Dance Workshops with Jexux Larrea
April - June 2019
NABO Dance groups really had a wonderful opportunity this spring 2019. 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. When asked his impression of the tour, Jexux said, “This has been a very enriching experience as it allowed me to get 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!
