Legényes Made Me a (Hungarian) Man—National and Gender Identification through a Popular Transylvanian Dance

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Done by Hungarians and non-Hungarians throughout the world, the men’s dance Kalotaszegi Legényes is probably the most iconic of all Hungarian village dances. As with other folk dances, the legényes is part of the fiber of the village by virtue of its rules. The rules help dancers to find their place among other men and other villagers.
The táncház revival has sought to recreate and follow village rules in relation to cycles of dances from various areas. The surprising part is that preserving and following the rules convey to city revival dancers some of the benefits of self-representation, control, and community that they had in the original context.
This paper explores the rules behind legényes to reveal its structure and the social implications that are embedded in it. I then present interviews with real-life legényes dancers and táncház participants to see how revivalists’ experiences of the dance have shaped their attitudes. My observation is that through following the rules revivalists benefit from dance in a similar way to villagers. Further, I believe that the process of doing the dances strengthens a certain way of being that participants identify as masculine and Hungarian. If your values are identified by what you do, can you also develop values by the activities you choose?



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Judith E. Olson (M.Phil, NYU, M.M. University of Colorado) is an historical musicologist working in the area of traditional Hungarian music and dance in Romania, Hungary, and among Hungarians in the United States and Canada. She combines research in traditional settings, in Hungarian dance camps, and within revival groups with analysis and discussion of dance structure, process, and improvisation. She presents frequently at venues such as the International Council for Traditional Music, the International Musicological Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and AHEA. She performs this research and organizes táncház (dance parties) in New York City under the auspices of the American Hungarian Folklore Centrum. A secondary research area is 19th century German music and musical culture.