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 The earliest data we have on the dance of greeting performed as part of the brokel-dantza come from Juan Ignacio Iztueta. In 1828, four years after the publication of his work, this dance was one of those performed during a reception organised in honour of King Ferdinand VII and his wife Marie-Amelie of Saxony during a visit they made to Gipuzkoa. A document discovered by Juan Antonio Urbeltz that describes this performance includes this series of dances under the heading “Burruca” (Fight), though to judge from the description it must have been the brokel-dantza. Among the dances mentioned is “a contradanse (Agurra)”, which is described as follows: “to the sound of the contradanse the leader dances out and makes three bows to the authorities and the audience, which are then repeated by the rest”.
Thirty years later the following appeared in a leaflet presenting an entertainment offered in 1858 in Bilbao by a dance group trained by José Antonio Olano: “Contradanse to greet the audience”. José Antonio Azpiazu gives a more extensive explanation in his 1858 leaflet entitled Description of the public entertainments of Guipúzcoa and in particular of its dances:
"Reverencia. Meanwhile the warriors leave their swords and group together in good order, their leader testing the spirit and willingness of each one, and to the most doleful and sentimental of tunes they show off their skill and precision in the accuracy of their manoeuvres, with several changes, begging the consent of the authorities and the people there gathered to break off hostilities, removing their hats and bowing to the front and to both sides”.
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