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The group led by Aitor Alava taught its fifth dance workshop at the Tandil Basque club, this time for 30 dantzaris from clubs in the area.  The long day included both theory and practice, and concluded with a dinner where the groups could show the dances they learned. 

Tandil, Argentina.   The Dance Workshop taught by members of the Ekin Kultur Taldea was held on June 9^th at the Gure Etxea facilities.  There some 30 youth gathered from Hiru Erreka Basque club in Tres Arroyos; Lagunen Etxea in Laprida; Aberri Etxea in Viedma-Patagones and local dancers form Gure Txokoa.

The event was divided into two parts and addressed the historic territories of Zuberoa, Bizkaia, and Gipuzkoa.  In the morning from 10:00-13:30pm, the dantzaris began with a warm up, and then moved to dances from Zuberoa “Maskarada Gorria, and Maskarada Beltza.” Aitor Alava told EuskalKultura.com, “a pedagogical path set out to be so important and made this complex content easier to deal with, to get more satisfactory results.  Some technical steps had a leading role for example in the case of the Antrexata.”

In the afternoon, they began with “Mazurka,” with a couple of dances from Gipuzkoa like “Agurra,” and “Belauntxingo,” “that allowed participants to travel back to the times of Iztueta,” Alava explained. Among the group dances, they practiced “Ezpata Dantza” from Xemein, Bizkaia; and Aitor Alava also expaled the history of its choreography.  He also responded to questions from the participants about how to improve well-known dance steps like Murixkak, how to problems of rotating on the axis, and shared suggestions in relation to how to present projects for Gaztemundu 2018.

After the workshop, the hosts provided the dantzaris dinner where they were allowed to show what they had learned during the day.  The evening began with a group Aurresku.  The local dance group did “Lizartzako Makil dantza,” “Txulalai,” “Agintariena,” “Txotxongilo,” “Txapeloaz,” “Makil dantza,” “Fandango,” and “Arin Arin.” Finally everyone took to the dance floor and entertained with local rhythms like gato, chacarera, chamame and zamba.

“It was an excellent day and we hope that the dantzaris who participated learned a lot, as well as enjoy the materials that we gave them; a notebook fool of theory and a cd with music,” he added.  Alava wanted to conclude by expressing his gratitude to Gure Etxea in Tandil for its “confidence, before and during the event, as well as now.  Not to belabor the subject, but all of our heritage is still sequestered, and from time to time it is good to remember that,” Alava insists, referring to the conflict that still holds the group to Euskal Kultur Etxea.

More photos, here.