Besides being the traditional dance of Catalonia, the sardana has other interpretations to it as well. For example, it may express the relationship between individual and group. At least, that is how it is seen by the choreographer Cesc Gelabert, who presented the inaugural Barcelona Grec 2011 Festival show La muntanya al teu voltant, at a press conference on Wednesday 8 June,.

Gelabert considers the centre pole and the circle of sardana dancers created around it represent a kind of metaphor for the dialectic between the individual and the group or between the individual and culture. This relationship between the individual and the group is the central theme of the show, which includes a reinterpretation of traditional Catalan dance.

Nevertheless, Gelabert clarifies that by saying La muntanya al teu voltant [The mountain around you] is no sardana show, despite having a dozen sardana group members taking part in it to the accompaniment of present-day and 19th-century sardana music, when the dance was different to what it is today.

Gelabert also explained that the stage production prepared by the plastic artist Perejaume is “simple, clean and well chosen”. It is based on the rising and falling curves of the mountains sketched out on the land. The live music will be performed by the Banda Municipal de Barcelona on a three-metre high structure.

During the press conference, Grec director Ricardo Szwarcer highlighted the importance of revisiting traditions, an exercise, he says, that allows us “to enrich them and put them to the test”.