"If I do not go on Thursday night, I get the shakes like someone who has not gotten his fix. Now, I used to hate dancing, well, I should say I was frightened of it.Until sweet Eszter called me and said, "I am going to take folk dancing lessons and need an available man, and you are it." I told her ok, but I have the long hair so I get to do the twirly bits and she has to do the manly foot-slapping-I-am-male-center-of-the-universe bits.
She agreed, until about 3 lessons into it she abandoned me and went off with the girls. By that time I was already hooked. The Hungarian dance house movement started in the late 1980's when Márta Sebestyén and several other Hungarian musicians went to Transylvania (somehow the Hungarian minority culture survived during the Ceucescu years) and relearned the dances and songs that had been lost in Hungary.
Each village or set of villages has its own style of dancing, be it Moldvai, Gyimesi, Mezoszegi, Kalaltoszegi, Szekei, Magyarszovati...
Every evening somewhere in Budapest, one can attend a tanchaz (dance house). Each dance house tends to specialize in dances from one particular region. The best thing about going to a tanchaz, from my perspective, is that there is very little of the snobbery one encounters at folk dances in the US. You learn the dances in big circles or lines, and the steps are the same in pairs.
When you feel comfortable enough, you can grab a partner and go into the center. The live music is great, the alcohol is cheap, the women are pretty, and the ambiance is unbeatable. Going alone is not a problem - just ask anyone to dance, that is what they are there for. However, if you do not feel like getting jiggy with it, there is no pressure to dance and you can just hang out. In the summer, most dance houses are closed and they move to Translyvania to hold dance camps.
The new season kicks off on 20 September 2008 at Petőfi Csarnok (500 huf for kids, 1000 huf for adults),
starting at 5pm.
Click here for the source and the list of the dance houses: treehugger.hu
08.09.2008