Abstract
Dance populism in essence refers to the presence of the political and ideological in dance and dance events with nativist as well as nationalist agendas to support governmental or state directives. Institutionalized as the dance-house in the mid-1970s, dance populism illustrates the shifts in thinking about the Hungarian nation, rekindling interests in Christian fundamentalism and a mythic folkloric vision of the peasantry. By analyzing the history and transformation of Hungarian dance-house, an alternative social movement at first but now a major force of the heritage industry, we are provided a unique anthropological insight into present-day Hungarian politics, national identity and culture.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The Buda Fonó Music Hall (Fonó Budai Zeneház) does not only cater for folk music lovers, it also regularly features jazz and world music. It also publishes CDs, many of which have made it to the top-20 record publishers and Top Label by Womex. For information, see Fonó’s website: http://webbolt.fono.hu/hu (last accessed: 25 February 2019).
- 3.
I find it extremely interesting that among all foreigners the Japanese have expressed the most serious interest in Hungarian (Transylvanian) folk dancing, an art they even exported to Hong Kong. In Tokyo there is a dance group specializing in Hungarian dance (for the ensemble’s home-page see: http://www.21-tkt.sakura.ne.jp/tkt/english.html, last accessed: 25 February 2019). Its name in English is simply Hungarian Folk Dance Ensemble; however, its Hungarian version translates as “Tokyo Kalotaszeg Ensemble”. Kalotaszeg is a region not in Hungary but in Central Transylvania, Romania! The reason for this mild confusion will be clarified below.
- 4.
The story of the discovery of the Hungarian community Szék (Sic, Romania) can be credited to the composer László Lajtha during the early 1940s. For the importance of the settlement and its folklore, see Martin (1981). I have dealt with the other region, Kalotaszeg, and its elevation into the consciousness of the Hungarian dance-house generation (Kürti 2014).
- 5.
The prime minister’s speech can be watched on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NFRx27D9aU (last accessed: August 12, 2018 25 February 2019).
- 6.
- 7.
American music populism of the 1930s and 1940s was cemented to radical left-wing ideology (Reuss and Reuss 2000).
- 8.
See: Proposals for selection in 2011 for the Register of Best Practices (item 9 on the agenda). https://ich.unesco.org/en/9-best-practices-00408 (last accessed: 25 February 2019). Interestingly, two similar projects submitted to the UNESCO—one by Latvia and the other by Spain, both for transmitting traditional music to the youth—were rejected.
- 9.
See, for example, the masterly treatment of Jimmy Carter’s populism and square dancing (Patch 2012).
- 10.
For a succinct analysis of the masculine-feminine divide in the revival movement, I suggest Lang (2018: 19–73).
- 11.
I have discussed earlier “timelessness” and “remoteness” as central concepts with reference to Transylvania (Kürti 2001).
- 12.
Quoted in Jávorszky (2016).
- 13.
- 14.
The expression Hungaricum in Hungarian refers to a collection of everything the state considers as “valuable” national assets. From the natural environment to tourism, from cultural traditions to food and from technological inventions to sports, there are hundreds of such items on the list of Hungaricums. For the full official list of these, see the home-page: http://www.hungarikum.hu/en/szakkategoria (last accessed: August 12, 2018). Naturally, folk dance, music and musical instruments are among them.
- 15.
The person in question is the writer Kornél Döbrentei whose 2004 nationalistic and anti-Semitic public speech caused outrage. Excerpts from his speeches can be read at: http://hhrf.org/up/manz/renet/dobrentei.htm (last accessed: 25 February 2019). Mária Petrás was born in 1957 in Giosen, Romania, which is considered one of the few so-called Hungarian “csángó” villages of the easternmost part of Romania, known as Moldavia. Earlier I have written about the contested nature of this population. Romanian scholars consider the “csángós” Romanian who were Hungarianized and became Roman Catholic; for Hungarian scholars, they are an archaic Hungarian population who had been Romanianized.
- 16.
Members of the band objected to the anti-Semitic charge, pointing to their interest in Jewish folk music. In fact, Muzsikás did produce a pioneering CD in Hungary of Jewish folk music in 1992 titled after a Hasidic song “The rooster is crowing” (Szól a kakas már). The entire album was reproduced for the international market a year later labeled Maramaros: The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania. However, what is interesting is that the original album’s subtitle says “Hungarian Jewish music from Transylvania!” After that controversial cancellation, the band was invited to perform in Israel in 2017.
