History of Aurreskua

THE ORIGIN OF AURRESKU

The “aurresku of honor” that is danced nowadays, has its origin in the ancient “soka dantza”, that it was danced in a circle, generally composed only of men united by hand or holding handkerchiefs and forming a “string”. This social dance has been the most danced in the Basque Country throughout history, and it was danced in big parties by the people of the town and by mayors too. Therefore, it has had multiple variants and has received many names.

In this dance was specially important the first dancer, that was called “aurresku” (front hand), and secondly, the last dancer, that was called “atzesku” (back hand). After both dancers had given a tour around the town hall square, the “aurresku” was the protagonist, who performed the first danced. That post supposed honor, so sometimes were disputes to receive that post.
After the first dance, “aurresku” and “atzesku” were heading towards to the center of the square and performing a dance, facing each other, which was called “aurrez-aurre”, also known as a challenge. After that, two or four members of the string choose and bring a woman, normally the mayor´s daughter, as aurreskulari´s partner. The dancer dances before her, who stood still. At the end of the whole ceremony, it was repeated as the same way but with the atzeskulari, who has a different partner.

THE EVOLUTION OF AURRESKU

The steps of this dance, which at first were improvised, were fixed and were becoming more and more complicated, until to take us to the current spectacular dance (to dance aurresku perfectly it is  necessary to be a skilled dancer). Over the years, parts of the “soka-dantza” performed by the soloist (aurreskulari) were overcome gradually, to lead to what we now know as “aurresku”, called with that name because of the person who dance: the first dancer, “aurresku” or the “front hand”.