Report from Workshop 2

All words and photos by Hungarian Open Air Museum.

The meeting took place in Hungary, Szentendre in the Hungarian Open Air Museum on 25th– 28th May 2023 with two streamed sessions. Our focus is the transmission method of traditional dances, in particular the Hungarian dance house method, which was selected on UNESCO's register of good safeguarding practices. The Hungarian programme was joined by a group of students from the Choreomundus International Master in Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage international training course in Szeged, and dancers from the Arki-Gen formation in Singapore.

Day 1: Thursday 25th May 2023

Guided tour in the Transylvanian Region

The workshop was held at the Hungarian Open Air Museum, including the new Transylvanian region, which have been inaugurated in 2022. The programme opened with a guided tour, where our guide were the museum's scientific director and the curator of the Press House. The Hungarian Open Air Museum is the country's central open-air collection. It presents the folk architecture of the most characteristic landscapes of Hungary and Transylvania, the living culture and lifestyle of different layers and groups of rural and urban society. The exhibition consists mostly of original buildings and objects, in the framework of traditional settlement types, from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 21st century, grouped into regional units. For centuries, Transylvania has been characterised by ethnic and religious diversity: Hungarians, Romanians, Germans, Armenians, Jews and Gypsies have lived together. The Transylvanian building complex places particular emphasis on this cultural diversity, so most of the exhibitions in the buildings show the representations of populations with different ethnic groups, their relationships and strategies to live together.

Session 1 – General introduction about the dance house, the starting point, and the becoming method (webinar)

One of the main aims of the programme was to learn about the Hungarian dance-house method, which was selected as a UNESCO Good Safeguarding Practice in 2011. With this in perspective, the first session included general introductory presentations on the scientific and practical background of the method and how it became a method for the transmission of traditional dance culture on the UNESCO list. The first session of the meeting was accessible to everyone via a zoom platform, so people from Australia and New York were able to listen to our presentations.

Anna Székely (president of the Hungarian Association for Ethnochoreology) told in her presentation how the research of Hungarian folk dances starting in the 1940s–1950s and the first scientific summaries in the 1970s initiated a change in the processing of folk dances on stage, and later in the social and pedagogical use of folk dances. The Hungarian staged folk dance was renewed based on the cooperation of the leading figures of Hungarian dance folkloristics. Primarily György Martin, as well as choreographers and art-loving musicians, and later the "táncház" was born in 1972 based on their meeting. The social impact sought through this revival movement was meant to emphasize individual autonomy, creative expression, and spontaneous performance. Its founders experienced the choreomusical performance processes in villages that contrasted so strikingly with their knowledge of staged choreographic spectacle.

Ildikó Sándor Ph.D. (methodological and scientific leader of the institution of Hungarian Heritage House) summarized the 50-year history of urban, revival „táncház” from the point of view of how their locations and the types of hosting institutions have changed over time. At the start, the stage was the local cultural centers maintained by the state, from where the „táncház” moves to catering places – restaurants, ruined pubs, and cofee houses. In parallel with the change of location, the emphasis of the content elements and the transformation of the function of „táncház” can be observed.

Eszter Csonka-Takács Ph.D. (director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Directorate in the Hungarian Open Air Museum) began her presentation by briefly describing the practice of intangible cultural heritage in Hungary, the workings of the ICH Directorate and the mechanism of national and international nominations. In the second part of her presentation, she focused on the evolution of the dance house method, highlighting the significant role of NGOs in the preparation of the nomination. The essence of the method is that heritage elements are taken directly from living practices and traditions in rural communities as well as archival collections, with continual guidance from experts and researchers. This living rural culture is transposed into vastly different socio-cultural contexts - on regional, national, and international levels – to re-evaluate its importance locally and ensure its capacity for constant renewal.

Before dinner, there was an opportunity for all participants to introduce themselves, as several university students attended the event, in addition to the project partners. This was a good way for the participants to get to know each other and establish relationships.

Day 2: Friday 26 May 2023

Session 2 – Dance-house method in the practice

After the theoretical introduction, the second day of the programme started with a practical lesson.

