Plazara Dantzara collective to receive Hondarribia Equality Award on June 5

The Jaizkibel company awards the prize to Plazara Dantzara for its fight to ensure female participation in Baztan dances.

Generic image of Basque architecture.
IA

Generic image of Basque architecture.

The Jaizkibel company will present the 11th Hondarribia Berdintasunaren Saria award to the Plazara Dantzara! collective on June 5 at the Itsas Etxea auditorium in Hondarribia.

The event will begin at 7:00 PM and will feature a performance by Esanezin, the musical project of singer Ianire Aranzabe. Admission will be free until full capacity.
With this award, Jaizkibel wishes to thank Plazara Dantzara for its fight «to guarantee women's participation in the dances of Baztan». The company highlights the connection between the Navarrese valley and the Bidasoa region in «the demand to integrate women into festivals».
As in Hondarribia, they emphasize that there too «women's desire to dance has been a source of conflict» and they defend that «women are succeeding in dancing in their squares during festivals».
Plazara Dantzara is an initiative that emerged in the early 2010s with the aim of claiming women's right to participate in the traditional mutildantzas of Baztan. The conflict surrounding the valley's circular dances erupted at the beginning of this millennium when a group of women sought to join the dances, which until then were reserved exclusively for men, during the Santiago festivities in Elizondo.
Throughout these years, the collective has led the egalitarian stance advocating for the inclusion of women in the traditional events of Baztan. After years of struggle, the group described the past year, 2023, as the first year in which the mutildantzas were held in a predominantly mixed and incident-free manner.