Bleuniadur |
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| A Celtic slice of France - by
The Smoky Mountain News One of this year’s Folkmoot groups, Bleuniadur, hails from northern France in the region known as Brittany. SMN’s Michael Beadle conducted an email interview with Fabrice David, executive director of the all-volunteer Breton folk music and dance group. Where in France are you located? Tell me a little history about your group. What are some of the professions of the
dancers and musicians? How did you get the name “Bleuniadur?”
How often does your group get together to
rehearse? What are the challenges you face as a folk
dance group? What are some of the group’s dances
that we might expect to see at Folkmoot? Suite of dances from Plélauff What kinds of musical instruments will you
bring? What do you hope to do and see at Folkmoot? What would you like people in America to
know about your culture, your songs and dances? It is going to be a very exciting experience for us to go to Folkmoot. It is the result of several years of work to take part in a famous U.S. festival. It is also very exciting because of the connections between Brittany and America. Brittany is a land of great sailors and many of them took part in the foundation of the U.S. and Canada. Moreover, in the mid-20th century, thousands of Bretons left Brittany in order to work in the U.S. If you want to know more about the group, please visit our Web sites: http://www.bleuniadur.com |
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HISTORY OF THE GROUP The Bleuniadur ("flowering" in Breton) Ensemble is a regional ballet founded in Saint-Pol-de-Léon in 1978. At first it orientated its cultural development policy on the research of tunes and dances of its area and the production of Breton dancing shows based on the elements that had been found. 1984 marks the beginning of a second period of development for Bleuniadur. The group extended its activities (dancing school for children, adults beginners class, monitors training, intensive courses on singing, music and costumes, lectures on folklore), which have established the group as a regional ballet federating various Leon towns. Progressively, these developments led the group to evolve its policy towards dancing shows. Bleuniadur wanted to be closer to the traditional expression in order to highlight the Breton spirit in its most authentic and entrancing character. Thanks to the rigour of its approach Bleuniadur took part in major CIOFF festivals and won major prizes in Brittany, in France and Europe:
MUSIC AND DANCE IN BRITTANY In Brittany, music an dancing have always been an expression of identity for the folk society. They were a particular moment favouring the expression of individuals who fused together through a happy time. They followed the different stages of life and structured its organisation. Yet the practice of dancing and music was not restricted to a pure entertainment. It was the manifestation of the folk social order which expressed through a collective activity the status of each individual within the community. The circular form, the typical pattern of the most dominant dance in the western Brittany repertoire, is very representative of the social structure. The circle is the representation of a community which can express itself only if each dancer is at the right place. The individual is both a minor and a vital element in the working order of the dancing and singing. Dancing and singing convey the expression of an identity. This is the fundamental character which has permitted to Breton culture to develop through ages by adapting to the continuous cultural evolution. It also explains the current extraordinary enthusiasm of thousands of Bretons who today keep practicing music an dancing, thus perpetuating a centuries old tradition. 150 YEARS OF COSTUMES Bleuniadur has always been very careful over its costumes. Composed of authentic or recreated pieces, its wardrobe is one of the best stocked in Brittany. The Bleuniadur collection is rich of more than a thousand costumes in the clothing custom of Leon and Cornouaille. The group presents the evolution of the four customs in Saint-Pol-de-Leon over about 150 years. Besides all these Leon costumes, Bleuniadur also presents customs from the Cornouaille highlands that were worn in Leon near the Cornouaille border just before the First World War. Lastly it displays the custom of a very small area in Cornouaille, that of Gouezec and Saint-Thois, two small villages of farmers and shepherds. The beautiful and faithful work of reconstitution realised by the last tailors and embroiderers of our region have made of Bleuniadur a very distinctive Ensemble and one of the most sought group in Brittany. DANCES REPERTOIRE Bleuniadur is a group that masters one of the largest repertoire of traditional dances in Brittany. It presents both dances from upper Brittany (French-speaking culture) and western Brittany (Breton-speaking culture). It is one of the very rare group mastering at the same time dances from the early twentieth