easy and fun, since Aiko always making enjoyment a priority when doing plaza dances, or others like the paso-doble, the jota, polka, puerro, mazurka the schottische or jauziak, among others.  The first dance workshop on December 15 and Dantzaldi Ibilitaria (weekly classes in 2016) are the first organized activities.

Sabin Bikandi, one of Aiko’s musicians and dance masters will be in charge of teaching the classes.  He has a doctorate in Ethnomusicology from the University of London and this year was awarded the prestigious Premio Max for the best musical composition and stage show.  Besides researching traditional Basque dance, Bikandi is a composer, arranger and his work covers all styles and genres in the area of txistu music.  Superior Professor of Music, he has worked in various schools; and as an interpreter he highlights his work as a member of the Axlor group, as a danbolin-jole in the Municipal Band in Bilbao as well as founder of the Aiko Taldea.

Dance workshop on December 15

The first activity of the agreement will be a dance workshop on December 15 at 6pm at the University Pavilion, as part of the EHUskARABAnda activities, an initiative to promote Euskera at the university that was begun in 2012 on the Araba Campus.  The workshop, is also open to the public and is an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in learning traditional dances to experiment with the Aiko Taldea method, “more natural, relaxed, fun.  Another way to learn dance.”

Dantzaldi Ibiltaria throughout 2016

Starting the activities on the Araba campus will also permit them to be extended to Vitoria-Gasteiz with a Dantzaldi Ibiltaria that Aiko Taldea has already taught in Bilbao at the Bizkaia Aretoa, at the University campus in Abandoibarra.  This will take place on the Araba campus in 2016, on Thursdays from February to June, this event (weekly 90 minute classes) are for anyone interested who can choose their level beginners at 6pm and more advanced dancers at 7:30pm and this is also open to the public even to people from the university and people under the age of 30 can enjoy discounted enrollment.

To enroll email: bulegoa@aikotaldea.eus or call: 634 423 539 or you can also do so at class.  For those who would like to try it out, classes will be free in February, and you can enroll after the course is complete.  Enrollment is already open.

Dantzaldi Ibiltaria by Aiko Taldea is sponsored by Kutxabank and besides at the Bizkaia Aretoa in Bilbao, is also taught in Donostia at the Victoria Eugenia Theater, in Durango a the Kafe Antzokia Plateruena, as well as in Markina, Gernika, Galdakao and Berastegi.  Now, through this agreement with the university, the capital of Araba joins with Aiko Taldea who was present this summer participating in the huge dance at the Matxete Plaza during the La Blanca festivities.

This is the second agreement that Aiko Taldea has participated in at the university, after signing one last year on the Bizkaia Campus, its activities enjoyed huge participation.  The initiative included carrying out several workshops, talks and dances at the Bizkaia Aretoa.  Among these, that of Kulunkaz, a dance workshop for families with small children, should be noted, courses aimed to disseminate the repertoire of dance among musicians.  Another is Jotalariak, an initiative that has brought different ways of understanding the jota with the presents of teachers and dance from other places in Spain closer together, among others.

Aiko Taldea, along with live performances, courses and workshops, also has 10 albums of dance music attributed to them.  They have also led research initiatives and the diffusion of the heritage of popular culture like “Fasioren Mendia” an exhaustive work on the life and work of Bonifazio Arandia, or “Urraska-Dantza jauziak. Sagasetaren bidetik” a multimedia recompilation of the complete dance repertoire called jauziak in collaboration with the University of Nevada, Reno, among others.

Website: www.aikotaldea.eus
Facebook: Facebook.com/aikotaldea
Twitter: @aikotaldea
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aikotaldea

Dantzari Ibiltaria - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdI0W1Cmusg&feature=youtu.be
Oinak Kantuz CD-Marijo (tango): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQ5Qb2huoM&feature=youtu.be
Soken dantza CD-Electric jota: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8QMBtigSjM&feature=youtu.be