Hungarian Folk Art and Dance

The first Hungarian Folk dances spreaded in the Middle Ages in a circle form. Among the types of dances the ”botozó”, ”legényes” and ”karikázó” are the elder while the ”csárdás” and ”verbunkos” which representative the new form of the folk dance. From the Middle Ages’ source material the importance of the circle and garland dances shows up. Nowadays the ”karikázó” is an unisex dance style accompanied with singing.

Varieties (by ethnographic regions):
Western or Danube dance dialect
Csallóköz and Szigetköz
Rábaköz
Western and Central Transdanubia
Southern Transdanubia
Easter Transdanubia

Middle or Tisza dance dialect
Upper Tisza region
Northeast Highlands
Oriental Palóc and Matyó
Nagykunság, Jászság
Southern Great Plain and Lower Tisza region

Oriental or Transylvanian dance dialect
Kalotaszeg folk dances
Mezőség folk dances
Maros-Küküllő country and Marosszék folk dances
Szeklerland folk dances
Folkdances of the Csimes and Gymes
Folk dance of the Bukovina Székelys
Moldovan csángos folk dance

Once a text quoted in 1939 that says : „...folk dance is in its final hours.Today’s young generation has been completely infected by internatioal dance.”-István Györffy.
Well, he was not quite right as the folk dance is still living among us in these days as many children follow their parents’ compassionate love for folk dance and learn in ensembles to become a professional dance member. Folk dance is like jeans, it never goes out of fashion.
Once somebody is into folk dances, will learn and get to know everything about customs, folk music, dance styles, crafts, places and people. 

Dancers learn to express themselves by dance and this is the most important thing a real dancer needs to master.

Hungarian Folk Dance as a Performing Art
Somebody who practices this art not only meet with the choreography and learn the dance steps, but gets to know what is the obedience, the passion, vocation and the commitment to dance. They learn to work in group and also alone. Learning the types of dances is not only the knowledge of the steps. This is deeper than you think. They try to learn about the culture, the places where the dance comes from and learn the origin of tales to express themselves as it were an everyday lifestyle for them also.

When the curtain is pulled down the dancer stands behind it in discipline, no matter how tired are they...they stand there waiting for the curtaing to be pulled up again to run out for a last bending and feel the pride in their whole body. 

Some dance ensembles

Hungarian State Folk Ensemble
Founded in 1951 and their repertoir represents all genres related to tradition such as historical music and dance, authentic folk music and folk dance, dramatic play and visual theatre.  

Star-eyed Children’s Dance Ensemble
From 1993 can we talk about this ensemble and Star-eyed Children’s Dance Ensemble represents Hungarian cultural traditions in numerous foreign guest appearance. 

Regös Dance Ensemble
From 2000 and in their repertoire the Hungarian and Transylvanian Hungarian, Romanian and Gypsy dances.