Country dances bring Catalonia, Great Britain closer together

The British are well acquainted with country dances, the Welsh in particular being very proud of their Morris dancing tradition. For those of us who have been here for a while, we would have had the opportunity to see them in action at some point. Any local will tell you that it is not something they embrace particularly; in fact they have a pretty selective group of followers.

However, on Saturday 18 May we had a fantastic opportunity. We got the chance to see not just the local Sheffield Pecsaetan morris dances but also the Sheffield City Giant. Yet more impressively, they teamed up with Ball de Pastorets from Torredembarra (Catalonia, near Tarragona)!!

It was thanks to the Catalan department at Sheffield University. The head of Catalan studies, Imma Cristina Roure, organised this wonderful event, under the title "English and Catalan Folk Culture in Sheffield: a Celebration". Sheffield is a major industrial city in England.

Unusually, the dances took place indoors, something much appreciated by us spectators, as the weather in the North was still cold. The venue was the Mappin Hall at the Engineering Department, a grand room with plenty of space, allowing local giants to dance.

The dance was opened by the Giants of Sheffield. The couple of giants were built by Jordi in 1992, in Catalan style. He named them “War”, designed to resemble Jean-Claude Van Damme in “Universal Soldier”, and “Peace”, believed to resemble Jordi’s wife. War and Peace Giants’ place of residence is the Kelham Island Museum. They are believed to be the most impressive processional giants in Great Britain.

They were shortly followed by the Sheffield Pecsaetan Morris Dancers, a group of local young ladies who back in 2001, after a night out, decided to embrace the Costwolds Morris dancing style. The set of 6 dancers had the traditional bells on their calves and used the well known white handkerchiefs.

Then, we enjoyed a moment of exultation when we saw our fellow countrymen from Torredembarra perform the dance of the young sheppards (Ball de Pastorets). As in Morris Dancing, they also use sticks, but these are long. Furthermore, instead of joining them over their heads they smack them under their legs. Another very different move takes place by bringing all sticks together to form a platform so that one of the dancers can stand up on it. He then delivers a short speech while holding his stick on his back. Impressive!!

It was a great evening, in which the three groups of traditional dancers intertwined. The grand finale came when all dancers and the public engaged in a short sardana, Catalonia's national dance. We did so following the steps of Gerard Torres, the leader of Ball de Pastorets.

The most amazing thing that sprang into mind was that, despite the distances among those groups, the similarities were still amazing. Such similarities brought them together, even down to the bagpipe!! What a wonderful way for two different yet sister cultures to come closer.