Here is the schedule of events for Ezpalak 2009

May 23, Saturday, Pamplona

• 17:30 Parade through the streets of Old Town.
• 18:00 EZPALAK International Dance Festival in the Burgos Square. Teams from Basque Country and abroad.

* In case of bad weather the festival will be held in the auditorium of the Salesians.

May 24, Sunday, Eibar

• 12:00 Parade of the XLIV-Euskal Jaia from Urkizu to Untzaga square.
• 12:30 EZPALAK International Dance Festival in the Untzaga Square. Teams from Basque Country and abroad.

* In case of bad weather the festival will take place at the Coliseo theater.

Ezpalak 2009 will be focused on pre-classic dance forms

Sword dances, sitck dances and dances with arcs were the subjects of the first three Ezpalak festivals. This year we left the tools on one side and we will focus our attention on the feet. Dances of character (danses de caractérer) or preclassic dance forms will be the protagonists of the festival that will celebrate the 23 and May 24 in Pamplona and Eibar.

Traditional dances that will be shown at the Festival Ezpalak 2009 share among other features a refined technique of dance, a choreographic alphabet comprising steps of great difficulty and exigent execution, reference guides for the combination of steps, development procedures based on the choreography construction of phrases through a combination of steps and the union of words leading to dance, or a teaching methodology that allows the formation stages of future dancers and dancing masters.

No doubt the sight of these dances in the festival will allow us to visualize the matching characteristics better than through any textual explanation. In this year’s festival we will see traditional dances of Provence, Scotland, Zuberoa, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia.

Ezpalak 2009 will be held on May 23 and 24

Organized by groups Duguna and Kezka, the International Festival of Traditional Dance Ezpalak will be held on May 24 and 23 in Pamplona and Eibar respectively.

Ezpalak is an international festival of traditional dance. First realized in 2006 in Eibar and the focused subject was the sword dances. In 2007 was held in Pamplona and Eibar and dances with sticks were the subject. In 2008 the central theme of the festival were dances with arches.

Shortly provide more information about the festival Ezpalak 2009.

Ezpalak 2008: we danced with arcs

May 31, 2008, was the first day of Ezpalak, the International Festival of Traditional Dancing. The day started raining in Pamplona and it did impossible the parade through the streets of the Old Town as it had been raised and also that the festival itself could take place in the Plaza de los Burgos, as in the previous edition.

The festival took place in the Civivox Navarrería and begin promptly at 18:00. Duguna dantza taldea, host of the festival was the group responsible for opening the program with two dances with arches from Gipuzkoa. The girls danced  “uztai handiena” [big archs] and the boys “uztai-txikiena” [small archs].

After Duguna acted the group Danzas gremiales de marineros y labradores Xovenes do Povo from Betanzos (Galicia, Spain). Next team in the stage was dantzaris de Monteagudo (Navarre), Danzas burgalesas Justo del Río (Burgos, Spain),  Le Poutou from Toulouse (France),  Danzadores de San Asensio (Rioja, Spain) and Danzantes de Lanestosa (Bizkaia, Basque Country). The festival ended around 20:00 in the afternoon and had continued the following day in Eibar.

As in Pamplona, the day dawned gray in Eibar. The festival could not be developed without contingencies on the street, so groups were meeting in the Coliseo teater, where the action took place after 12:30.

The host group Kezka dantza taldea was the first on stage to dance Ibarzabal three times (the smaller group of young people and adults). After them danced Danzas burgalesas Justo del Río (Burgos, Spain), Danzantes de San Lorenzo (Navarre), Le Poutou (Toulouse, France), Arkaitz Añorgako dantzariak (Gipuzkoa),  Danzas gremiales de marineros y labradores Xovenes do Povo from Betanzos (Galicia, Spain) and Oñatz dantza taldea from Oñati (Gipuzkoa).

A draft on the festival on the garland dances

Ezpalak, The international festival on the garland dances

31st of May of 2008 in Pamplona – 1st of June of 2008 in Eibar

Pamplona, saturday, 31st of May

17.30: Parade with all the dance groups through the streets of the old part of the town, pipers, flute players…

18.00: The begining of the international festival on the garland dances in Burgo square. Performance of the Basque and foreign garland dance groups.

• Duguna Dantza Taldea (Iruñea): Gipuzkoako uztai txikien eta uztai handien dantzak
• Danzas Burgalesas Justo del Río (Burgos): Arco de Frías and La Campiña.
• Danzantes de Lanestosa (Lanestosa): Danza de los arcos floridos.
• Le Poutou (Toulouse): Les treilles.
• Danzadores de San Asensio (San Asensio): Los arcos.
• Xovenes do pobo (Betanzos) – Danzas gremiales de marineros y labradores.
• Grupo de dantzaris de Monteagudo (Monteagudo): Baile de los Arcos del paloteado de Monteagudo.
• Grupo de danzas de Chimiche (Chimiche): Danza de varas de Chimiche.

Eibar, sunday 1st of June (43rd edition of the Basque Festival)

12.00: Parade from Urkizu square to Untzaga square.

12.30: The begining of the international festival on the garland dances in Untzaga square. Performance of the Basque and foreign garland dance groups:

• Kezka dantza taldea (Eibar): Ibartzabal arku-dantza
• Danzas Burgalesas Justo del Río (Burgos): Arco de Frías and La Campiña.
• Danzantes de San Lorenzo (Iruñea): Danzas de San Lorenzo.
• Le Poutou (Toulouse): Les treilles.
• Arkaitz Añorgako dantzariak (Añorga): Gipuzkoako Uztai handien eta uztai txikien dantzak.
• Xovenes do pobo (Betanzos) – Danzas gremiales de marineros y labradores.
• Oñatz dantza taldea – Oñati: Oñatiko Corpus dantzak.
• Grupo de danzas de Chimiche (Chimiche): Danza de varas de Chimiche.

14.30: Lunch at the big top in Untzaga square.

17.00: Festival in Untzaga square. Patxi eta Konpania

In Ezpalak 2008 the festival will deal with garland dances

The international festival of the traditional dances Ezpalak 2008 will be about garland dances. The festival was organised for the first time in 2006 and at that time the festival was about sword dances. In 2007 it was about stick dances, and this year it will be about garland dances.

Thus, this year we will be able to see dances with garlands. All the dance groups will be dancing at least one garland dance. There will be some groups that will perform just one garland dance. There will be some other dance groups that together with the performance of the garland dance they will perform some other traditional dances to complete their performance.

The festival Ezpalak will be celebrating on the 31st of May in Pamplona and on the 1st of June in Eibar.

The blog on the festival Ezpalak is ready

This is the blog on the festival Ezpalak in three languages, this one in English, and the other two in Basque and in Spanish.

Ezpalak is an international festival on the traditional dance which is going to celebrate in Pamplona and in Eibar, organised by the dance groups of Duguna and Kezka. The festival was organised for the first time in Eibar in 2006 and it was about sword dances. In 2007 it was organised in Pamplona and in Eibar and it dealed with the stick dances. In 2008 the festival is going to be about the garland dances.

In the following days we will be updating this blog with some more information about the festival Ezpalak 2008.