Cossiers d'Alaró

What is

Ball of six cossiers, a Lady and a dimoni, recovered in 1992. Its own feature: a unique granadillo flabiol and a dress covered in white tulle.

On i quan

• Alaró: last Saturday of May (mass in the Damunts by Guillem Cabrit and Guillem Bassa) and August 16, Sant Roc, patron saint.

Personatges and objects

• 6 cossiers: two red, two pink, two sky blue vestit de cossier .
• Lady and dimoni (only in the non-religious part) mask and vestit de dimoni .
• Music: tumbarí y flabiol flabiol i tumbarino .

How is

• Dress: long sleeve shirt; calçons bufats tied under the knee; color skirt, band and stockings. Wide collar, oversleeves and cuffs made of white tulle with lace; skirt covered in tulle with faralá; tulle cross band with rosette; narrow girdle; white espardenyes tied with white ribbon.
• Accessories: colored bows (shoulders, arm, bottoms, espadrilles), ribbons at the waist, large white mocador, window and bells at the bottom of the pants and on the hat.
• Crown similar to that of the Algemesí tornejant.
• Dances: l'Oferta, la Processó, Gentil Senyora, la Cadena. Jump dance.
• Sant Roc: first ball at 10 in front of the Town Hall; tour of the batle house and old and new cossiers; prize races with the dress on; Offer during the service; dancing procession on every corner; the dimoni joins at the end in the square.

Vocabulary

• cossier, Dama, Oferta: see Montuïri .
• flabiol de granadillo: granadillo wood flute, different from the others from Mallorca (Vallcaneras).
• Damunts: place of the May mass.

History

• 1544: cossiers in the Corpus of 15 towns (Rullan).
• 19th century: the Arxiduc describes them in Die Balearen; Joan Cortada sees them with light colors: blue, green, purple, yellow.
• 1901: Joan Rosselló de Son Forteza, story Els cossiers d'Alaró.
• 1943-1992: interrupted. Recovered thanks to the study of Francesc Vallcaneras, Els cossiers d'Alaró.
• 2010: the City Council requests the declaration.

Protection

• BICIM (FIC). Plenary of the Consell 8/10/2015; BOIB 165, 11/10/2015.

Why is it design

• Unique local instrument: a flabiol with its own shape and size.
• European family of dancers: visible kinship with Algemesí, Belinchón or Camuñas.
• Changing color in history: the documented palette is not fixed.

For the project

• Search for granadillo flabiol: who made it, if there is a copy.
• Comparison of the five cossiers dresses in one sheet.

Sources

• caib.es/eboibfront/pdf/es/2015/165/934960
• ultimahora.es/noticias/part-forana/2016/08/12/210846/baile-cossiers-alaro-declar

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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