Azkaindarrak (markaturik) :: Urraska :: Aiko taldea

URRASKA: Dantza jauziak Sagasetaren bidetik. A new interpretation of the Basque Jauziak dances collected by Sagaseta

Aiko taldea / Center for Basque Studies-University of Nevada, Reno

The jauziak, mutxikoak, or sauts basques are circular dances in which the participants, without making physical contact with one another and keeping the center of the circle as a reference point, execute certain steps or dance moves that vary according to each particular dance.


The Basque group of musicians, dancers, and educators Aiko have teamed up with the Center for Basque Studies to publish this important update of these popular folklore dances. Based on the pioneering ethnomusicological work of Miguel Angel Sagaseta, the Urraska is a complete guide to the dances including a book in Euskara and English, 2 CDs, a DVD of dance performances, a guide to the dance steps for performing the jauziak dances, and PDF copies of the text in Spanish and French.

"It is worth remembering how important it is for the musician-interpreter to understand, execute, and internalize dance in order to be able to 'hear' its rhythm and thus follow the dancers, to feel the correct tempo for each dance, each step, and each dantzaria; to understand that rhythm is a musical and not a mathematical measurement, and that bar and beat vary in each dance and each step. For this reason, we only know one track: learn to dance, know 'the score" of the dance, and make it part of the self. If one does not do so, for all the technical studying one does, all of our proposals will ultimately be ineffective and inadequate for practicing dance." --From Urraska