Short description:

Whether beginners or more advanced dancers, they can all have a good time together at the Folk Dance House. This is a tangible leftover of our ancient heritage in the 20th-21st century. Although this initiative began in Budapest in the 1970s, the roots can be traced back to the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The musical foundations were laid down by Béla Vikár and János Seprődi, then by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály. István Molnár collected and put together the dance culture, which could serve as a basis for the next generation.

The choreographer, Ferenc Novák was one of them, who took his students to the village of Szék. In this settlement in Mezőség they encountered a live dance tradition, that they wanted to share with everyone. Therefore, on May 6th, 1972, the first Folk Dance House was held in the city with the motto “Dance, like they dance in Szék”. From here on, the folk-dance culture started its journey in a legendary community center at Budapest and in the Kassák Club. It quickly  spread to the countryside and beyond the present-day borders. This series of events brought joy to people's hearts, by banishing the gray and hopeless world. The movement was started by dancers and musicians, such as Sándor Tímár, Ferenc Sebő, Béla Halmos and

Péter Éri. In 1982, the first Táncház (Dance House) festival was held, which has been the biggest event of the year ever since. What is natural binding force in the Carpathian Basin, is a retaining force in the Western diaspora. From Sydney to London and from Toronto to Montevideo the Folk Dance House brings the local Hungarians together in many cities around the world. The second and third generations, who barely speak their native tongue, are connected to the homeland through folk songs, folk dances, and folk music. And the motherland helps this effort via the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Program.

Tags: táncház, módszer, hungarikum