This group is the only one to perform Oñati’s Corpus Christi dances. They perform them every year during Boise’s Saint Ignatius festival the last weekend of July. Some of the dancers in this group dance no where else and only on this day. Today the youngest dancers are 18 and the oldest are in their early forties.
The first time they performed the Corpus dances was in 1979 in San Francisco at the first NABO convention. They performed the Martxa accompanied by their castanets. The following year, still under the auspices of the Oinkari dancers they performed the majority of the dances during a routine performance, then on the next weekend their second performance was in church. Following this the Corpus dances were removed from the normal Oinkari repertoire and the Oñati dancers were formed.
It takes place at Boise’s famed Saint John’s Cathedral. The dancers process to the church and dance outside before the mass, inside during mass, and finally again outside after mass. Until 1995 they used costumes created by Begoña Ysursa. Since 1995, however, they have used those created by Boise Basque club member Barb Rocheto. Not counting its first year these dances have only been performed two other times outside of the Cathedral. Once in 1985 in Oñati in the Basque Country and the second in 1995 when they performed at Boise’s Morrison Center. (They also performed them at the NABO convention in Salt Lake City in 1983.)
Twelve dancers routinely perform these dances. Only after performing with the Oinkari dancers for four years, can a dancer advance to the Oñati group. In 1980 at the 20th anniversary of its first performance, Mike Irizar, the captain of Oñati’s Corpus dancers, performed as the captain of the Boise group. John Ysursa, originally from Boise, has been for years the group’s director and coordinator.
Street address: 601 Grove Street
City: Boise
City code: 83702
State/Province: Idaho
Country: United States (USA)
Phone: 1 (208) 342-9983
Fax: 1 (208) 331-5097
E-mail: john.ysursa@verizon.net
Web: see
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