Ucelay painted Danzas Suletinas in 1955 - 56, in other words five years after the opening of the Academy and also six after his return from exile in England while he illustrated the Baroja Basque Country Guide, when he realised the possibilities of a group of dantzaris (dancers) from Zuberoa. In Ucelay’s representation the mascarada suletina (Carnival party) is restricted to the five most important and lavish characters. In the foreground one of the dance group appears resting with a whole series of objects, a basket, bread, albota, Basque psalter, the glass of wine of the godalet-dantza, in the presence of a woman and a dog who look after them. Behind them, the other group dances while various characters look on. 

With the representation of the scene, Urcelay has set this dance in history. The following characters appear from left to right:

--The drapeau, individual who carries the flag and makes it flutter during the dance and introduces the group.

-- The gathusain, with an instrument like a wooden scissor or pantograph.

-- the txerrero, who carries a stick with a horse’s tail.

-- the barmaid, a man dressed as a woman, with a 19^th century French buhaumesa.

-- the zamalzain, the dance’s most spectacular character, who has a type of horse at the waist.

In the foreground, the musical instruments: the accordion, the alboka, the txun-txun and the txirula, these last two typical of this dance and, in general, of the French Basque area. Also a glass of wine for the godaletdantza or dance of the glass.

The painting is closed with a scene of domed mountains with which the clouds play rhythmically, like closing the representation in curve, against the straight and parallel lines of the scene’s foreground, like for example the bench where the characters sit. In the background, the Gotein church, with a Calvary-type bell tower.

This oil painting of very high pictorial quality has a perfect tonal relationship on the chromatic level, the arabesque rhythm of the line, and shows Ucelay’s constant preoccupation for the light, as well as a living example of the slow and careful finish of his paintings. Ucelay has always passed through an uncommon pictorial experience (chromatic and narrative): the endless portrait of this group which is lost in the distance and the metaphysics of the objects and the air.

Ucelay’s painting, like the Olaeta ballets, avoid however the folkloric expression of Basque painting. Flores Kaperotxipi is perhaps the best exponent of that criticism made of Ucelay of not being a Basque painter because he did not paint calendar villagers or vulgar types: “his Basques resemble English aristocrats dressed like Basque villagers; he portraits them like duchesses of Alba”. Who did correctly interpret Ucelay’s “Basquism”, the representation of the world surrounding the painter, was the poet and diplomat Ramon de Basterra, who indicated that Ucelay was the “liberation from the ethnography”. In the same way, Victor Olaeta also represented the liberation from the ethnography with his original choreographies.

From their beginning, the Olaetas lived immersed in the artistic world. The correspondence with musicians as important as Guridi, Padre Donosti, Arambarri and Solozabal; direct contact with painters like José María Ucelay or Antonio de Guezala; the librettos of Manuel de la Sota; the scenography of their nephew Eduardo de la Sota; the designs of Uranga and Esquibel; the photographs of Maura y Lara...

Curiosities like the presentation of the Olaeta Ballets by Humprey Bogart and Lauren Bacall on a cruise during one of their trips to America or their relationship with the actors of West Side Story on their third North American tour consolidated their solid relations with the world of dance, as did their relationship with the choreographer Roland Petit or with Igor Moseiev who was inspired by Basque dance steps for the Russian Ballets after seeing a private performance of the Olaeta Ballets. Nureyev and Margot Fontaine practiced daily in the Academia during their 1968 tour.

This spirit continues today and in the diffusion of the legacy of the Olaeta Ballets we are honoured to be assisted by artists and intellectuals of the standing of Néstor Basterretxea, Pedro Olea, José Ibarrola, Kosme de Barañano or José Antonio Arana Martija, amongst others.

All of the documents from the Music Section of Olaeta Ballet’s heritage are closely related to its performances. The organisation and safekeeping of the archive corresponds directly to the business part of the Olaeta Ballets. Víctor Olaeta carefully kept this archive using great criteria thanks to his double professional training as a dancer and as a musician.

