The County Government of Ourense decided to found the County Dance School on 1984, taking the Popular Dance Group Castro Floxo as initial structure. Today, the School has more than 1500 people in his principal School and its provincial delegations.
Pupils, who join the Scholl at 5 years, start a learning process in the different elements of the Galician folklore, since the simplest concepts of psychomotor activity, space orientation and rhythm sense, still the more complex steps and choreographies. Finally, they will dance, sing and play music showing their costumes and traditions in the stage, as culmination of their learning.
The County Dance School which is at present being incorporated into the “Xaquín Lorenzo Cultural Folk Centre,” was at first been created by the Ourense County Council in 1984 whose goal was to reveal the real Galician folklore. The music, songs, dances, costumes, customs and traditions are being used in all performances on and out of the stage to give the spectators a complete representation about the richness of our culture.
The County Dance School has accumulated more than 5000 students around the whole province and serves a very important educational function in the field of our folk culture by organizing folk songs, dances and tambourine classes. These are all being given to inspire and encourage love and respect for what our culture deserves. Through the help of classes, it was necessary to give encouragement for students to exercise their motor skills and cognitive and affective skills, thereby allowing students of all ages to understand and assimilate folk music and dance. All of these helped establish the student’s artistic expression and communication skills. Students were also encouraged to familiarize themselves with the different varieties of their own folk culture.
All kinds of Galician music and dance namely: Muiñeiras, Jotas, Mazurcas, Pandeiradas, Carballesas, Danzas procesionais e gremiais, etc are displaying their own costumes. The music is played with the traditional Galician instruments namely: Pipes, accordions, tambourines which are the most important instruments to accompany the singers.
All the dances from the County Dance Schools had all been taught by the old folks living in little Galician villages whose aim is to revive and restore all activities, customs and traditions of our culture...
The County Dance School has a research team whose purpose is to recuperate the most possible ethnographic material namely: Songs, Dances, Costumes, Trades, Games and Gastronomy. These materials are classified and placed in the archives to be studied, examined and published at a later date or in the very near future.
