The Sardane
The Sardane, or sardana, is a traditional Catalonian circle dance, believed to be of Greek origin, designed to bring whole villages out onto the village green and get them in party mood - a little like a more complicated version of the ’hokey cokey’ in fact!
Music for the sardane is played by a cobla, a wind band with double bass consisting of 12 instruments played by 11 musicians. Four of these instruments (tenora, tible, flabiol and tamborí) are typical Catalan instruments; the others (trumpet, trombone, fiscorn and double bass) are more conventional
To the Catalans, it is more than just a dance however.
Franco, the Spanish dictator who ruled for 30 years from the late 1940’s to 1975, saw the Catalans as a threat - their desire for independence and their deep national pride was considered by Franco to be insolent, arrogant and a personal affront. His dislike for the Catalans was such that he enforced many crippling laws in an attempt to remove the traditions and language of the Catalan culture and thus make Spain a uniform state. Among other rules he enforced, he banned Catalan being spoken as well as many of the Catalan traditions, one of the main being of course, the Sardana, as he believed dancers were passing on coded messages with their feet!
The Sardana therefore, is considered by Catalans to be a powerful symbol of national unity and identity, which captures the spirit of Catalunya. Even under tyrannical rule, the true nature of the Catalans remained and this is captured perfectly through the Catalan dancing of the Sardana; people dancing, united together, from all different walks of life and ages, casting their differences aside and proudly saying, with their hands and heads raised high that they are Catalans and proud to be so.
Today the Sardane is danced in villages and towns throughout Catalonia, by Catalan and non Catalan alike, an ideal platform for integration for newcomers who wish to immerse themselves in village life.
