The Dansa de la Mort has travelled outside Verges in different circumstances. Demonstrations elsewhere, liturgical performances inside a church and the circulation of images must be distinguished. Màriam Serrà records these differences on pp. 122–124 of her 1998 book.
According to Serrà, the first Madrid trip took place in 1955 at the invitation of the provincial delegation of Educación y Descanso, for the May Day events. Travel, accommodation, payment for the adults and new costumes were included. She links the trip to the renewal of costumes, helmets and the flag, and to the addition of four torchbearers.
Serrà explains that the Dance returned to Madrid four years later for a demonstration at the Bernabéu stadium. She also records opposition from some people in Verges. These journeys should therefore not be presented as a unanimous decision by the whole village.
Verges Dance of Death Performances: The Exceptions
After those trips, the Patronat defended the Dance’s local context. Serrà mentions refusals to attend Girona’s national choir and dance competition in 1967 and the XI International Theatre Festival in Sitges, without dating the latter in this passage. Slides were nevertheless sent to the Nájera symposium on 5, 6 and 7 July 1971: documentary dissemination, not a performance by the dancers.
In 1992, according to Serrà, there were two journeys of a liturgical nature. At San Jerónimo del Real in Madrid, the Dance took part in a presentation of Lenten liturgical dramas that included the Reverence. That same summer, at Girona Cathedral, it staged a reconstruction of the Ash Wednesday liturgical drama for the VII International Colloquium on Medieval Theatre.
An Experience, Not a Show
Serrà attributes the phrase “The Dance of Death doesn’t do gigs” to the Procession’s director on Som i serem, the TV3 programme devoted to Verges and broadcast on 7 December 1995. It defends the Dance’s community meaning; it should not be read as denying the journeys documented in the same book.
This is an account of cases recorded by Serrà, not an exhaustive inventory of every journey up to the present or a statement about every later invitation. To experience the Dance in its context, the reference remains Maundy Thursday night in Verges. See also: two notable trips to Madrid. See also: Dance of Death. See also: the night of Maundy Thursday.
Sources and versions
Màriam Serrà, Verges i la processó que no es veu (1998), pp. 122–124. The TV3 quotation was consulted in the book; the recording has not been verified separately.
