Flying skirts

The wires with the bunting of vibrant colours actively participated in the celebration of San Vicente Ferrer festivities. The wind made them dance cheerfully to the beat of the performed music.

I was also there as a performer in one of the activities and later as the audience when a dance group of traditional Valencian dances had their presentation.

This performance was just one of the many that happened in the last three days in this chapel that bears the same name as the celebrated saint, San Vicente Ferrer. It is better to say that the activities took place in front of the chapel and not in it. These hermitages are quite small, but they do have space around the buildings for these kinds of celebrations.

The activities included dances, concerts, book presentations, workshops, pilgrimage, footrace, Valencian pelota and mass. Oh, and we also had lunch there. I was there for some six hours, in the sun of midday, dressed in black, but all in all, it was a very nice day with a successful performance for everyone.

But I'm really not going to complain. The girls and boys who danced for almost an hour during their presentation surely felt the heat too. And dressed this way, with many layers of shirts and skirts, even more so.

The dances that I have seen here, and you will see also if you are seeing this post are the folkloric manifestation of this region, the Valencian Community in Spain. The dances in the past were performed in the squares and streets of the Valencian towns, accompanied by the music of the popular traditional instruments of this region dolçaina and tabal. There were also some mandolines (I think they were mandolines) that a group of musicians played but I was focused on these dancers and not musicians this time.

The colourful dresses were beautiful, I loved them. I was thinking what makes nowadays young people practice these dances and preserve the tradition? I guess it is challenging with all the distractions we have so hats off to these girls.

They danced very gracefully! I know it takes a lot of time to learn, practice and dance in harmony with the group.

While the girls were dancing they also played the castanets simultaneously. The combination of colourful skirts, the music, and the castanets' sound made this show wonderful. I had a smile drawn on my face.

One of the dances was very quick. Here also a few men performed and the dynamic was more intense.

Not sure whether it can be noticed from the photos but this dancer was smiling for the whole time. He really enjoyed the dance and when they finished he congratulated the others. Maybe he was a kind of a teacher, I don't know. It is just my guess.

The most cheerful moment was when the music went pretty fast, at the end of one song. I had the impression that the dancing girls would fly thanks to their skirts. That was beautiful and could make you dizzy, which is sometimes good! 😁

Now I understood why they had to have wide skirts with many layers.

I called these skirts in my mind faldas voladoras - flying skirts! 😂

The colourful little flags greeted us once again, with the help of the wind and in the same way I greet you with hopes that you have found some enjoyment in these colours and traditional dances, music and flying skirts.