Culture Class

Guest post from Anne Marie here, Basque culture connoisseur. Lisa is keeping herself super busy, so I'm taking over for now. This week in Culture Class we've been looking at dance costumes and Basque mythology. Xiberoa's Maskaradak were an important feature, and the costume meanings were explained followed by videos of the famous wine glass dance. Did you know the horse figure might actually be an insect? The campers do! Quiz them when they get home to see if they remember anything.

After this lesson, they practiced tying headscarves and cintas to prepare for the final performance on Saturday. The boys and girls even taught each other, so now everyone should be able to help out with costumes, both at camp and in their dance groups.


Mikaela and Daniel helping Chloe with her cinta

Michael, Etienne, Clement, and Gilen pose for the camera


Dominic shows off his headscarf


Cami and Angelina working together

Even our aides got involved! Matty P was rockin' the pirate look.

Yesterday was the day for mythology skits. We looked at important figures like the Goddess Mari and her entourage of Sorginak (witches), Tartalo the Cyclops, wooly Basajaun the blacksmith and protector of sheep, and the Lamiak (water nymphs) with their long blonde hair and duck feet. After covering the basics, we practiced making up our own myths. Here are some highlights:

1. Buzzy Buzzy the Fuzzy Fuzzy Bee defeated his arch nemesis Harry Bee with the help of the Green Lanterns, the Justice League of Bees, and Chuck Norris.

2. Basajaun got mad because he wasn't invited to the party, so he filled the sky with black birds to make it perpetually night. This plan backfired because the others kept partying for a thousand billion years without him.

3. The Basques asked Mari for help chasing foreigners out of the Basque Country, but she was useless. She couldn't give them weapons and instead sent intense snowstorms to the Basque Country, out of which sprang robots (who were also useless).

4. Tartalo was really born a leprechaun and asked Mari to change him back to his natural state. Instead, she killed him. This worked out for the best though, because Tartalo came back to life as a leprechaun.



After the stories, the campers got into small groups to come up with their own skits based on Basque mythology. They got creative in using the props found around the room. Their skits mostly stuck to the myths, but sheep, ninjas, and the Gexan Ghost snuck in there too!

Victoria, Emma, Daniel, Mia, and Alyssa (above) practicing their skit


Etienne and Gilen in their costumes


Rebecca (as Goddess Mari) was turned into a cat, and Ellande and Cedric try to figure out how to help her


Chloe and Gilen, as one of the Sorginak