Basque ethnography at a glance

Dance exhibition: Paloteado (dance of sticks and ribbons) in Novillas, a town from Zaragoza. Photo: E. X. Dueñas

It can be considered that any act that serves as entertainment, or in which other components come together —diverting, emotional, etc.— and that is performed in/with an audience is a spectacle. Moreover, clarifying that it is a folkloric one, we must make room for a wide list of celebrations that serve as a stimulus to those gathered.

The global, however, leads us to the specific. Therefore, it is essential to categorize by typology, trying to correctly manage the personal vision —albeit subjective to the signer—, and the collective, as well as the active and passive participation, existing in the event.

A clear example of what is considered a “folkloric show” is a Basque dance festival consisting in one or several dance groups, an Alarde, that is, many groups performing the same dances. Without a doubt, over the last few years the presentation, the purpose and the type of audience attending have varied. Moreover, I would dare to say that they have gone from serving as a fixed attraction, including filling in patron saint or neighborhood festivals, to becoming a residual audiovisual exercise. Maybe it’s because of time, or because of the day, or because of where they take place, which practically only family members and friends of the participants gather around them.

Exhibition-competition of aizkolaris (wood chopers) at Alonsotegi festivities (2004). Photo: E. X. Dueñas

We can also find other elements with unequal appeal: rural sports exhibitions or loose dance competitions, to the celebrations held in regional houses (eskualde etxeak), folk music concerts, or all kinds of activities embedded in the so-called “new festivals”, such as those related to the defense of euskara (Korrika, Ibilaldia, Nafarroa oinez…), among others.

We can almost claim that each performance has its own audience; a particular one. This subject comes from a historically near and distant past, where the neighbors become the principal participants.

Certain rituals and traditions, either addressed to a minority or with massive attendance, have become acts with a greater or lesser expectation. This makes the passive participant, that is, the public, acquire a greater significance, because the active, curiously, needs the former; otherwise, to whom is it transmitted, to whom is it presented or, to whom does it relate audiovisually? Having said that, this leads ourselves ask: which ritual becomes a spectacle? When does a tradition become a spectacle? Can ritual and spectacle coexist at the same time? Or, how important is the existence of these shows for the future?

“Timber rafting day” in the Navarrese town of Burgi (01/05/2004). Photo: E. X. Dueñas

In short, each show becomes appealing to a different age category, leaving the “folkloric” to a very specific segment of the population. Segment which supposedly defends the roots, but without realizing that the representation changes along with time, just as “the one” who is on the other side of the stage changes —meaning the one to whom it is directed—, the feeling of connection towards heritage, and, of course, the necessity of its existence.

E. X. Dueñas – Folklorist and ethnographer