BATTLE MOUNTAIN - The Oberenak Basque Club in Battle Mountain held its winter dinner and dance on Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Battle Mountain Civic Center.
The event, as always, drew in a sold out crowd composed of all ages from infants to elders. Every year the club holds this event which fills the civic center with joyful people with one thing in mind and that is celebrating their heritage traditionally with family and friends.
The club is composed of dancers of all ages from preschool to high school. This year's dancers were Chase Lutz, Jayci Villanueva, Libby Tingey, Patxi Iturriaga, Kylee Anderson, Alissa Heinz, Asier Iturriaga, Sam Bengoa, Hadlee Bauer, Sean Bengoa, Jaione Garcicea, Destiny Villanueva, Emma Lemaire, Kasia Nelson, Angelica Posadas, Jake Smith, Kira Smith, Uliana Willingham, Drue Domagala, Jade Smith, Keetna Smith, Marissa Rogers, Jonni Davis, Madison Pappas, Kali Kester, Kennedie Davis, and Caitlyn Book.
The club members all pitch in to the success of this event from chopping vegetables for days prior to the event along with dance practice and then serving at the event.
The dinner is served in a traditional Basque style with the young dancers in their outfits delivering bowls of soup, salad, beans, rice, bread, steak, lamb, and of course grilled garlic.
The youngsters, their parents, and other volunteers work extremely hard to insure that their guests have a great evening that consists of great food and drink, Basque dance entertainment, and at the end a DJ for the guests to dance to.
Prior to dinner, emcee Tony Moore auctions off some of the great sheepherders bread that is baked locally by people involved with the club, Shirley Shepherd, Joe Obietta, Anna Penola, Jodi Moore and Alison Itza.
Moore is a great auction host and had a bidding war going on for a large bread made by Joe Obietta and it was finally purchased by Lyle Lemaire for $1,025. At the end of the auction the club raised approximately $2,200 on sheepherders bread and biscuits alone.
The club uses funds raised by this event to travel to dance competitions in Idaho, tuitions for camps, scholarships, and travel expenses.
The dancers and other volunteers delivered dinner to all the tables and then cleaned up the tables. After the work was done the crowd sat back ready to enjoy the best entertainment of the evening, "The Battle Mountain Oberenak Basque Club" dancers.
The dancers consisted of three groups, the youngest, middle, and the high school age students. They entertained and served in their traditional Basque celebration outfits.
The entertainment always begins with the flag dance consisting of all the students and after the different age groups perform individually. Guests received a program at their table describing a few of the dances and Alison Itza the groups' instructor explains other dances and their history as the groups perform.
The dances are all high energy with plenty of skipping, clapping and jumping in leather traditional shoes that are laced up their legs. All of the dance performances have a story and props used by the dancers such as willows, sticks, masks and glasses of wine for the traditional wine dance.
This year the club members performed a play in conjunction with a story written by Josephine Filippini Overholser entitled "Sheep Camp." Itza had the youngest group make sheep masks that they wore on stage while the story was read aloud by club member Jake Smith and accompanied by Kali Kester on the txitsu.
Kali Kester attended "Udaleku," a two-week Basque camp in Boise where she learned to play the txitsu, which is a flute-like instrument. This year the older dancers plan to practice with the Elko Basque dancers putting together a performance for the 50th Elko Basque Festival in July.
This year the winter dinner was organized by club chair member Mary Bengoa. Dance instructor Alison Itza made recognition of the great job Bengoa did organizing the dinner. At the end of the club performances, the dancers presented Itza with a bottle of wine and gift certificate in recognition of her dedication to instructing them as their performances improve flawlessly every year.
After the Basque dance club entertainment the event always has a DJ and guests can dance enjoying the remainder of the evening with their hosts and friends.
The Battle Mountain Oberenak Basque Club accepts any students to join their dance club. If a student is not of Basque heritage the club is willing to teach and share their heritage with everyone.
Dancers, volunteers and guests need not be of the heritage and are always welcome to join. If a person enjoys good food and great family entertainment this event is not to be missed.
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