TRADICIONAL DANCES IN THE
"FESTA MAJOR DE VILAFRANCA"
-Drac (dragon): It's a historical piece. It opens the procession. It represents a dragon, and his mouth, wings and tail throw fire-crackers. -Gegants (giants): There are two of them, named Ferragut and Elisenda. They represents two big, giant, humans. Two strong men carry them and make them walk and dance. -Cotonines (horses): There are nine of them. They have a hole on their backs so that a person can walk "into" them. Then, the person's legs look like the horse's legs. They are all brown and black, except for the captain, which is white. They also dance with different music.
-Ball de bastons (stick dance):
In this group some young men use sticks and make them hit each other during the dances. They move fast and jump. They have to be very careful not to hit their fingers! |
CASTELLERS (human towers)
"Castellers" (Human towers) are perhaps the most popular folklore group. "Castells" are human castles, where a young child (five or six year old), climbs to the top. The child is called "anxaneta". A lot of people is needed to build a castle, and everybody has a different role. They need big and small people, tall and short, fat and thin,... Tradicionally there were only men in the "castellers" groups. Now there are men and women. You can see castells in all our towns "festa major", almost everyweekend in summer.