Jon Maya, dancer and choreographer.

He started dancing at the age of six in the Ereintza folk dancing group in Errenteria. His training has mostly been in traditional dance, and from that starting point he has developed his own projects. Individually, he has been the Aurresku (the traditional Basque dance of tribute to honor an individual) champion of Euskal Herria (the Greater Basque Country) seven times in a row, from 1997 to 2005. Today he is the Director of Kukai Dantza Taldea (Kukai Dance Troupe) and is in charge of getting the Humanity at Music project to really shake a leg.

 

What does Humanity at Music mean to you?

It’s a challenge for me to put on a performance of this magnitude, to get a whole movement and a group of people that make up a solid, important community in Euskal Herria, and get them up and dancing. Besides being a big challenge, it’s also delightful. The artistic team is wonderful and that has spurred us on to really give it our all.

 

So you’ll be doing the choreography of the event right there, live. How would you define it?

We’re right in the process of reflection, creation and preparation right now. I’d like our work to reflect the cooperative character and the main values of MONDRAGON, and for anyone who forms part of MONDRAGON to feel personally identified with the feelings and experiences that our dance reflects.

 

It’s going to be a participative project. How would you encourage cooperative members to take part in the project?

They are the soul of the cooperatives and their life-experience is necessary for this work. For us, that experience is indispensable and we’ll need their help. As well, they’ll have the opportunity to experience something new and different, enjoying the cooperative movement at the same time they participate as an interactive audience: singing, dancing…