Zortzinango

This dance was traditionally known as Zortziko, and recently to keep to the grammatical rules of euskara batua it was changed to Zortzinango. The reason given for this is that Zortzi-ko refers to a locality of eight, indicated by the use of the suffix -ko (relating to a place), whereas Zortzinango would be the very dance of eights, that is, performed in groups of eight.

It is a dance with a group of eight men in formation of two rows and armed with swords, although these do not have a special function in the exhibition. Dancing to the rhythm of the music they begin changing places, initially the four in front with the four in the second row, followed by the others, and finally the first ones with the third and the second ones with the fourth, until they are in reverse position to the original one, and in this way, when they repeat the steps and movements the group is reformed.

This is the second dance to be performed in the sequence called Dantzari Dantza, peculiar to the Duranguesado or Durangoaldea in Bizkaia, and it is used as a base, as regards both the steps and the movements, for the performance of the other dances of the sequence, such as: Banango, Binango and Launango. At present, we can see it performed in Abadiño, Berritz, Garai, Iurreta, Izurza and Mañaria.