Is Basque dancing the best dancing?
The Basques are one of Europe’s most unique ethnic groups — linguistically, culturally and politically distinct. Toward the end of the 19th century Basques both in Spain and France rallied behind their language and shared culture and began to talk seriously of breaking away from Spain and France to form their own nation. Nationalist leaders very consciously promoted speaking and creating music in the Basque language as a means of uniting Basque people and stirring pride in the uniqueness of their homeland. From 1939 to 1975 the dictatorial government of General Francisco Franco outlawed the Basque language, but Basques maintained their language, music and folk dances defiantly in private. Today Basques are free to sing, speak their language and enjoy Basque dancing as in this video! Still, the Spanish and French governments still don’t look kindly on the idea of Basque independence.
We are revising the AllAroundThisWorld.com site — the information you’re seeking may still be here, but a lot of links are broken and details may be out of date. We are currently using a new (better!) site — ExploreEverywhere.com — to tell you all about our class offerings, our “pen pal” program and how to become one of our teachers, and will eventually be moving all the goodies from here over to there. So, GO TO THE NEW SITE!