century, which are commonly danced in Brittany, and the steps and forms of mid-nineteenth century dances. In addition to this wide range of dances in time and space, our group has another characteristic: it is the only Ensemble in France having in its repertoire all the dances from two areas called Leon and Tregor in the Finistere county. Indeed the group has been the only one to spend a period of its life in researching music and dances from that neglected area which had, at the dawn of this century, one of the oldest and most archaic repertoire in France and even Europe. THE ARMORICANS MOUNTAINS The mountains of Brittany are an area of highlands called "menez" (mountain) in Breton. The lack of high mountains in Brittany is due to the very old rocks of its soil: granite, sandstone and schist. The very high folding of the Armorican Mountains in the primary era (1400m.) has been eroded, leaving today two main areas of highlands composed of two lines which cross the country from west to east and are parallel two the coasts. This region, called "Kein Breizh" (the back of Brittany) is made of a series of round summits and ragged crests called Menez Arre (The Arre Mountains) and Menez Du (the Black Mountains). In the old times, it used to be covered by a vast forest. Some deep woods still remain from this ancient forest, but it has mainly been replaced by an arid landscape of moors and marshes. Even if they are not very high (about 400-500 metres), these highlands have had a traditional mountain way of life, very different from the plain. It is especially the case in winter, when come what the Breton language calls "misioù du" (the black months). This is a period of rare daylight, of rain, snow and mist which have led people to live cut from other parts of the country. The climate and location have always made this part of inland Brittany very specific. It has always been secret and closed to modernity, thus preserving its traditions and particularities. It is a land of celtic legends, that of King Arthur and Merlin, where live magical characters and fairies and where the Bretons locate the door to Hell and the Underworld. Glaz GLAZ is the name of the show of the Leon Folk Arts and Dance Ensemble BLEUNIADUR. In Breton language, "glaz" means at the same time blue, but also all the range of colours of the sea (from blue to green and grey). It is on this basis that our show is developped, as a range of music, songs and dances from the highlands of Brittany. This show is a delicate mix of the cultures of Western and Eastern Brittany, and is a trip through time, exploring many counties and the evolution of traditional dancing since the middle of the XIXth century. This show displays the traditions of major counties of Brittany as well as those of small villages. Usually, Breton dance groups present only the last dance of a village. Our specificity is to present all the various dances of each village in their diversity and historical evolution. This is the opportunity to discover a very rich, difficult and specific repertoire and to get a renewed look on Breton folk dance. In Glaz, the ethnic approach is combined to a creative process. It seeks to present the reality of Breton culture in its traditional and comtemporary aspects. Dances have been choreographed by Breton but also modern dance choreographers. This allows the audience to perceive the evolution of Breton folk dance which is still alive and practiced by thousands of people today in Brittany. The show that will be presented is an extract of Glaz made of an artistically arranged part based on the ethnologic research of the group.
Wedding fair in Brittany In the XIXth and early XXth centuries, in some parts of Brittany, wedding used to be cloncluded in wedding fairs. In the small village of Penzé, this tradition took place on the 21th of September. Young girls who were willing to marry came very soon in the morning and sat on both sides of the bridge. Young men then came to meet them and had to prove their physical and moral merits in order to gain the interest of the girls (and their families!). When a boy was interested in a girl, he proposed by approaching and touching his hat. The girl accepted by standing in front of him. If unfortunately the girl didn't accept the boy's proposal, she gently turned towards the river so as not refuse the the proposal in a shameful way for the boy. As there is no direct proposal, there is no direct refusal, and thus no shame on the boy. When the agreement was made between the young boy and girl, their families met in the local inn with a solicitor so as to sign a wedding contract. The three wedding days would take part in the following week after Easter. All the new couples met the day after the fair to celebrate altogether their coming weddings. The girls who had told that they would find a husband and were left alone after the fair were called "kaseg" (old mare). This custom disappeared when people began to get very different degrees of wealth in the beginning of the XXth century.
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