The dance of greeting is performed as part of the brokel-dantza and as part of the soka-dantza. In the brokel-dantza Iztueta placed it after the walk-out while José Antonio Olano generally performed it at the beginning, before the walk-out. As its name suggests, this dance is a protocol of greeting.

In the brokel-dantza it is performed by the whole group with the leader at their head, while in the soka-dantza it is only the aurreskulari and the atzeskulari who dance in honour of the ladies that the servers have brought to them to join the dance.

Juan Ignacio Iztueta includes the dance of greeting in the cycle of the brokel-dantza, but he also includes it in the ezpata-dantza and in the repertoire of traditional melodies. Describing the ancient dances one by one, Iztueta makes the following assertion: “The dance of greeting used to be performed before the high altar when the ezpatadantzaris danced in church, and was danced nowhere else”.

It is not clear whether Iztueta refers here to the dance of greeting that goes with the brokel-dantza or whether we are dealing with two different dances. Iztueta also provides the following data on the structure of the dance of greeting that he includes in his repertoire of ancient melodies:

1. The first part has 8 points and the dancer must take.... 8

2. The second part has 8 points and he/ she must take..... 8”

Structurally, this coincides with the dance of greeting as performed today.

Although they are essentially the same dance, there is one element that distinguishes between the dances of greeting performed in the soka-dantza and the brokel-dantza. It has always been considered discourteous for the dancer to turn his back on the lady who is to be brought into the dance while he dances before her: indeed tradition has it that this is as rude a gesture as turning one’s back on the Lord while in church. Iztueta does not state explicitly that what is danced in the soka-dantza is the dance of greeting, but the instructions he gives on how to perform the dance correctly coincide with those that have come down to us traditionally associated with the greeting: “but without turning fully around, for it is most discourteous for the dancer to turn his back on the lady”.  So when the dance of greeting is performed in the soka-dantza, the dance must avoid or modify those steps that would entail turning his back on the lady honoured.