Lets start from the beginning on: in June on a short notice I started to visit a Hungarian folk dance group called Szőttes (twice a week 2-3 hours). And there, as they wanted us to join the group, we were motivated to come to this camp, as we would learn a lot there. When it was clear that I won't get my internship trough IAESTE to Spain I was happy that I have at least something to look forward to.
We were sleeping in tents, had a great weather (it rained just on Monday and Saturday). The little village and the mountains around it were breathtaking. It was like beeing stuck in time. The calm surrounding with the traditional carvings. One of the local pubs was having a traditional design. But of course one of the local shops and the local "house of culture" (the place where the cultural presentations used to be in a village during socialism - concerts, presentations, meetings) where having the typical minimalistic construction. Most probably they were built during the socialism. Nevertheless those were insignificant in the whole picture of the village. The small Hungarian community gave me a very pleasant feeling.The program - 6 days 3+3 hours of dancing a day + during the night there was a dance house. We learned traditional Hungarian dances from two regions (Mátyusföldi and Kalotaszegi). We started with the Kalotaszegi (from the village Bogártelek) dances. They were according to me much easier then the Matyusföldi dances, though the second one is much more fun :) Of course we learnded just the basics of these dances, but it was very interesting for me to see the little differences in them. Also the character of the Matyusföldi dance catched me. It was very much like a game, with a lot of moves, were you change get away, got close, run away, court your partner...
The Bogartelki dance:
Is definitely more fun when you're there ;)
The only problem with the whole show was, that I had an inflamation of my right ear the whole time, so no alcohol, nor staying up long through the night for me :( Definitely missed a lot of fun.
Of course from time to time the question popped in my mind why so few people are interested in folk dances nowadays, when it is so much fun. Somewhere on the way to the 21th century people were having so many new things around them that they forgot the old ways. Thank god I was never a type of a guy who just walked with the stream, and figured, that there is much more to see and enjoy!
more pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/hajdupeti/SzottesTabor2008
