Training
Pauliteiro School
Where the new generations learn the tradition: learning the past, living the present and preparing the future.
Pauliteiros de Miranda · Sendim
The Group
We are the Grupo de Pauliteiros de Sendim, one of the traditional dance groups of the Miranda region in north-eastern Portugal. We bring with us what defines us: our traditions, our Mirandese language, our culture - the soul of a people.
Our story
There have been pauliteiros in Sendim since 1900. For generations, until the 1980s, the group was made up of boys aged 14 to 19 — the age at which they left for military service.
In 1980 the group started again within the Sendim Cultural Centre, with a first children’s group. In 1998 the Mirai Qu’Alforjas association revived it after more than five years of inactivity. On 21 June 2007 the Associação de Pauliteiros de Sendim was founded, giving the group a formal structure.
The women’s group, the Pauliteiras, joined in 2011. Today we are 54 dancers and 10 musicians, and the only pauliteiros group from Miranda that is a member of the Portuguese Folklore Federation.
Timeline
Tap a year to see photos and the full story.
Since 2011
The Pauliteiras
Tradition is danced by women too. On 13 July 2011 the Pauliteiras de Sendim were born.
For generations the stick dance was men’s business. In 2011 a group of young women from Sendim decided they wanted to cross the sticks too, and so the Pauliteiras were born, as part of the Pauliteiros de Sendim.
With the same rigour, the same lhaços and the same energy, the pauliteiras take the Mirandese tradition to stages, feasts and festivals, side by side with the pauliteiros and to the sound of the same bagpipes, snare and bass drum.
Today they are part of the group’s identity and proof that this heritage is alive and open to everyone who wants to learn it.
Final Pauliteiras text: first generation, trainers, key moments — to be completed
2011year founded
13 Julbirth of the group
no.pauliteiras today
Headquarters & museum
Casa do Pauliteiro
Our headquarters, rehearsal space and the permanent museum of the Pauliteiros de Sendim.
Dance masters
The tradition has been handed down by the dance masters who taught each generation.
1900–1938João da Cruz Mourinho, dance master
1947–1964José Pires Mourinho, dance master
1980Benjamim Monteiro (Vila Chã) and António Alves (Atenor), trainers of the first children’s group
1980–2005Belmiro Castro Carção, dance master
2005–2007Henrique de Jesus Fernandes, coordinator
2019–Pedro Morete, dance trainer
Presidents of the Association
2007–2011Óscar Manuel Xastre Salgado
2011–2013Henrique de Jesus Fernandes
2013–2016Francisco Diogo Mendonça Peres
2016–2025Davide Pires Brás
2025–Telmo dos Reis Alves Ramos
Current board: Telmo Ramos (president), Tiago Marcos (secretary) and Henrique Fernandes (treasurer).
The musicians
Who gave the lhaços their sound
Pipers, snare and bass drummers who left their mark on the group. Until the 1990s they came from other villages; today our musicians are from Sendim.
Bookings
Want the Pauliteiros at your event?
Feasts, festivals and cultural events — in Portugal and abroad.
