The idea that we in the dance world often repeat is that dance is ephemeral. The Elhuyar dictionary gives as a counterpart to "ephemeral" English: ephemeral, destructive, perishable, ephemeral, ephemeral, perishable, perishable, ilaun. I don't remember who I first read that idea that dance is ephemeral, but by the year 1996-97 I interviewed Nacho Duato and remember that I was struck by the fact that one answer mentioned that concept, which made me think I was a cultured person.

Three weeks ago, in a day dedicated to dance research, a speaker made a common reference to the ephemeral character of dance, but this time it was answered by an expert lecturer, the Italian dance researcher with extensive experience Cecilia Nocilla. The ephemeral character of the dance had pointed to him as an insignificant topic and had questioned the essence of his eternal song. Nolli is a great dance historian and we easily understood that if, as is so often said, dance was truly ephemeral, dance historians like him would not have much work.

Conclusions of the Topic

Lately we are concerned that the devices we have at our fingertips sell us answers to questions that we did not get to ask or listen to what we say. Once again, I have had the impression that, a few days after Nolli made these remarks, the network has brought me an article from Egil Bakka: Dance – ephemeral or durable?. Letxe, this too? Rarely do I know this, I thought, it won't be doubtful.

If Nolli questioned the topic, Bakka goes further. In addition to highlighting the perseverance of some forms of dance through three examples to dance the raft, he warns that the consideration of dance as a transitory expression is not a terminological issue without ideological consequences. According to Bakka, "various artistic circles have sought dance to become the art of the moment, freed from pre-prepared and implanted choreographies." "There seems to be an ideological mistrust of the value of sustainable dance forms and that you want to free yourself from the frameworks of the past in order to leave nothing for the future." It makes us see the failure of this effort, but the Norwegian research dance demonstrates with the example of the waltz that certain dance patterns are by no means ephemeral: "Around the world people dance raft and dance is kept in a very similar way for at least two hundred years."

Two hundred years is nothing.

It is precisely two hundred years since Juan Inazio Iztueta of Zaldibia wrote a book on the dances of Gipuzkoa and in recent months the journey we are making from the hand of Mikel Sarriegi to the dance modes of the dance teachers of Gipuzkoa confirms what Egil Bakka said about the Balsa. Moreover, Sarriegi is confirming what Urbeltz has long seen, that many of the components of that Basque language and the structure of the system itself are heirs to the dance masters of the Renaissance. The journey is being wonderful, and along with the great work done by Mikel, the most amazing thing is to observe how the dance instructions that were written 200 years ago are the same as those that were written four hundred years ago in different passages, and the dance forms that are described in them have lasted until today in the tradition of the peoples and in the activity of the dance masters.

That is, dance is not ephemeral at all. That's right, today we're learning to look at the margin to put it into evidence, to look at what's left out of the dominant currents. We are learning from the hand of Sarriegi that we must be able to search in the small and undervalued remains that remain indifferent in the corners, following the clues given to us by Nocilla, Urbeltz and Bakka, among others.