El Ball de Bastons 

El Ball de Bastons of Vilanova is really ancient. The first written account of the dance was found in news report, dated 25th August 1771, of the benediction of the parish church of Sant Antoni Abad.

“ …Lo orde y forma, y disposició de la professó fou de la manera següent. Primo diferents balls de bastons, de Santa Fe y altras…”
(..the order and the form, and the position of the procession was as follows. First, different balls de bastons, from Santa Fe and other places...)

This shows that in the 18th century the Ball de Bastons was considered a normal dance in the celebrations and from this we can assume that over 200 years the Ball de Bastons was already considered a “traditional dance”.

In Vilanova, as far as we know the performance of this dance had never disappeared and was danced up the beginning of the Civil War in 1936. After the Civil War, in 1941, the Ball de Bastons returned to the streets and was danced without break up to the Festa Major of 1972 in which the old group appeared for the last time. For five years other groups from the region substituted for the local group. In 1977 the current group danced for the first time in the festivals of Sant Joan (St John, around midsummer night).

Since the restoration in 1977, by a group of young people, there has been constant activity and progress. A group of girl Batoneres was formed probably the first women’s group ever seen. Later a group of youngsters was formed, to provide continuity over years. In 1979 the group was one of the four founder members of the Agrupació de Balls Populars de Vilanova i la Geltrú. From that time members of the Bastoners have participated in the revival and consolidation of other dance groups and the popular culture from Vilanova i la Geltrú.

The group has participated in many different “festes” and popular celebrations as well as the traditional Vilanovin festes, (la Festa Major, la Festa Major of la Geltrú, and the procession for Sant Pere), such as the Festes de la Mercé in Barcelona, the Catalan Culture Congress (1981), the Barcelona Football Club inauguration of the Mini-Estadi (1982) and many national meetings of Bastoners of Catalonian.

The group has also danced in Andorra, Vila Reial (Valencia-Spain), San Pedro de Gaillos (Segovia-Spain), Merignac (Bordeaux, France), Matanzas and La Havana (Cuba), and WinterbournDown (UK).
In 1984 the group organised the 9th Meeting of Bastoners in Catalonian, and the 2nd conference of study of the Ball de Bastons.

The Ball de Bastons of Vilanova comprises sixteen dancers divided in to lines of eight, dancing to the music of several “grallers” with “tabal” (snare-drum) player. The "gralla" is a wide-bore shawm, a precursor of the oboe, it is an ideal outdoor instrument as it is agile, has a wonderful strident tone and is extremely loud.

There are nine bastons dances currently performed, seven traditional, originally making up the whole Ball de Bastons: La Primera (The first), La Segona (The second), La Tercera (The third), La Bolangera, La Boja (The crazy), El Corrandillo and La Pavana. In addition to the seven traditional dances two dances have been created to existing music: La Milana and El 4 de setembre (September 4th). The dance does have more, traditional, musical pieces that currently not danced.

The Ball of Bastons dances of Vilanova i the Garraf region are characterised by their spectacular nature and power of attack rather their speed. The sticks used are substantial and made from the iron hard heart of the cork oak; they can weigh up to 1 kg. and are 45 cm. long and are 45 mm. at the widest point. One dancer carries of each side carries a stick in one hand and a flag in the other which is used to communicate with the musicians and other dancers who each carry two sticks.

The costume is the white shirt and trousers, the “faldilleta” (a sort of short kilt) coloured blue or red according to which of two lines the dancer is in, a colourful scarf across the breast, a red flowered “mocador de cap” (a sort of handkerchief – headscarf), espadrilles with blue and red laces and a bell pads (called “camalls”) around the ankles and a red “faixa” (wide cotton cummerbund).

Currently there are 4 different groups of Balls de Bastons of Vilanova, the old group (men), the young group (boys), the women’s group and the girl’s group. They are all part of the Agrupació de Balls Populars.

Envianos tus comentarios o la información que quieras recibir: