argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Workshops are underway that analyze Basque dance from feminism
  • Karla Agirre (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1998) and Amaia Marín (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1995) want to promote spaces for reflection on the place women should occupy in Basque dance. They're both dancers of the Indarra dance group. The workshop "From Basque Dance to Feminism" was first dynamized in Vitoria-Gasteiz last February and now they are with the second edition. In November they were offered in Vitoria-Gasteiz and Donostia-San Sebastián and in January in Basauri, in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The news has been produced by Kattalin Agerre dantzan.eus and here we have collected some passages of it.
Kattalin Agerre dantzan.eus 2020ko azaroaren 30
"Euskal dantzatik feminismora" tailerra. Argazkia: dantzan.eus.

Agirre and Marin say that many times they have debated the role of women in Basque dance, how to reflect on dance from feminism... But they have acted fairly informally: in the tragic aftermath of the trial, in the preparations, in the friends ... The School of Feminist Empowerment of Vitoria-Gasteiz created the possibility of organizing a workshop and addressing the issue. "We saw that there was a time to see the role of women in creating a space within the Basque dance, to speak and reflect."

Its intention is to encourage reflection through exercises, but the theory also works. "We see that we have a tremendous deficit when it comes to dances. We don't know where our dances come from, and why today we dance them like this." They think that ignorance doesn't help to make a change in the face of tradition, to build a feminist pathway from the dance world.

History, difficulties, costumes, experiences

At the moment, the workshops have been divided into four main areas. The objective of the first session is to locate the participant. Concepts such as tradition, culture, gender or feminism are the ones that develop them, and they also occupy a historical place. The second analyzes the difficulties women have had to go to the plaza and analyzes the cases that have occurred in different locations. In addition, they promote a reflection on the trends of men and their role in the participation of women.

In the third session they try to work on the topic of garments. They explain the theory a little and analyze the clothing, and through the exercises they create garments for the representations created from the gender perspective. They also accommodate the gender trends observed in carnivals. The last session is used to talk about the experiences of each of them. The goal is to create exercises so that everyone starts working on the subject in their groups.