- 17.
The week-long program can be viewed at: http://www.tusvanyos.ro/program/ (last accessed: 25 February 2019). From the beginning—existing well into the early 2000s—the idea was to bring Hungarian and Romanian politicians to a common understanding concerning minority rights and cultural practices. Over the last few years, Romanian speakers have dwindled, and at the moment, none are invited. This can be seen easily from the program of the Tusványos website which is only in Hungarian; the majority of sponsors of the event are—not surprisingly—from Hungary, including the government and various state and private institutions. Most of the speakers are from the ruling coalition parties of Hungary and its Romanian-Transylvanian minority organizations. As always, evenings are reserved for dance-houses, concerts and theater performances.
- 18.
The collected material can be accessed in digital format in Folklore Database http://www.folkloredb.hu/fdb/index.php?page=browse&ttype=11 (last accessed: 25 February 2019).
- 19.
- 20.
I have observed and described this modernizing process during my return visits to my earlier fieldwork sites. See my study “The last dance” (Kürti 2004). For a similar account in Hungarian concerning the Szék tradition, see Molnár (2005). The Gulyás brothers, János and Gyula, have produced a three-hour-long documentary about the waning of traditional community life in Szék. See “Széki lassú” (The Slow of Szék), János and Gyula Gulyás, Fórum Film Alapítvány,-MTV, 1993.
- 21.
I am somewhat more critical about this institution than other scholars are, but those interested in the camp atmosphere might read Hooker (2008).
- 22.
Figures are from the Association of Dance-House http://tanchaz.hu/index.php/hu/taborok (last accessed 25 February 2019).
- 23.
- 24.
Quoted in “40 éves a táncházmozgalom” (The dance-house movement is 40 years old). Múlt-kor Történelmi Magazin, March 30, 2012 (https://mult-kor.hu/20120330_40_eves_a_tanchazmozgalom, last accessed: 25 February 2019).
- 25.
In 2013, Hungarian Heritage: Roots To Revival was a program at the Smithsonian with groups of dancers, musicians and craftspeople invited from Hungary. Naturally, the selection of participants is always the responsibility of the national organizers and not the Smithsonian. This alone assures that those involved with the national pedagogy and management of dancing will privilege artists deemed preferable and suitable to represent the Hungarian “living” tradition. For a similar account concerning UNESCO’s intangible heritage performance, see Taylor (2016). Mentioning the Smithsonian, I need to admit that I too was involved not with the Smithsonian but with Folkways Records in the early 1980s; the collections published by Folkways now are part of the Smithsonian archives. By producing three LPs with the recording house owned by the incredibly astute and friendly Moe Asch (1905–1986), my aim was to provide a glimpse of the state of Hungarian folk music both in the US and in Hungarian communities in Romania as they were practiced at that moment. While I am glad I did the recordings and offer music to a wider scholarly community, dismissal of the LPs was instantaneous. Some critics felt that the music I recorded at weddings among Hungarian villagers in Romania were not “authentic” enough. True, in addition to the well-known string bands favored by folk revival enthusiasts, drum, accordion and saxophone were included among the instruments. In the American-Hungarian musical collection, the so-called new-style popular music and not the “real” old-style songs dominated. This category did not meet the expectations of folk musicians and dance-house organizers. That was in the mid-1980s. Today, dance-house bands often include saxophones and drums; in fact there is a world music saxophone ensemble in Hungary (Dél-alföldi Saxophone Ensemble). In addition, newer-style popular music has been in vogue in the repertoire of dance-house bands, some utilizing accordion music as well. Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
- 26.
The Hungarian University of Dance Art (Magyar Táncművészeti Egyetem) offers BA and MA degrees in folk dance performance, teaching and choreographing. The “folk dance artist” MA program started in 2008.
- 27.
I have described this culture of Stalinist happiness earlier (Kürti 2013).
- 28.
I think the comparison of the American dance craze of the 1920s and 1930s would not be too far stretched (see, Martin 1994). Obviously this comparison would need a completely separate treatment.
- 29.
According to a survey conducted by Freedom House, Hungary and Poland have the lowest ranking in Central Europe in the decline of democracy and rule of law since 2007. See: https://freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/nations-transit-2017 (last accessed: 25 February 2019).
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Kürti, L. (2019). Dance Populism: The Potato Principle and the New Hungarian Dance Craze. In: Donahue, K., Heck, P. (eds) Cycles of Hatred and Rage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14416-6_8
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