2019 in numbers: Performing arts

Year after year the Etxepare Basque Institute works with different tools to bring international recognition and exposure to Basque creativity across artistic disciplines. In 2019, for instance, we supported a total of 832 activities through mobility grants. One of the disciplines that received support was the performing arts.

Year after year the Etxepare Basque Institute works with different tools to bring international recognition and exposure to Basque creativity across artistic disciplines. In 2019, for instance, we supported a total of 832 activities through mobility grants. One of the disciplines that received support was the performing arts.

The Etxepare Basque Institute promotes the international mobility of Basque dance and theatre productions with the aim of making Basque performing arts visible to the world. To do this, its tasks are to offer subsidies, seek collaboration with local and foreign institutions, and create Basque windows in international programming, among others.

One of the main objectives of the Etxepare Basque Institute is to bring the work created by the Basque performing arts sector to audiences outside the Basque-speaking area. With that goal, it signs agreements of collaboration with several festivals and arts centres so that the work of Basque dance and theatre companies can be featured in their programmes. In 2019, for instance, there were seven Basque windows around the world: the Kukai Dantza company played a short run at Teatro Fernan Gomez in Madrid; Cielo Raso premiered the company’s last piece at the Funarte Festival in Brasilia; Kukai Dantza was also at the Kontrapunkt Festival in Poland; The Marie de Jongh theatre company performed at the Mapas festival in Tenerife; The dance company Ertza and the theatre group Deabru Beltzak were invited to Fest’Arts in Libourne, France; Gaizca Project also premiered their work at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa; and, lastly, the Kulunka theatre company visited the Fesitval Internacional de Teatro de Manizales in Colombia.

In addition, the Institute offered mobility grants in 2019 to enable companies to go on tour and stage performance runs outside the Basque Country. In the area of theatre, the Institute awarded a total of 130,000 euros to 36 companies, 12 of which performed in Basque. Most of these tours (17) were developed in Spain, 15 in other EU countries and one in North America. In the area of dance 45,000 euros were shared between 11 companies, eight of which were made in Spain, five in France, four in South America, one in Asia and Oceania, and another in Africa.