Euskadi and Malandain Ballet Biarritz sign a new agreement to boost Basque dance creation and international reach

The agreement represents a qualitative step forward in the cooperation developed to date. It establishes a framework for extending the scope of a French Centre Chorégraphique National to Euskadi and opens the way for a more structured connection between the Basque dance ecosystem and France’s professional dance sector.

Malandain Ballet Biarritz is a leading organisation within the French choreographic system, and its professional networks provide Basque companies with a platform for accessing France, the wider French-speaking world and other international markets.

The partnership works in two directions: internally, by supporting creation, professional development and new opportunities for Basque dance; and externally, by providing a platform to raise the international profile of Euskadi, Basque culture and the Basque language.

This dimension is also aligned with Ça colle au basque, the Etxepare Basque Institute’s strategy to strengthen the presence of Basque culture throughout the French-speaking world through institutional and cultural partnerships.

The new agreement gives continuity and greater scope to the cooperation developed in recent years by the Etxepare Basque Institute and Malandain Ballet Biarritz. One of its first milestones was the Basque Focus held in Montreal in 2022 as part of the Saison Québec-Pays Basque.

In 2025, the two organisations signed an agreement to jointly support the production, dissemination and internationalisation of Basque dance. This cooperation has strengthened Basque participation in Maitaldia – Le Temps d´Aimer la Danse, led to the creation of the Saut de Basque professional meeting and, in 2026, incorporated the Maitaldia Basque Showcase, designed to connect Basque companies directly with programmers from France and other international markets.

The new agreement therefore expands the scale of the partnership built to date and strengthens the foundations for increasing the presence of Basque dance across professional networks in France and the wider French-speaking world.

The signing of the agreement has formed part of a broader institutional agenda undertaken by Euskadi in Paris. The French Ministry of Culture has received the Basque delegation, and First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Culture and Language Policy Ibone Bengoetxea has met French Minister of Culture Catherine Pégard. The meeting addressed cultural relations between Euskadi and France and explored new avenues for cooperation.

The Basque delegation has also visited the Académie des beaux-arts – Institut de France and met representatives of the institution. It subsequently met representatives of the Comédie-Française to explore potential areas for future collaboration.

Alongside the institutional agenda, Malandain Ballet Biarritz has presented its work at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées for the first time. The company performed three works choreographed by Thierry Malandain: L’Oiseau de feu, Boléro and Minuit et demi, ou le Cœur mystérieux. The Basque delegation attended the performance at one of the leading venues on the French cultural scene.

The institutional agenda carried out by the Basque Government in Paris has therefore brought together the two dimensions of the agreement: creating new structures and opportunities for Basque dance and artistic creation, while strengthening culture as a vehicle for Euskadi’s international projection and institutional relations.