The method developed by Péter Lévai and Kata Balatoni, was selected in the National Register of Good Safeguarding Practices in 2020 under the title "This is the Way to Dance..." - A Pedagogical Method for Teaching Experience-based Folk Games and Folk Dances ). The main goal of the pedagogical program is to introduce the world of Hungarian folk games and folk dance to children aged 6-12 through experiential movement learning. The users and students of the method learn the elements of traditional folk games and dance, their form, places where they used to be carried out, and functions through empirical experiences. The method divides the dances into elements and gives a detailed understanding of the structure of the dance. Based on this system, dancers can build their own dance and learn the basics of improvisation.

Péter Lévai (Master Teacher of the Hungarian Dance Academy) held a 2-hour training workshop for the participants, where they were first introduced to the background, objectives and methods of the pedagogical programme, and then they could try it out. The experiential folk dance education was a great success among the participants, as it taught them the ugrós from Transdanubia in Hungary, the improvisation, the attention to the partner and following the music in a playful and natural way.

Dóra Pál-Kovács Ph.D. (Coordinator of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Directorate in the Hungarian Open Air Museum) continued the morning with a preparatory workshop for the fieldwork at the Whitsun Heritage Festival. The four main themes identified earlier were discussed in more detail. Thus, the themes ICH–Dance, Dance and Music, Safeguarding Measures and Roles of Institution were elaborated in small groups in order to identify the research questions for the Sunday fieldwork.

The results of the four groups were presented by one member of the group to the others. This was important because during the fieldwork everyone had to deal with all four main research questions.

Session 3 – Excursion in Budapest

Amer lunch, some professional insHtuHons were visited in Budapest.

In the House of Music we were welcomed by Márton Horn, the director, who told us about the history of the building and the exhibition. The House of Music Hungary has a tripartite structure in regard to both its architectural and institutional organisation. On the underground level, places have been allocated to permanent and temporary exhibitions on an area of more than 2,000 square meters. The two interior spaces on the level of the park are suitable for hosting live music events, concerts and workshops. In the open-air garden area, people can have a pleasant conversation while enjoying concerts and performances on an open-air stage. The upstairs level houses the library providing a venue for quiet study, learning, and education with works primarily on popular music, as well as music education rooms with workshops bringing young people closer to music.

After the introduction, everyone had the opportunity to visit the permanent exhibition titled Dimenson of Sounds. Progressing through the centuries, we could follow the development of music, discovering what a series of organised tones has meant to mankind, with the emphasis on Hungarians in the light - or sometimes the shadow - of Europe. Through the language of music, the exhibition speaks for itself: Everywhere we go, we hear music playing; the subject of the exhibition is music itself. After the permanent exhibition, directors Márton Horn and András Batta explained how they created the exhibition and the difficulties they faced. A discussion took place about the duration of the technical equipment, the aims of the exhibition and its sustainability.

Visiting the House of Music is important for the Dance-ICH project for several reasons. On the one hand, it is a good example of how to present musical traditions in a modern way, making them interesting and exciting for visitors, and on the other hand, it can serve as a good model and idea for some elements of the exhibition that will be part of the project.

The dinner was held at the Kossuth Club in Budapest, whose operation and complex functions were presented by Ádám Gyenes, director. The Kossuth Club considers its primary mission to be the broad dissemination of the values of universal human culture, scientific, professional and artistic knowledge, the enrichment of opportunities for education outside the school system, the promotion of the scientific and professional development of talented young people, and for decades it has been a nationally and even internationally known forum and workshop for scientific, artistic and public debates.

We closed the day in Budapest with a regular Friday evening dance house at the Fonó Buda Music Hall, where director László Horváth welcomed the team with pálinka and pogácsa. The dance house featured live music in three parallel rooms, with a choice of Molda, Bulgarian and string music band. Part of the group began their introductin to local dances in the Moldavian Hall of circle and chain dances, where dance teaching facilitated their participation throughout the evening. The majority of folk dances in Hungary consist of couple dances, and the music is mostly accompanied by string bands. For this reason, the participants were delighted to be introduced to the lassú (slow) and friss (faster) csárdás, a couple dance from a region of Hungary, along with dance lessons.

