Bastoners de Barcelona

The Esbart Comtal set up a group of stick dancers at the hand weavers' cooperative, the Cooperativa Teixidors a Mà in Gràcia, in 1969. Years later, in 1991, that group changed its name to the Bastoners de Barcelona. Today, besides the adult section, they have a section for children aged 3-14.

The Bastoners de Barcelona have a repertoire of more than 30 dances from all over Catalonia, as well as a dozen of their own creations, music and choreography.

They wear the typical bastoner clothes: a white shirt and trousers, espardenyes, large neck scarves, black leggings above their ankles and blue or red waistbands, to differentiate those on the right, the bastoners dretans, from those on the left, the esquerrans, depending on the blows they execute.

In 1990 they were given the job of organising the 15th Trobada Nacional de Bastoners de Catalunya, a national gathering of nearly 2,000 dancers. Since then, they have taken part in the trobada every year. And since 2000 they have been helping the Bastoners de Gràcia organise a day of stick dancing, the Diada Bastonera de Gràcia. In 2008, along with the Esbart Comtal and the Colles de Cultura de Gràcia, they performed a show called Serrallonga, based on a dance that hadn't been performed since 1870.