The audiovisual collections of Basque dance of thirty-one groups of dances, institutions and individuals have been digitised during the years 2015-2022 and are now available for consultation in the general catalog of Eresbil and in Bilgune. In total, almost 2500 dance recordings on Basque dance have been catalogued and digitized.
These tapes have been digitized by the production company Sincro and Dantzan has made descriptions for their inventory, tracing and cataloging. Eresbil has compiled this information in a unified catalog and Emilio Xabier Dueñas has analyzed this material. The report on this digitised audiovisual heritage is available in Eresbil with several recording parts. The main sections of the study conducted by Dueñas are:
- Introduction
- Basque choreographic tradition
- Dance: from film to video
- Festivals and performances
- Alardes and fraternity
- Creations and assemblies
- Competitions and championships
- Transmission of knowledge
Media, Blinding and Sources
Rescue of dance recordings
A few years ago the Basque Film Library warned of the short life of audiovisual magnetic media and the deterioration of video recordings from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Knowing that dance groups, institutions and individuals had recordings of that time, the Department of Culture of the Basque Government approved a plan to digitize and protect these audiovisuals before they were completely damaged over time. Thus, under the direction of Eresbil, the producer Sincro has carried out the digitalisation work and Dantzan has collaborated in the collection and documentation.
In the last eight years 31 collections, 5 entities, 17 dance groups and 9 individuales.En have been digitized and documented, during the years 2015-2022 the following collections have been digitized:
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.