Petra Varga
I think there’s no people on earth like Hungarians, who know exactly what their predecessors danced. In the early twentieth century, ethnographers started to discover the dance and traditions of Hungarian villages and regions with the lead of Martin György and Pesovár Ernő. Thanks to these archive films that we have preserved, we are able to learn every move and gesture of Bözsi néni from the 1930s.
First, you try to learn the foot moves one by one. Every village has their own dance, maybe it only differs in a few details, but there’s always a special editing of the moves, dance morals… etc. After you learn the foot moves, you have to examine the play of the upper body. In some villages the people gave more of a role to their upper body than their feet. When the moves are ready, you have to master their morals. I think that this is the hardest phase of learning a dance, because you can identify with their morals or not. Somewhere the dance of the women is more dominant; it’s like a show. You can play with your hands, use asymmetric moves, whatever you want. And somewhere you have to strictly adapt to the men and stand straight without any playfulness all the time. Last but not least, you have to shape all the previously learned steps to yourself.
Dance is a puzzle. You can put pieces together, but it will only show an image if it fits. Fits to you.