Bardoze: Fire on the back

Thanks to the images published by Kanaldude, we have discovered that in the carnivals of Bardoze (Lapurdi) there is a dance called “fire in the rear”. According to his explanations, it is a dance that was lost about thirty years ago, recovered and updated. An old woman says that in a pension there was a rabbi who started playing and giving fire to that beard. From there emerged a dance that has subsequently been recovered.

 

 

 

 

Today it is published by a group of costumes. One of them is located in the middle, with the broom in the hand and the paper tied in the shape of a tail from the belt, in the back part. The others form a circle around them and start dancing in the style of jumps, then try to ignite the fire in the back to the partner in the middle.

Ablitas: Plego-dantza

In short, the plego-dantza of Ablitas (Navarra) comes to mind. In this case, it is also intended that one participant burn the sheet of paper that the other bears hanging from the waist. As recorded in the Atlas of Dances of Navarra, this dance was first described by Pedro Arellano (1933), but was lost in the first decades of the twentieth century. She was investigated in 1977 by the Ortzadar Association and staged the following year in the show called Erribera. Subsequently, in 1994, the Ablitas Mendianike Group of Dances began a study for the recovery of the plego-blackberry. It is currently published on the first Sunday of April at 13:00 hours in the Pliego festivities. This irri-dantza has been added an entry, a jack and an exit.

 

 

 

 

Baztan: Bizker-dantza

Considering the similarities of both dances, another dance comes to mind: bizker-dantza. In the valley of Baztan they have collected different dances of irri-dantza or fun, and one of them fully matches the previous two. As you can read in the brochure Folklore del Valle de Baztan de los Larralde, Aita Hilari Olazaran presents in his collection his yoku-dantzak, with the name of bizker-dantza, sound and dance to the txistulari Antonio Elizalde. The way you dance is like a culebral dance, but in this case you put a long paper in your belt and try to fire.

 

 

 

 

Otxandio, Puente la Reina...

And here and there, in every place, with their own name, but in a very similar way, more dances appear. The key to the game will always be: will the fire on the back or not? It seems to have been lost in Otxandio (Bizkaia), but there it was called Ezetz ixetearen -Baietz ixeteko ixetuko dantza eta kantuz. The participants tried to burn off the part of the newspaper that the opposite had hung from the back. In Puente la Reina (Navarra) it was also said that there was a similar dance, the tatin-dantza.