People dancing a sardana in la Bisbal de l'Empordà's town square, Catalonia. Video by Amics de la Sardana Terranostra.
This is sardana, a type of music and dance from Catalonia often considered Catalonia's national dance.
The music for the sardanes is always played by a cobla, a specific music ensamble consisting of 11 musicians playing 12 instruments with a predominance of wind instruments.
There are many songs of the sardana genre, all of which share the same beat. For this reason, the same handful of dance steps can be used for all songs. The dance is easy on purpose, so that everyone can join. It consists of two basic steps called the “short step” and the “long step”, and it’s always danced in circle holding hands.
The circle represents friendship, harmony, fraternity and solidarity among everyone who joins to hold hands.
People dancing sardanes in Northern Catalonia. Photos from the article “Sardane, une ronde fraternelle en Pays Catalan” by Béatrice Bantegny on Visit PO.
In the late 19th century, authorities (government and religious) condemned the sardana for being immoral because it meant that men and women who aren’t relatives were holding hands, but it was too popular to control it. During Franco’s fascist dictatorship of Spain (1939-1978), some sardana songs were banned because they were considered too Catalan (one of the pillars of Spanish fascism was/is Catalanophobia, the dictatorship wanted to exterminate the Catalan language, culture, and identity and impose the Spanish one instead).
But sardanes kept being danced through all of it and nowadays you can still find that a cobla plays in most towns during its local festivities, and everyone can join and dance. Though in most of Catalonia this dance is now associated with elderly people, in the Comarques Gironines it's particularly beloved. In the Empordà area, you can often find it in summer evenings.
Déjalo ser: Este 8 de mayo de 2024, la plataforma de streaming Disney+ lanzará una nueva versión remasterizada del documental del disco final de The Beatles. No, no me refiero a Get Back (2021) sino a Let It Be (1970), un filme que hasta ahora no tenía relanzamientos oficiales ni en DVD ni en Blu-ray ni en TV ni en cines ni en internet. [x]
I didn't fall in love; i sprinted toward you with a deliberate intention to embrace every part of you. falling implies chance, but loving you was a conscious choice, a journey pursued with open arms. it's a declaration that my love for you isn't a mere accident; it's a purposeful and unregrettable pursuit.
Nunca escuché tanta música ni le presté tanta atención a las letras de lo que escuchaba como cuando tuve el corazón roto. era como si esperara que alguna palabra fuera a darme alguna explicación para mi dolor.