During the breaks, a conversation took place between the Hungarian dance houses, the experiences and the Boombal visited as part of the previous workshop in Belgium. The participants looked for similarities and differences, as this will help to achieve the project's objectives of a deeper understanding of dances and dance cultures and communities.

Day 3: Saturday 27 May 2023

Session 4 – Dance-house method all over the world (webinar)

The webinar series conHnued on Saturday morning, focusing on different examples of tradiHonal dance transmission and the spread of the dance house method in other countries.

Anna Björk (a research archivist at the folk dance collections at the Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research) showed how the Hungarian dance house method very early found its way to Sweden. In the 1970s some dancers and dance researchers had been working on reviving older forms of Swedish social dancing. When this coincided with the Swedish folk music revival, there was a need for methods of teaching this kind of dancing, to dance it in social dance events. The Hungarian dance house model became one of these methods and the first “danshus” took place in Stockholm in 1977.

Chariton Charitonidis (physical education teacher, dance instructor, dancer and musician from Greece) presented the individual characteristics of the Greek dance-house(s) in Hungary, while investigating the similarities as well as differences with the Hungarian model. Furthermore, it introduces the determining role of the participants, who –to this day– regardless of their origin and individual cultural background, regularly meet on the “dance floor”, and they have become members of a particular community with its own dance tradition. The emigrants had been the bearers of different local –according to the place of their origin– rural, living dance traditions in Greece. In the new settings, out of this diverse heritage they formed a common “supra-local” dance culture, both in “participatory” and “presentational” contexts. Soon after the emergence of the dance-house movement, they were the first ethnic group to organise (in 1974) independent dance-houses with non-Hungarian repertoire.

Siri Mæland Ph.D. (senior researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance) made a workshop about methods for safeguarding traditional dances in Norway as multitrack practices developed by the Norwegian Centre for Traditional Music and Dance. In this workshop she would through practical teaching of two methods demonstrate for discussion the relevance of multitrack teaching. The two methods are based in one specific dance, the springar from Sørfjorden, a fjord in Hardanger, in the region Vestland, Norway.

The first method she developed as a student in Norwegian applied ethnochoreological dance methods in 1999, tested on pupils 6-12 years. The inspiration for the method came from the curriculum valuing social dance as a kind of play, informal «old days» transmission methods, dancing as socialisation and her knowledge about the stylistic and aesthetic values of that tradition.

The second method is based on her contemporary research and revitalisation project in Sørfjorden (Mæland, Rosvold and Velure, forthcoming 2023). A huge archival material of forty dance realisations from 1967 until today has been transcribed and analysed. She demonstrated in teaching how we have organised the dance motifs and steps as a multitrack grammar, organised however with rules for variations and improvisational elements within the frame of «the springar».

Raluca Ioana Andrei Ph.D. (Head of Education and Heritage Interpretation department in the ASTRA National Museum Complex) gave a presentation about The Role of Lads’ Groups in Transmitting Traditional Dances in Romania. Folk dances are part of complex cultural manifestations (involving dancing, costumes, rituals) which offer an opportunity for the members of the community to gather and socialize – be it thorough active or passive participation. In the case of the group of carolling lads from the village of Rucăr, we have analysed how the group comes together and promotes traditional dances, the socio-cultural context in which these dances take place, the typology of the costumes worn, dancing as an important component of the winter holidays rituals in the community from Rucăr, the main socio-cultural factors that contribute to the transmission of dance practices and the specific traits of these dances. Moreover, during the research we aimed at identifying the degree of cohesion of the members of the community, the participative actions of the group and the presence of three defining traits: the songs – carols and well-wishing shouts, music – instruments used, melodic line, and choreography – specific moves for each type of dance.

The role of our research is also to identify the best ways of developing cyclical, active dance programs that are participative, allowing the public to take part in the cultural manifestations belonging to the group of carolling lads from Rucăr.

