We don´t have many dances here as such, they are simply an optional activity as a part of a larger festa. This village Son Mesquita (mosque), has megaltith structures (rocks bigger then VWs), was Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Muslim, then Roman Catholic. Its church dates back to Byzantine times when Mallorca was part of Africa and the Christians were orthodox, Islam turned it into a mosque, then the Catalans turned it into Roman Catholic. All the village in addition to the church, is about 10 houses, and the hall in the background, plus this very large concrete slab with a fire pit about 25m long. In this case, I am standing next to the road on the curb, because the dancers have taken over the street behind me. The occasion is a bridge holliday (think Thursday to Sunday for U.S. Thanks giving) including a weekend plus Constitution Day and the Immacullate Conception the village council organizes a two day event, including the mass, sheep dog trials, baking contest, choir concert, speeches, BBQ and dancing. Visitors are welcome and the food and music is free. One year, some Basque pilgrims came through walking all night on a haj to Lluc, so during a band break, their musicians played basque dances of a type where the locals could join in. The Baleares region is only about a million people scattered on 4 islands. The result is that while we share many dances between the islands, threre are three traditions with Menorca favoring a longways country dance form (English coloney at the time the Brits got Gibraltar), and Eivissa-Formenterra, costume and dance resembles stuff from Crete (Byzantine architecture, costume, and culture predominates there.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 08:00:12 +0000
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