- Faced with the threat of the audiovisual heritage of Basque dances, it has been collected and digitized before its deterioration. The programme, which lasted eight years, has digitised and documented more than 2000 recordings and the records are already available in the Eresbil general catalogue.
Under the direction of Eresbil and sponsored by the Department of Culture of the Basque Government, the Dantzan association has collaborated in the collection and cataloging of images. The documentation map of Basque dance showed the existence of audiovisual collections in different groups of dances. Most recordings date back to the 1970s, 80s and 90s and, seeing that the life span of video tapes is 20-25 years, it was decided that the digitization of the tapes was necessary to protect the heritage collected in those recordings. Thus, the digitalization plan for videos and dance footage has been in force during the period 2015-2022.
They have been offered the possibility to digitize the materials that were in contact and stored with groups, organizations and individuals. These tapes have been collected, sorted, labeled and digitized by the producer Sincro in Dantzan. Once digitalized, the documentation work was done, identifying the places and dates of the recordings, indicating the participants and describing the images and dances that appear minute by minute. The information collected is being collected in a catalogue unified by Eresbil, archive of Basque music.
Digitized and cataloged collections
31 collections of 5 entities, 17 dance groups and 9 individuals have been digitized and documented. In particular, the following collections have been digitised during the years 2015-2022:
Institutions: Ikerfolk, Bizkaiko Dantzarien Biltzarra, Gipuzkoako Dantzarien Biltzarra, Iparraldeko Dantzarien Biltzarra, Dantzan.eus.
Dance groups: Haritz (Elgoibar), La Preoccupation (Eibar), Convenes Kai (Deba), Mendi Alde (Santurtzi), Aurtzaka (Beasain), Elai Alai (Portugalete), Oñatz (Oñati), Duguna (Pamplona), Itsas Alde
Private: Ander Barrenetxea, Jexux Larrea (Ikerfolk), Felipe Amutxastegi, Patxi Laborda, Jaime Albillos, Xabier Etxabe, Josu Agirre, Lisa Korkostegi and Eric Bouvier.
Various images
Mostly dance picture tapes have been documented, but there are also rituals like the Basque Country party. Different types of dance focused recordings have been collected and classified by area.
Premises: Images of traditional dances and holidays from 182 places. Different traditions appear in some villages.
Performances, shows and festivals: A total of 1,143 representations have been identified. Sometimes dance groups and shows are repeated and in others the place and/or representation could not be identified.
Dance championships: 70 are loose dance championships and aurresku.
Dancer days: 53 days of dancing from different locations.
Masked: 59 actions identified
Other (courses, essays, interviews, cultural weeks, dances, documentaries): There are 488 other events.
Most images are from the Basque Country, but there are also images from abroad, especially from group tours, but there are also few images that capture dance traditions outside the Basque Country. Most of the images collected throughout the project date back to the 1980s and 1990s, and the images of the 2000s are also abundant.