Under the title The Magic of Improvisation, a Living Heritage, the TVG programme ZigZag explored regueifa as a cultural practice that continues to grow and evolve. Manolo Maseda and Josinho da Teixeira outlined a map of what regueifa was, what it is today and what it may become in the future.
In this context, To the Rhythm of the New Regueifa appeared as a key tool for understanding this process. Directed by Manolo Maseda and Saúl Rivas, the documentary offers a journey through Galicia’s tradition of oral improvisation, starting in Bergantiños and ending in Vigo, to observe how different generations, territories and approaches to regueifa coexist. A journey that does not seek fixed answers, but rather aims to understand what is happening and in which spaces this tradition continues to thrive.
Throughout the film, voices from historical regueifeiros, those who enabled the transition into new contexts, and younger generations who are finding in regueifa a space of self-expression all coexist. The documentary presents these apparent oppositions — rural and urban, tradition and contemporaneity, inherited learning and pedagogy — not as contradictions, but as complementary spaces.
One of the project’s central aspects is its focus on education. As Manolo Maseda explained on the programme, regueifa has become one of the most powerful pedagogical tools he has encountered in his teaching career. Its introduction into classrooms, the work carried out in schools, and the creation of regueifa clubs in public education are enabling not only the transmission of an artistic technique, but also linguistic normalisation and the creation of safe spaces for collective expression based on respect.
To the Rhythm of the New Regueifa also reflects on the community dimension of oral improvisation. Regueifa appears as a place of encounter, historically linked to taverns, but also as a practice that needs to open new spaces to connect with younger audiences.
Through humour, music and improvised verse, the film reflects on the evolution of regueifa and its role in the present, also addressing themes such as feminism and its capacity to function as a space of expressive freedom and emotional connection. Without losing its rhythm, wit or essence, Galician oral tradition is presented as a living practice, open to dialogue with other territories and cultures, with the hope that the “thousand springs” of the language will also be the thousand springs of regueifa.
To the Rhythm of the New Regueifa thus stands as more than an audiovisual record: it is a collective reflection on the value of oral improvisation, on the work already done, and on what still remains to be cultivated to ensure its future.
The full interview is available on the agalega.gal platform.