There is perhaps nothing more characteristicly Catalan than the sardana, the traditional dance. Wherever there are Catalans, there are sardanas.
The best opportunities to see sardanas are a village Festa Major, the Focs de Sant Joan (23rd June) or, in French Catalonia, the quatorze juillet celebrations. For an authentic sardana, choose a small to medium sized village rather than the tourist hotspots where sardanas may be staged as an attraction for the visitors rather than as a spontaneous expression of the Catalan spirit. If the dancers are in the traditional dress, it is almost certainly a show for the tourists. Authentic sardanas are danced by ordinary people in ordinary dress.
The music is provided by a cobla, a small group of musicians playing mainly brass instruments. Tambourines provide the rhythm. The flaviol, a small flute with a tone akin to that of the piccolo, gives these bands a characteristic high pitched sound. The dancers form a circle which gradually enlarges as more dancers join it. When it becomes too large for the space available, the circle may break into smaller ones or a another ring may form within the large one.
Among dedicated dancers, the sardana has a well defined etiquette, e.g. as to whether the ring should be broken to the left or to the right of a man. You may see these "purists" in a small, perfectly formed circle apart from the rest, their foreheads held high and their eyes almost closed in an expression of concentration, in harmony with the music and with each other. They may not take kindly to the ring being broken by a novice or stranger, tightening their grip rather than parting to let the circle enlarge. The late Jean-Pau Giné, a Catalan singer from the French village of Bages, once commented when vexed by a refusal "You are nothing but legs!". Generally, however, anyone who can make a passable attempt at the steps is welcome to join in. It is a quintessential part of the Catalan experience.
E. J. Jewell. July 2000
Acknowledgements to Michel Lloubes,
in "l'Indépendant", 11.7.2000,
for some of the information included here.
The following attempts to describe the basic steps. It is a gross over-simplication and may not be entirely accurate. It is certainly not complete!
The dancer on your right is deemed to be your partner. When joining the ring you should never separate a dancer from his partner. It follows, therefore, that when a couple joins, the man should be to the left of the woman and they break the ring to the left of a man. You may sometimes see rings with dancers of the same sex (usually women). A lone dancer may join such a ring. It is bad etiquette for a lone dancer to attempt to join a ring of couples.
There are two basic "steps", the Short and the Long, also "Cross Three", a transitional step and "End Three" which is used where necessary to end the dance leading with the correct foot. The rhythm is in 2 4 or 6 8 time. A Short Step takes two bars, a Long Step takes four. The Short Step is danced with the arms horizontal; the Long Step is danced with the arms raised.
Leading with the left foot ....
Left foot foward; left back to starting position;
right foot back the same distance;
left foot foward to starting position but crossing in front of the right leg;
right foot forward to starting position but crossing behind the left leg.
You should now be back in the starting position except that you have moved one pace
to your right.
Leading with the right foot is similar but with left and right transposed. You should
at the end of the step have moved one pace to the left.
Leading with the left foot ....
You start the step with the left foot forward the same distance as you did for
the Short Step;
(I'm not quite sure how you got to be in a position to have your left foot forward
as the previous step finished with both feet together in the mid position)
left foot back to a point the same distance behind your right foot;
right foot half distance forward;
right foot crosses to the left in front of the left leg and back to the mid position;
left foot crosses to the left behind the right leg and forward to the fully forward
position;
left foot back to the mid position;
right foot back;
left foot crosses in front of the right to the mid position;
right foot crosses behind the left leg to return to the mid position.
At the end of the step you should have moved one pace to the right (though it seems
to me that you have moved to the left half way through the step so you would end up
where you started)
Leading with the right foot is similar but with left and right transposed. You should
at the end of the step have moved one pace to the left.
So you now know where to put your feet - well, maybe .....
..... next you need to learn about Points.
Pointing is raising and lowering of the heel of one foot while the other is making the forward movement. The result is that the moving foot is brought down with a disctinct "tap". Pointing assists the transfer of weight from one foot to the other. In the Short Step you point as the first forward movement is made. In the Long Step you point with the first, third and final forward movements.
A succession of the same steps is called a series. Each series of Short Steps has
the same number of points; similarly for the Long Steps.
A Sardana comprises a sequence of sardana steps as follows
series of Short Steps; seaies of Short Steps; series of Long Steps; series of Long Steps;
series of Short Steps; series of Short Steps; series of Long Steps; series of Long Steps;
{ at this point a note from the flaviol should warn you that the sequence is about to
change }
a series of Long Steps;
{ flaviol }
a series of Long Steps.
There is no fixed rule as to the number of points in a series. Usually the number of points in a series of Shorts will vary from twenty to forty; those of a Series of Longs from sixty to eighty.
There are some sardanas in which the Series ends with a even total number of points; many have an odd number. The way to end a series depends on whether it is odd or even as there is an obligation on the dancer to make the end of the musical theme coincide with the choreogarphy. For this the transitional step is used to enable one Series to be chained to another. After a repartition, a series is always started with the opposite foot to that which ended the previous series.
Confused??? I'm not really surprised but there's still quite a lot to learn before you are an accomplished sardanist. Add to that there are three different variants depending which part of Catalonia you are in ..... ! If you can master the Short and Long Steps and pointing and keep in time with the music, you would probably get by in an informal village Sardana without too much embarrassment. Watch carefully what more experienced people are doing and try to follow them.
Reference: Sardanas, Llibes del Index, Barcelona, 1995. ISBN 84-87561-77-2.