Basque Country Improvisation Championship 2009

You will be accompanied throughout this site by improvisers. During your visit: click on their photos to discover what they have to say.

"At present the improvisers who perform most often on this side of the border with Mattin and myself are Xanpun and Ezponde. They are both very talented and the best friends you could wish for.

Recently, young improvisers have begun to appear here. They don’t know how much pleasure they’ve given me. Alkhat, Mendiburu and Arrosagaray are the most well known.

No matter what, the veterans amongst us at least have the pleasure of having passed on improvisation to the next generation. Provided that they also pass it on to the following generation".

"To develop this discipline, perhaps more contests should be organised, especially in the Northern Basque Country.

Whatever the case, improvisation is linked to the situation of the Basque language. If Basque progresses, then so will improvisation. Contests are a pretext to revive enthusiasm for this discipline.

This has always been a concern for improvisers: if there are no more contests, there will be no more improvisers. Those of us who are part of the world of improvisation need these meetings.

It’s one of the concerns of the association ‘‘Bertsolarien Lagunak’’ in the Northern Basque Country: we wonder about how to spread improvisation, and that leads us to constantly think about what we can do to make this discipline develop further"

"Currently I give lessons in Hendaye with Amets Arzallus. We have 14/15 year old pupils. There are a dozen improvisation schools in the Northern Basque Country. In my view, improvisation is in good health.

I’m more concerned about the future of our language. At the end of the day, in the Southern Basque Country improvisation is deeply entrenched, in the North it’s taking root. Especially since today it’s actively encouraged by the ikastolas, which wasn’t always the case previously.

The contempt expressed at one time with regard to improvisation no longer exists today, on the contrary it’s seen as something prestigious. And as long as it stays that way, improvisation will continue. The problem would be if Basque disappeared.

I’m not very concerned about the future, I’m more worried about the present. We have to do things the right way now, in order to help the next generation attract the generation after them, so there’s no break like before we arrived"

"I’m quite optimistic about the future. In the Northern Basque Country people talk about saving improvisation saying it skipped a generation and that there’s a severe lack of young improvisers. But today, it’s not a new generation.

It’s a culture we’re creating, and we have a lot to do in order to attract new listeners. In the Southern Basque Country improvisation has never been in danger. The environment is very favourable for improvisation, and improvisers develop in this environment; but there’s another part of the population which has no contact with improvisation, and nothing in particular is done to reach out to those people.

In the Northern Basque Country, nothing’s been done, there’s no active support. We have to introduce people to improvisation. Improvisation is alive, it adapts to places and situations. And from that point of view, the situation of our language is decisive. Each situation needs to be treated individually.

We need non-Basque speaking groups who are learning Basque, we need Basque-speaking groups who work with expression, we need to form groups of improvisation followers … Each case has its own solutions"

"After improvisers like Ezponda and Alkat there was no-one until Amets and Sustrai appeared. People at that time thought it was the end of improvisation.

Today it’s regaining popularity and is little by little becoming accepted. I have no doubt about the future of improvisation.

It’s important to make more people aware of it. You can’t like what you don’t know. When an improvisation is good, the audience cannot help liking it. Of course, there’s still a long way to go, especially in the Northern Basque Country. Just like acting, improvisation enables the Basque language to stay alive.

In the Northern Basque Country, improvisation is less popular than theatre, but there are more and more people followers of improvisation, and if it continues like that, this art will survive, there’s no doubt about that"