Basque Dance

‘Dantza egiten duen herria ez da inoiz hilko!’
‘A society who dances will never die!’
Euskal dantza: Basque Dance with Kayleigh Karinen

Kayleigh Karinen will give us a brief presentation on Euskal Herria, the Basque Country, focusing on its language and culture before jumping (literally) into teaching us traditional Basque dances. This will be the first of a two-part series. We will meet again on a date soon to be confirmed for a brief presentation on Kayleigh’s research, followed by additional dances, as well as a review of dances from the first session if time permits. The dances on our agenda include: aurresku, zazpi jauziak, pxit, txapeloaz, and esku dantza. Be sure to wear comfortable clothing and bring a water bottle!

Kayleigh is a Finnish American specializing in heritage languages and Basque sociolinguistics. She comes to us after returning from the Xiberoa/Zuberoa province of the Basque Country, where she collected data for her MA thesis, ‘Sustainability in linguistics: well-being and Basque language in Xiberoa’ for her studies at the University of Helsinki. Like language, dance has many regional varieties, and Kayleigh looks forward to sharing a bit of both with us.