Astero
Winnemucca Basque Festival
The Euzkaldunak Danak Bat Basque Club in Winnemucca, Nevada will celebrate its 41st Annual Basque Festival this weekend, June 8-9, 2019, with a kick-off 5K on Friday evening at the Winnemucca Golf Course. 5k registration will begin at 5pm with the race starting at 6pm. Saturday’s activities will begin at 11am with the traditional parade, followed by an afternoon of Basque dance with performances by the local Irrintzi Dancers, Reno’s Zazpiak Bat Dancers, Ardi Baltza Dancers from Lamoille, Nevada, and Boise, Idaho’s Oinkari Dancers. Other events include a bread auction and herri kirolak (wood chopping and weightlifting). There will also be a Paella cooking demonstration and games and contests for all ages. The evening will conclude with a dance to the music of Decoy. Sunday will begin with a Basque Breakfast beginning at 9am. There will also be mass celebrated by Aita Antton Egiguren also at 9am. Following mass stay for more dance performances, this time including the Battle Mountain dancers, and more food and fun. For a complete schedule of events, visit them on Facebook. All events will be held at the Convention Center.
NABO Mus Finals
As we reported last week, the NABO Mus Finals took place last weekend, June 1st, also at the Winnemucca Convention Center. Forty-four teams participated from US Basque clubs, and after some 11 hours of play, Victor Albistur and Martin Hirigoyen representing the Los Banos Basque Club were the winners. Second place went to Kathy Iturriria Laverty and John Iturriria from the Kern County Basque Club. A heartfelt Eskerrik Asko to the hosting Santa Rosa Basque Club on a wonderful day and event, as well as to everyone who participated in Mus in their local clubs, and later at the national tournament. The first place team will now travel to Baiona, France in October to represent NABO at the International Mus Tournament. Zorionak deneri!
.jpg)
Champions Victor Albistur and Martin Hirigoyen
Kathy Iturriria Laverty and John Iturriria - Second Place
Dance Workshops with Jexux Larrea
NABO Dance groups really had a wonderful opportunity this spring. Dance Master Jexux Larrea, who is well-known in many of our communities from teaching dance at several Udalekus over the years, came to the US and volunteered his time to teach dance workshops at clubs who requested them. Little did he know that this offer would take him to six states to visit seven different dance groups. Participating in the tour specifically were the Zazpiak Bat Basque Dancers in San Francisco, CA, Beti Alai Dancers in Ontario, OR, the Oinkari Dancers in Boise, ID, Reno, Nevada’s Zazpiak Bat Basque Dancers, the Utah’ko Triskalariak in Salt Lake City, UT, the Zaharrer Segi Dancers in Buffalo WY, and the Ariñak Dancers in Elko, NV. Workshops took place for longer or shorter periods of time depending on each community, but in all, a total of 143 dancers participated in a total of 45 hours of instruction between April 13th and June 2nd. When asked his impression of the tour, Jexux said, “This has been a very enriching experience as it allowed me to get to know the situation of these dance groups first hand.” He continued, “The people directing these groups have to be, and are, true lovers of the culture that at all times gather and encourage the other participants. All of their effort needs to be supported by the federation to organize more workshops like the ones I had the honor and pleasure of carrying out. I believe these would result in a huge qualitative step as these folks have an enormous interest in learning.” On behalf of everyone at NABO, and especially our dance groups, Mila Mila Esker Jexux! Asko estimatzen zaitugu!
1/6/2019
