by Alicia Martí
The Dance is a context of learning that makes possible new meaningful experiences (knowledge of oneself, artistic formation, social relation, corporal exigency ...). In addition, artistic expression and educational values are projected through scenic language. We can define it as an excellent educational context, constantly related to determination, effort, vocation and artistic creation. The educational system offers few artistic experiences in general (music, theatre, corporal expression)... In the program of Physical Education, the Dance incorporates other values (expressiveness, cooperation) different from the values of competition.
Through dance the student is encouraged to experiment, to know and to perfect his actions, giving expressivity to the movement of his body. Although, for various reasons, in the educational system at the moment, schools continue not to value artistic activities such as Dance as it does not enjoy as much popularity as sports activities in PE classes. This is an inadequate situation since authors of the stature of Cagigal (1996) have defended Dance as an important part of Physical Education.
The traditional dance is a special artistic and cultural activity, which occurs when one or more people move their bodies in a different way than they do when they participate in the ordinary avatars of daily life. It is observed that in traditional so-called societies, people show a great inclination to dance at moments considered fundamental in the development of their social life, their economic activities and their spiritual and religious conventions.
Hence, traditional dance is understood as an activity linked to the expression of outstanding social and cultural feelings. Not in vain do dances occur in situations where people feel the need to celebrate a crucial event within the community, and may be the event to commemorate economic, religious, historical, political, mythical, or individual events. However, the usual thing is that the celebration event consists of the celebration of a circumstance that combines the variety of characteristics that we have listed. Therefore, traditional dance is a social event that is organized to celebrate situations of magnitude in the lives of people.
The ball in which we are going to focus on this learning unit is the Stick Dance (Ball of Bastons), a kind of traditional dance. The stick dance is a popular dance widely spread by Catalonia, Aragon and the Valencian Community. It is the oldest traditional dance of those still danced in these areas. We can find with this name, a set of dances that use, as the main element, one or two wooden sticks that clap each other. Each area has its own ball of sticks with its particular characteristics.
The origins of stick dancing are not well defined. The main hypotheses argue that they emerged as an imitation of sword battles. It is danced by groups of between 8 and 24 people, following the clash of the sticks with the rhythm of the music. The most important instruments are the dolçaina (wind instrument similar to a flute) and tabalet (little drum). In its beginnings it was danced only by men and later was allowed the participation of both sexes.
The melodies are short, usually between eight and sixteen bars, which repeat repetitively until the end of the dance. Each repetition of these melodies corresponds to a position in the choreographies, which changes when a new repetition occurs. As for the sticks, the carriage wheel spokes have historically been used as the raw material to manufacture them. Its usual length is between 40 and 55 cm and its weight is variable. It is a group dance, where the socialization is very high. In this dance the coordination of the dancers is essential to keep the rhythm and that the sticks sound at the same time. Therefore, in this dance the cooperation is the most fundamental factor because it’s essential for this dance to be successful and it makes possible that the rest of factors work well.
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