The Provincial School of Dancing was created by the County Council of Ourense in 1984. Today there are as many as 5,000 students throughout the province and the school also plays a fundamental pedagogic function in the field of our culture through popular singing and dancing classes, and the tambourine, creating in this way the respect and love that our tradition deserves. Through its classes it deals with an educational process of developing the motive, affective and cognitive capacities in order that pupils of all ages understand and assimilate that which the popular dance and music constitutes a way of artistic expression and corporal communication and thus fully appreciating and enjoying the performances.

 To achieve this objective the intention is to develop the potential of the pupils through corporal education and movement. The development of these aspects will always be suited to the capacity of the pupils without submitting the pupils output to any fixed rules, obliging the pupil to accomplish the objectives at a certain age or within a determined period of time.

We consider that it’s necessary to conserve the music and the popular dance as a cultural legacy and are proud, and at the same time we are obliged, to transmit and promote the respect and the love that our popular tradition deserves.

The school disposes of a head office in the city of Ourense and different branches are distributed far and wide all over the province of Ourense to achieve their objectives. The branches are managed by teachers and collaborators, senior pupils of the school and members of the group CASTRO FLOXO, who teach the pupils our dances, rhythm, popular songs and customs.

The central school’s classes are held from Monday to Friday in the morning and afternoon, so that in this way offering a suitable timetable to the largest number of pupils. Once registered the pupils are divided into homogeneous groups according to their age, level of apprenticeship and availability. They follow a widely experienced program during the school year, with combined theoretical and practical classes with different activities which consists of a variety of pedagogic and amusing educational programmes.

 This is a group which was founded in 1977. Its main objective is recovering, promoting and transmitting authentic Galician folklore with dignity, meticulousness and authenticity that the art and culture and popular traditions deserve.

Today, CASTRO FLOXO presently consists of the maximum artistic exponents from the Provincial School of Dancing. Its the last link in the chain of perfection and apprenticeship that the most outstanding pupils will go through lengthily during their stay at the school. To belong to this selected group is a great honour for all students and is the summit of success of the long process of apprenticeship in the field of popular music and dancing.

In all its performances, CASTRO FLOXO shows richness, variety, grace, colour and feeling of Galician folklore in its more elaborate dimension intending to show at the same time beauty and a spectacle that is in itself authentic and original.

 The Provincial School of dancing, through its different groups, form the smallest to CASTRO FLOXO, all try to show the true Galician Folklore in all its authenticity, the music, song, dance, costumes and popular customs are joined together on the stage giving a global image of our folklore with all its richness and variety. All the musical variations and Galician popular dancing : muineiras, jotas, mazurcas, carballesas, processional dances, guild dances, esparabanes and pandeiradas, parade on stage, interpreted with a large range of costumes which include from the simplest costumes to the more elaborate, between these are many spectacular and original costumes of the processional and guild dances, music, dance, costumes and popular customs. Each one is complementary to the other on the stage in a natural way. All of them constitutes a collection of representations of the art, culture and popular traditions of our country.

The Provincial School of Dancing through it biggest artistic exponent CASTRO FLOXO this group has given concerts and taken part in a lot of festivals in countries for example: Germany, Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Scotland, Spain, France, Greece, Hungary, England, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Ukraine, U.S.A..

Festivals are organised in different villages of our provinces to motivate and to give incentive to all pupils to promote and open the school to society. These festivals are of a none competitive nature. In these festivals take part pupils of all ages and different branches of the school, in this way the pupils have the opportunity to socialise and feel important when they proudly exhibit their progress in the world of music and popular dancing.

The Provincial School of Dancing has its own team of investigation which has been investigating all over Galicia for many years. It collects existing vestiges or memoirs of people and this guarantees the authenticity of teaching, promotion and diffusion of the art, culture and popular traditions. All the collected material by this team of investigation after being suitably selected, classified and recorded are incorporated in the schools performances.

 Fieldwork and biographic investigation have been combined to give re-birth to popular song and verses to increase the schools musical files and thus enriching its repertory little by little. All recuperated material once studied and properly classified is disclosed by school publications and obviously incorporated as pedagogic material and artistic repertories for public performances.

Even as far as the furthest corners of the land our investigation team have traced and recovered many ancient vestiges of popular dance and religious and guild dancing. Hundreds and hundreds of interviewed informants and hours and hours of videotape recording were necessary in order to obtain a complete and extensive file containing numerous and varied dances of our land. Dances which were correctly studied and analysed, followed by a rigorous process to reconstruct and adequately complete and finally used as a pedagogic instrument by the school during their performances.

 Numerous complete or partially complete models of ancient costumes and antique items have been recovered by a long and laborious bibliographical research. Models of costumes typically Galician. Numerous costumes of every era, region, and social standing, also guild costumes have been reconstructed through this research work. All of these form part of the wardrobe for the schools performances and are exhibited during performances given by different groups of the school.

With the completion of the research, recuperation and diffusion in the field of music and dancing and costumes , The Provincial School of Dancing is now expanding its research in the area of Galician art, culture and popular traditions. Jobs, occupations, architecture and popular literature, customs and traditions are some of the main subjects of investigation, recuperation and publication within the global preservation of our cultural heritage.

  The Province of Ourense’s Popular Song Collection Volume 1’ constitutes the first stepping stone for an extensive project of monograph publications that the school is developing at the moment.

 This collection of songs is an extensive study of poems and popular songs of our province which were transmitted orally from generation to generation and recovered by our team of investigation. In this way we can maintain a solid account of our history and guarantee a cultural prosperity which otherwise would run a great risk. In this book, besides numerous musical scores, the reader encounters hundreds of love songs, songs of entertainment, humour, religious and defiance. Each one of these songs contains its own enchantment and naturally, hides great popular wisdom.

 Besides the programme of publishing and diffusion the school periodically organises series of activities destined for all types of public and thus giving a more far-reaching diffusion and a greater repercussion in different surroundings and local media. Radio programmes, musical recordings, exhibitions, meetings or dressmakers workshops and traditional needlework are some of the schools complementary activities, these help to make public the work of art, culture and popular traditions of our country.

Since the first meeting of the ‘Folklore Congress’ in 1984, The Provincial School of Dancing form part of this organisation, contributing its experience and that of its members to international festivals and with combined human efforts to ensure the smooth running of each and every meeting, to demonstrate to more than 40,000 spectators who come each year to watch a free performance of world wide folklore.

 These folklore congresses are held every summer in more than seventeen regions of Ourense and are even expanding to Monforte De Lemos and Chaves.

Dirección / Management: Mariló & Julio Fernández Senra