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While enjoying the success of the Festival of Basque Dance that took place in mid-September in Parana, the Association Urrundik of this Argentine city is now getting ready to participate on October 4^th in the First Basque Meeting on the West Gaucha Border, in Uruguayana, Brazil.  After this event, Urrundik will then concentrate on Semana Vasca, where they will also be with a delegation of more than 40 members. 

Parana, Argentina.  2014 has been without a doubt very intense for members of Urrundik, more specifically their dancers, who have completed an intense schedule of activities, not only locally but also traveling to other cities, invited to present their dances from the Basque Country.

Their next event, this weekend is rather special as it has a Portuguese accent.  “This allows us to take an international step, we have been in Uruguay prior and in Paraguay, but this is the first time that we’ll perform in Brazil,” Juan Carlos Borras, Urrundik president, proudly told EuskalKultura.com.  As Borras said, the club will travel to Uruguayana with eight dancers to participate in the First Basque Meeting on the West Gaucha Border, organized by the Rio Grande do Sul Basque club.

“This invitation emerged outside of our planned program this year, but we are very happy to be able to do it.  And as soon as we get back we’ll get back to Semana Nacional Vasca preparations.  We’ll be going with a delegation of more than 40 members,” Borras confirmed.

Basque Dance Festival

As every year in mid-September the Urrundik Association once again organized the Basque Dance Festival at the Municipal Theater February 3.  The show, nevertheless, was much more than a dance exhibition that included a theater group and musicians from the Basque club on stage, or more than 50 people in all.  The theater group performed fragments of the work La Huella Vasca (The Basque Footprint) while images of immigrants arriving to the port in Buenos Aires were projected on a giant screen.  It was like an introduction to the dances that came afterwards,” the club president explained.

The event lasted more than two hours and was played to a full audience, that is, nearly 300 people (Photos here).

Urrundik, Ambassador to the Coast

Urrundik’s activity is not limited to local events but also includes invitations by communities in other cities where there is no Basque club to represent the Basque Country.  That is why, at the end of August, they participated in the Festival of Communities in Santa Fe, and why in September they will represent Euskal Herria at the Immigrant Festival in San Benito as well as at Villa Urquiza’s anniversary.