The folk group “Pro Loco Uta” was set up on 1992 with the name “Città of Uta” (city of Uta) by some people joined by the will and the wish to safeguard the survival of same forms of Sardinian folk expression.
It was added to the folk local groups, which founded in our town since the Sixties, during the years, preferred almost exclusively the divulgation and the transmission of some folk dances of Sardinia.
2002 was a year of important changes; the members of the group, stimulated by the comparison with the work of some groups of the island and by the constructive critics of expert and passionate connoisseur of Sardinian folk tradition, started to bring into question their actions and to do their outmost to give a new and better image and credibility to the group.
In the same year, the group joined the Pro Loco, changed its name in the actual one and started to widen its objectives.
Since then, every member has dedicated himself to several projects, that, through a more careful examination of the historical sources and a more precise analysis of the remaining documentation, were directed, on one hand, to the reconstruction of the evolution of the traditional dress from the first half of 1800 and the end of the past century, on the other, to the rediscovery, divulgation and the transmission not just of dances, but also of Sardinian folk music and song.
With regard to the traditional clothes worn today, both male and female, are above all the result of a reconstruction done on the basis of the indications gave by Goffredo Casalis in his “Dizionario storico e statistico del Regno di Sardegna”, written in the first half of 1800 by the will of the King of Piemonte. Women, moreover, can wear a model that reproduces faithfully an original dress that goes back to the beginning of the twentieth century and belonged to a noble woman of the town.
As regards the execution of the dances, since 2002, in accordance with the objectives of the change, was given more attention to the understanding of the specificity of each of them, in the attempt to understand the real meaning and to catch and to retransmit the original spirit.
This the main reason why the group decided to abandon the dances’ execution made just for show, to pass to the more traditional one, and sometimes more austere.
Moreover, as well as the characteristic dances of its town (“Ballu Sardu” and “Ballu de sa Gruxi”) and of its belonging geographic area (the Campidano), the group performs also many dances of the rest of Sardinia.
Since several years the folk group “Pro Loco Uta” has organized BALLUS “Festival Internazionale del Folklore”, that takes place between the last week of July and the first one of August, and that, until now, has given hospitality as well as to very important Sardinian and Italian groups, also to groups coming from all the world.
Beginning from 2002, the group has participated to the most important events of the island, to folk festivals, feasts and exhibitions, television programmes and has been many times guest in several Italian and European resorts.
Email: gruppofolk@prolocouta.it