Ésdansa, the reference festival for root dance in Catalonia, kicks off its 41st edition with a strong commitment to young people and creation. This year there are some thirty activities scheduled spread over a week, from Monday 21 to Sunday 27 August in Les Preses (La Garrotxa). The Círculo de Cultura Tradicional y Popular Marboleny is in charge of organizing the festival that was born in 1983 under the name of Les Preses International Music and Dance Festival and that to this day has not stopped reinventing itself.
The prominence of this year's edition is for the proposals of young creations although, as every year, there are also scheduled shows by renowned international companies. The Viorica from Moldavia, Minchanzama from Peru, Crane from Uganda and the Julio Sosa Tango company from Uruguay stand out. The show that opens the edition is Voluxa, a proposal produced by Esbart Marboleny himself and that fuses traditional music and dance with current trends.
The festival's commitment to new talent is reflected in the shows by Lali Mateu, Roger Cusidó, Pere Seda, Xavier Gumà and Verònica Hernández, Pol Jiménez and the MINIMíssimA company. These exemplify the global trend of recovering the tradition of dance with Catalan and Spanish roots and mixing it with new trends. The festival also has the Root Dance Impulse Plan, which includes proposals that receive artistic mentoring from the General Directorate of Popular Culture and the Fira Meditarrània de Manresa. We find shows from the Esbart Manresà with Raepte, or Testimony from the Esbart Santa Tecla or Era, from the Esbart de Rocasagna and Quim Bigas.
Apart from the programming of dance shows, there is also a commitment to dissemination, whether through training activities, talks or literary presentations. A clear example of this line is Bordes y heridas del Duende, a still unfinished proposal that will allow the public to see the work still under construction. Finally, the Ésdansa't Campus has also been organized with a complete line-up of workshops for audiences of all ages. The entire agenda and ticket sales for paid shows are available on the festival website.
