We’re not sure where it is or who these Basque and Irish dance troupes offering us these three minutes of joy are. If anyone reading this knows, please comment and let us know all the details.
What we do know is who shared it: the Facebook page Elantxobe Urdaibai, which always surprises us with their magnificent “Basque Country photos and videos.” We don’t know who’s behind the page and the amazing work, but we’d like to take this opportunity to thank them and to encourage our readers to follow their page, because you’ll get to see some amazing culture and places from our nation.
The video they share requires little explanation. Two groups of dancers, almost all girls, one from Ireland and the other from the Basque Country, take turns dancing to a popular song. We can’t distinguish all the instruments, but we do see a violin, two accordions, a tambourine, some type of drum, and what may be a txistu.
We don’t know if the music you can hear is Basque or Irish or Swedish; really, we don’t care. It’s beautiful to watch and to listen to, and the joy comes across from the video quite clearly: the strength of tradition, the energy of the dancers, the mixing of two cultures so closely linked by their determination to survive.
EDIT: We now know where the video came from and who the stars are. The groups are Oinak Arin from Beskoitze/Briscous (Labourd) and the Irish group Gohery School of Traditional Irish Dancing. We found out thanks to one of our readers, who sent us to a blog entry at El Norte de Irlanda, which linked to the Facebook video on En Pays Basque which we bring you here.
Eskerrik asko, José Luis Ortega.
Last Updated on Jan 12, 2023 by About Basque Country