This Section’s content allows us to know in great detail the activities of Segundo Olaeta and his group Elai-Alai, from which we could highlight the high proportion of choral music.

A significant part of the content consists in band music, relating to the activities of both the father and the son and of conductors of this type of instrumental ensembles. The two types of documents in this Section, scores and recordings, set the performances of the Olaeta Ballets, albeit in a different way: The scores on the one hand define the musical and choreographic form prior to the performances; the recordings on the other hand fix the sonorous aspects for their subsequent conservation and assessment.

This content bears witness to the intense collaboration with the best composers from the Basque Country like Guridi, Franco, Escudero, Arámbarri, Padre Donostia, Olaizola or  Zubizarreta. 

The recordings made during the tours in the United States of America leave a record of the work of the Olaeta Ballets and the musicians who accompanied them (the txistulari Boni, the trikitilari Julio Fernández and the albokari Txilinbrin) as cultural ambassadors of the Basque Country.

The content also documents the introduction of classical dance into the Basque Country, not only the best-known repertoire from the 19^th and 20^th centuries, with composers like Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Delibes, Strauss, and others, but also from their avatars since the 17^th century, like works from Lully and Rameau, for example, and with the minuets from the 18^th century.

In March 2008 the Olaeta family decided to donate this cultural legacy to the Diputación Foral de Bizkaia/Provincial Council of Bizkaia, in order to conserve and disseminate its enormous cultural wealth, accumulated during 80 years’ activity. The legacy was accepted by the Diputación/Provincial Council at a symbolic, formal and emotional ceremony held at the Foral (Provincial) Palace on 11^th December of that same year, during which the director of the Filmoteca Vasca/Basque Film Library surprised everyone with a 1937 silent film which showed the Olaetas dancing as children in France. These children, now elderly, improvised music for the dances and sang out loud while they watched the old images for the first time. 

where it remained active until 2007, the year Victor Olaeta passed away.

His piano accompanied the classes, and his education based on respect and love of Basque cultural, music and dance, and the famous “Olaeta smile” (always smiling surrounded by effort) attracted over decades more than 10,000 students. Three generations of children, adolescents and adults have enjoyed in the heart of Bilbao this homemade recipe of succulent culture.

Lourdes, Lide and Miren Tere Olaeta accompanied Víctor as teachers at the Academy, together with outstanding students like

Begoña Aldámiz-Echevarría, who remains in our thoughts. The third generation would have Lide Maguregi Olaeta as their teacher during the last years.

A platform and meeting point for artists and enthusiasts, the Academy was also the publishing headquarters in 1958 and 1959 of the Oinka magazine. 

The origin of the Ballets dates back to 1927 when Segundo Olaeta created the Elai-Alai in Gernika. The “happy swallows” would be the first Basque dance group. From Gernika they went to France where they set up the group Oldarra and their performances started to become more professional until in 1949 the “Olaeta Ballets” group was created and would act for the first time at the Liceo Guerniqués, then at Madrid’s Lope de Vega Theatre and afterwards …. another 60 years of performances throughout the world.

We could look at the story lines and the music of the great ballets, like the canon of George Balanchine: Coppelia; Swan Lake; The Sylphs … regular collaborator of the ABAO (Bilbao Friends of the Opera Association), his ballets participate in great operas like The Pearl Fishers, Lucrezia Borgia and the Mona Lisa, amongst others.

The Olaeta Ballets innovate by intertwining and enriching Basque folklore and classical ballet. And this was how Basque Ballet was created.

Segundo Olaeta recovered the aurresku de anteiglesia and the “ereglak” and creates the zortziko de San Miguel de Arretxinaga, its music and its choreography. His natural successor, Víctor Olaeta, who had been steeped in folklore since his childhood, incorporated his knowledge from the Academic School of Paris, London and New York, and a solid musical training, was prepared to launch the creation of the Basque Ballet. Amongst Víctor Olaeta’s choreographic creations, we could highlight “Oinkarin,” with music by Guridi; “Las Cuatro Estaciones” (The Four Seasons) based on a score by José Franco, and “Urbeltzeko Laminak,” by Padre Donosti.