The Táncház Movement
extract, Béla Halmos (Budapest)

In Hungary, the latest wave of "folklorism" began with the folk revival of the early 1970s. It was a period of intense interest in every kind of folk art. The most novel and most original aspect of this focus on folk culture was the birth of the táncház movement. Though beset by professional problems and political obstacles, the movement has grown steadily in the past twenty-five years, spread beyond the country's borders, and acquired an international dimension. The success of the táncház movement in Hungary and abroad owes a great deal to the living traditions of Hungarian folk music and folk dance (particularly in Transylvania [Erdély]), the highly-developed state of these forms of art, and the fact that both folk music and folk dance have been researched in detail, and are being taught in an organized fashion using techniques based on these research findings. But the real secret of the movement's success is a functional approach, which aims to make the whole complex of folk traditions a part of everyday life.

The Bartók Dance Ensemble performing at the Zalaegerszeg Folk Dance Festival (Zala County, Southwestern Hungary), in 1972. They are dancing to "Meg kell a búzának érni..." ["The wheat can't help but ripen…"], as choreographed by Sándor Tímár. Photo: György Hidas, Táncház Foundation.

The táncház, thus-expressive as it is of "the natural", an outlook on life that modern man can ill afford to be without-has come to serve as an example the world over of how to salvage for future generations the viable elements of our disappearing-or worse yet, transmogrified-traditional cultures. In this sense (and this is not a hypothesis, but a conclusion based on over two decades of táncház operations in Hungary and abroad) the táncház movement can help ease the palpable tension between the various national traditions and the new world culture now in the making, and help forge a network of communication between them.

The Sebô Band (Ferenc Sebô, left and Béla Halmos, right) in concert at the Municipal Cultural Center in Budapest in 1974. Photo: Táncház Foundation.

Of the features distinguishing the "modern" táncház, the following are the most essential:
1. The táncház is not a production, but a form of recreation in which folk music and folk dance appear in their original forms and functions as the "native language"-musical language and body language-of those taking part.
2. The folk music played and the folk dances danced at a táncház have not been passed down from one generation to the next in the traditional way, but have been incorporated into the táncház repertoire as a consequence of considered value judgements based on the comparative study of the traditional material.
3. The táncház movement is a loosely-knit association of informal "communities" whose members (rather than being passive consumers of the artificial products of the music industry) play an active role in their own entertainment, and do some hard work in the process, for it takes years of effort and practice for dancing and music making to become pure pleasure-though there is joy enough in the first dance steps mastered and the first tune learned.
4. From the very beginning, the táncház movement has treated the folk cultures of Hungary's non-Magyar ethnic groups, and indeed, of every nation, as treasures of coequal value (and, in this sense, followed a principle and a practice which anticipated the "Common European House" idea by some twenty years).

Széki csárdás [Szék csárdás]. Táncház with the Kalamajka Band at the Belvárosi Ifjúsági Ház in Budapest in 1999. Photo: Nami Otsuka, Táncház Foundation.

To date, there has been no comprehensive study offering a complex analysis of the history of the táncház movement from the moment of its inception. From the very outset, however, journal articles, reports, and interviews have documented events in the life of the movement, and/or addressed some of the issues raised by its existence (this published material in its entirety is to be found only in private collections). The táncház movement has also been the subject of several books and studies.