Sardanistas at the Barcelona Cathedral

We wandered into the square in front of the Barcelona Cathedral on a Sunday and were lucky enough to have witnessed this impromptu street dance. The Sardana is a circle dance typical of Catalonia where small circles of dancers can be seen to form and grow in streets and town squares. The cobla (a music ensemble consisting of 11 musicians playing wind instruments and a drum) had already started playing and by the time we got there the dancing had already taken place. Passers-by were continually joining in, throwing their bags in a pile at the center of the circle. What fun! I would have joined in if I knew how to do it. I would say it is similar to the rain dance, except that the footwork didn’t look as complicated!