HISTORY
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HISTORY OF THE GROUP “AIRES D’ES PLÀ DE MARRATXÍ”
The beginnings
The group was founded by Bernat Cabot Llabrés on June, 1979.
Its first steps were done in the “Gaudium” club. This club belonged to the “San Lázaro” parish, in “Plà de na Tesa” (Marratxí). Due to this relationship with the church, the first performance was on August, 1979, dancing “l’oferta”, an antique dance which is the only one that can take place during the celebration of the mass. As a group of musicians was still lacking, the musical support was in charge of a group from another village.
Origin of the name
The name of the group is composed by three different parts:
- Aires, means air, and it usually appears in the name of most of the folkloric groups.
- Plà, it makes reference to the village where the group comes from, Plà de Na Tesa.
- Marratxí, it is the name of the area where the village belongs.
The group is consolidated
The group was consolidated as a traditional Majorcan music and dances group, and it also founded a dances school to preserve the continuity of the group itself.
Most of the dances the group plays have their origins in the Raiguer area of Mallorca, which also maintains four boleros from the very old school from Marratxí. The group takes special care about the dressing, which corresponds to the traditional clothes from the 18th till the beginning of 20th century.
The first years of the group
During its first years, the group participated in different popular festivities and in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th festivals of Majorcan folk groups.
On September, 1980, due to the 1st international Folkdance festival in Sóller (Mallorca), our village got the visit of “Federación de Peñas cordobesas” from Córdoba (Spain), and then the next years as follows:
1981: Rancho típico da Amorosa (Portugal).
1982: Jorge Manrique (Palencia, Spain)
1983: Asociación de Coros y danzas de Santa Cruz de la Palma (Canary islands, Spain)
1984: Grupo de San Rafael (Córdoba, Spain)
A new idea came out, make exchanges with others folk groups from all over the world. That means, living together during some days, in order to learn a little bit of their dances and open our mind to new cultures, and, of course, those contacts with the different folk groups were done with the main objective being the popularisation of our culture through our traditional folk dances, music and language.
Those exchanges were started with the “Ecos d’es barranc d’Algendar” group from Menorca. They visited us for the first time on 1984.
During our 5th anniversary, and in order to continue with this initiative, we decided to make a “Ballada popular” together with the performance of the invited group. A “Ballada popular” is when one or several folk groups of our island play their songs on a stage, and the public can dance as long as they want. It is also called open dance. This way the people can enjoy not only watching the performance of the invited folk group, but also dancing our traditional dances.
I Ballada Popular
In 1984 we organised the first “Ballada Popular”, which has had continuity until nowadays. This way we recovered a very old tradition called “Sa Primera” which disappeared during the fourties. This tradition consists in auctioning the first dance that will be played, so that the winners could have the great honour to be the only ones dancing it.
Exchanges done by the group
These are the groups we have done some exchanges with.
- Grupo de Danzas Berga Algemesí (Valencia, Spain)
- Grupo Albatros Casasimarro (Cuenca, Spain)
- Grupo Fueros de Aragón (Zaragoza, Spain)
- Grupo Beniamer (Algeria)
- Grup Aires del Barranc d'Algendar (Menorca, Spain)
- Casa Regional Gallega de Palma
- Grup Aires Mallorquins de Palma
- Grupo de Danzas de Olite (Navarra, Spain)
- Grupo Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Badajoz, Spain)
- Casa Regional Murciana de Palma
- Grupo Le Poutou de Toulousse (Toulousse, France)
- Grup Colla de Formentera (Formentera, Spain)
- Agrupación Folklórica La Sidrina (Asturias, Spain)
- Agrupació Folklòrica de Dansas El Replà (Castellón, Spain)
- Grupo de Coros y Danzas del Santísimo Cristo de la Veracruz (Toledo, Spain)
- Escuela municipal de canto y danza del Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Cáceres (Cáceres, Spain)
- Grupo Raices Extremeñas de Aluche (Madrid, Spain)
- Grup Es Corbilhuers de Les (Vall d’Aràn, Spain)
Festivals where the group has taken part in
Since 1982 Aires des Plà de Marratxí has taken part in several national and international folk festivals. They have always been non competitive festivals because we don’t believe in any culture being better than another, all of them are rich and varied.
These are the festivals we have taken part in during these years:
- 1982 I Festival Nacional de Folklore de Córdoba (Córdoba, Spain)
- 1983 IV Festival Nacional de Puertollano (Ciudad Real, Spain)
- 1984 I Festival Nacional de Ferreries (Menorca, Spain)
- 1984 IV Festival Internacional de Sóller (Mallorca)
- 1985 IX Festival Internacional de Burgos (Burgos, Spain)
- 1985 III Festival Nacional de Coin (Málaga, Spain)
- 1986 IV Festival Nacional Virgen del Rio (Murcia, Spain)
- 1987 IV Festival Nacional de Ferreries (Menorca, Spain)
- 1988 IX Festival de Danzas Regionales de Castilla La Mancha (Ciudad Real, Spain)
- 1989 X Festival Nacional Ossa de Montiel (Albacete, Spain)
- 1989 XII Festival Nacional de Quintanar del Rey (Albacete, Spain)
- 1989 XI Festival Nacional Casa Simarro (Albacete, Spain)
- 1989 III Festival Nacional Robiolos Bajos (Ciudad Real, Spain)
- 1990 XIV Festival Internacional de Argelia (Argelia)
- 1991 VII Festival Nacional de Olite (Navarra, Spain)
- 1992 XII Mostra Internacional de Son Ferriol (Mallorca)
- 1994 X Festival Internacional de Castuera (Badajoz, Spain)
- 1994 II Mostra Folkòrica de Porreres (Mallorca)
- 1996 XX Festival Internacional de Toulousse (Toulousse, France)
- 1998 XIV Festival Nacional de Ferreries (Menorca, Spain)
- 1999 III Festival Nacional de Siero (Asturias, Spain)
- 2000 XVIII Festival Nacional de Alquerias del Niño Perdido (Castellón, Spain)
- 2001 XVI Mostra Internacional de Son Ferriol (Mallorca)
- 2001 XV Festival Internacional de Mora (Toledo, Spain)
- 2002 IX Mostra Folklòrica de Porreres (Mallorca)
- 2003 VI Festival Folklórico de Cáceres, Patrimonio de la Humanidad (Cáceres, Spain)
- 2004 VI Festival Internacional de Aluche (Madrid, Spain)
- 2005 I Festival Nacional de los Pirineos a Les (Vall d’Aràn, Spain)
