The Coordinadora de Ball de Bastons de Catalunya

What's the Stick Dance Coordinating Committee for Catalonia?

The First Catalan Stick Dance Meeting took place in Santa Maria d’Oló (Bages) in 1976. This initiative had a continuity and the same meeting took place every year in a different place, until 1985, when the different participating Stick Dance groups decided to found the Stick Dance Coordinating Committee for Catalonia (Coordinadora de Ball de Bastons de Catalunya) on the 29th of September, 1985. Its main objectives were (and are) coordinating, organizing and promoting cultural, popular and folk events. Generally, all these events are related to Stick Dance so as to promote the popular and the traditional Catalan culture.

Six Stick Dance groups took part in the First Catalan Stick Dance Meeting, in 1976. Nowadays the number of participating groups has increased up to 60. This figure shows an important increase in the Stick Dance activity and the Stick Dance Coordinating Committee is the body which coordinates the activity of all these Stick Dance groups. At the moment, there are 111 groups registered in the Stick Dance Coordinating Committee.
At the beginning, the Stick Dance Coordinating Committee's main objective was the organisation of the Stick Dance Meetings together with the corresponding Stick Dance group. With the passage of time, besides the organisation of the meetings, this body has reached new commitments and has offered services to all Stick Dance groups.

The Governing Organs of the Committee are made up of a Governing Board and the General Assembly of the Caps de Colla or the representatives of each Stick Dance group.

The Governing Board consists of the President, the Vice President, the Secretary, the Treasurer and the members of the Governing Board, who represent the Stick Dances' interests.
Once a year in a different town, the Presidents of the Stick Dances groups, who are generally responsible for the yearly Catalan Stick Dance Meeting, summon one to two ordinary general meetings. The Governing Board drafts a memorandum outlining the work done during the previous year, and announces the events to take place in that year. The host Stick Dance group makes the events of the Catalan Stick Dance Meeting public. General meetings have been occasionally summoned, both ordinary (to discuss very specific subjects) and extraordinary (to change the Governing Board or to modify the Stick Dance Coordinating Committee’s memorandum).

On the ordinary general meeting held in Barcelona on the 11th May 2008, the Stick Dance Coordinating Committee structure (traditionally divided into four administrative departments) changed to seven administrative departments in order to be accessible to all Stick Dance groups, namely:
Comarques Meridionals, Penedès, Regió de Barcelona, Catalunya Central, Vallès, Terres de Ponent and Comarques Gironines;
Besides, the Stick Dance groups from la Franja de Ponent, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands and Northern Catalonia were all assimilated by the the Stick Dance Coordinating Committee.

• Liability insurance for all Stick Dance groups.
• Technical, artistic and historical assessment for all new groups.
• Legal assessment for all Stick Dance groups.
• Administrative collaboration.
• Organization of a photography contest.
• Contracting and scheduling of Stick Dance events.
• Dissemination of the Stick Dance to the media and to the society in general.
• Stick Dance documentation.
• Edition of books related to our issue.
• Edition of Stick Dance music CDs.
• Edition of Stick Dance in DVD format.
• Itinerant exhibition of sticks, photographies, etc.
• Organization of the contest: Música per a Ball de Bastons, with three different categories (gralla seca, flabiol and other typical Catalan instruments).
• Participation in trade fairs, fairs and popular and traditional Catalan culture festivals.
• Distribution of unpublished music to the groups showing interest.
• Publication of documents.
• Recuperation of the Stick Dance in different towns.
• Research, investigation, field works and activities.
• Access to own web site, host by Portal Bastoner.

President: Marc Galí i Seguès
Vice President: Joan Rosellò i Vilà
Secretary: Òscar Martí i Gómez
Treasurer: Miquel Caelles
Member of the Governing Board of Penedès: Josep Guillèn i Viñas
Member of the Governing Board of Barcelona: Maite Roca
Member of the Governing Board of Comarques Gironines: Robert Andreu
Member of the Governing Board of Vallès: Teresa Adell
Member of the Governing Board of Ponent: Mariona Lladonosa

The Governing Board of Catalunya Central has not been constituted yet. The President of Comarques Meridionals is also their Vice President. While the President, Vice president, Secretary and Treasurer are all elected by the Assembly of Caps de Colla, the members of the Governing Board are elected in the meetings by the Stick Dance groups of each region.

Translated by Meritxell Salvat and revised by Mònica
Sumoy