Penedès Stick Dancers in a Get-Together at les Roquetes

As a geographical continuation of Vilanova i la Geltrú – but administratively belonging to Sant Pere de Ribes - we find les Roquetes de Garraf. This year, the local agrupació de balls populars celebrates its 35th anniversary; quite an achievement since it was started from scratch. From a Catalan perspective, les Roquetes is a society of newcomers; people from Andalucía and other parts of Spain who moved here looking for jobs around Barcelona. That is what Josep Guillén (representant del Penedès de la Coordinadora de Ball de Bastons) had in mind when he proposed that, on June 6, the first trobada bastonera of our part of Catalonia was to be celebrated here.

The get-together started with two cercaviles (performance parades) through the centre, followed by joint dance performances of the so called pavana and boja at the square la Vinya d’en Petaca. After that the bastoners of les Roquetes had invited all the 250 participants to an anniversary dinner.

The bastoners of Igualada made their first public appearances on this occasion and fascinated the audience with music played on a violin instead of traditional gralles. With 9 colles (teams) from Garraf, 5 from Alt Penedès, and 2 each from Baix Penedès and Anoia, respectively, (plus one from Castelldefels) the event served as a non-political reminder of the unity of what might one day become the Vegueria Penedès.





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Technorati tags: Catalonia, Garraf, Igualada, Independence, Penedès, Spain, Vilanova