The morning ended with a presentaHon by Rebeka Kunej Ph.D. (researcher, ZRC SAZU, InsHtute of Ethnomusicology) on dance houses in Slovenia. Her paper aimed to show how the idea of táncház was transmitted and developed in Slovenia. On the one hand, there was a clear reference to the idea of the Hungarian dance houses, on the other hand, the somewhat different socio-political situation and the different understanding of the goal was also reflected in the implementation of the Slovenian versions of the dance houses. The author presented the first attempts to introduce dance house concept from the neighbouring country in Slovenia within the framework of the Cultural Society Folk Slovenia, which found their reflection in the realisation of two regionally anchored dance house ideas - the Bela Krajina Dance House and the Resian Dance House. The conceptual diversity of all three houses is also reflected in the dance communities that maintain and create these dance events.

Day 4: Sunday 28 May 2023

Session 5 – Fieldwork in the Whitsun Heritage Festival

The Hungarian programme closed with a field trip to the Whitsun Heritage Festival at the Hungarian Open Air Museum, which is also an international gathering o f intangible cultural heritage. The event is an extraordinary occasion for visitors to see traditional communities from all over Hungary gathered. Visitors not only had the chance to watch stage performances
but could also directly meet the communities who are caring for their heritage, could create objects with their own hands at the pottery and with egg painters, dance with folk dancers and as well as taste traditional food. The communities welcomed everyone by offering a whole day of cram activities, presentations and exhibitions. Visitors had the opportunity to see how the ‘busó’ masks are carved, or how lace is made in Hövej, Balatonendréd and Halas, how the furrier embroidery is done in Békés and how wool is embroidered in Nagykunyság. They could learn folk dances and songs, and watch a costume show by the Matyó and the Sárköz people.

During the fieldwork, we formed five small groups, so each group could learn more about the communities. Each group had a native Hungarian-speaking leader to help with any language difficulties. The fieldwork was organised around the four main themes mentioned above (ICH-Dance, Dance and Music, Safeguarding Measures, Roles of institution). The communities concerned were: Folk Art in Kalocsa, “Örökség” National Children and Youth Folk Heritage AssociaHon, ‘Busó Festovities’ at Mohács, Matyó Heritage, The Romanian Folk Dance Traditions of Méhkerék, Folk Art of Sárköz Region, Buzsák Living Traditions, Gandhi Pedagogical Method for the Presentation of the Romani Heritage, Logpulling of the Slovenians of the Rába Region, Dance Traditions of Nagyecsed.

In all of these community practices, dance is emphasised, but as the names indicate, it is not always a dance community. The aim of the fieldwork was to identify not only communities with a dance tradition, but also communities with other traditions where dance is an integral part of the heritage. Thus, we have also dealt with several communities whose carnival and winter traditions are listed in the ICH national inventory.

In the fieldwork we tried to apply the methods of ethnographic research. Interviews were conducted, photo and video documentation were made, events were observed and, where possible, participant observation was added.

The fieldwork and workshop ended with a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention. We attended a celebratory dinner with the communities on the National Inventory of Intangible Heritage in Hungary to celebrate and make visible the objectives of the Convention.

The results of the field research conducted during the Whitsun Heritage Festival was summarised on Monday 12 June 2023, where we reported on our experiences and share our knowledge.

Partner meeting and summary

On Monday 12 June, we summarised the experiences of the dance-house (Hungary) and boombal (Belgium) with the partners in a partner meeting. This is important for the project, as the conclusions formulated here will help to achieve the project's objectives. Reflections on key-words: exclusive, inclusive, multitrack teaching, linearisation teaching, music dance repertoire, pedagogical musical elements, dance pedagogical elements, advertisement, rooms, entrance, people? We collected our impressions and common points together on a padlet platform.

The comparison of the two events was important because both were dance events accompanied by live music, both were open to anyone to dance, but they were still two different dance occasions.

Project partners and fieldwork team leaders also attended the summary meeting to evaluate the research. In general, time was short for a detailed analysis. Nevertheless, the field work was successful and a lot of knowledge was gained from observing and interviewing the ICH communities. During the review, we collected our impressions and common points together on a padlet platform. All it can be said that it was not just a folk show, but the communities were given the opportunity to present their own traditions to the visitors. The evaluation of the research highlighted the fact that, although all the communities studied are linked to dance, they are different types of heritage. Some communities are more active and open and some for whom the performance is the priority. Some were easier to talk to, others were harder to reach. Heritage, tradition and community cannot be seen as constant and unchanging.