How Far Can You Go Without Losing Your Soul? Hungarian rural dance improvisation across boundaries of space and time

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This discussion explores the understanding and practice of Hungarian rural dance improvisation as it has crossed boundaries, from country to country through the outreach of the táncház movement and in the march of time from the mid-20th century onward. Among dance researchers and enthusiasts, the 1960’s were considered a flowering of rural dance in Transylvania, as characterized by Ágnes Fülemile, before political and social changes late in the century. This was barely caught on film by groups of ethnochoreologists doing the best they could with photographic equipment that could record at most a few minutes at a time. The táncház movement after 1972 sought to decipher the improvisation that characterized and created this art, and at the same time, make peace with an essential philosophical dilemma -- How could people from outside the culture of these villages hope to understand the range of figures, practiced and imagined, that could be acceptable as a part of the dance? I will discuss various considerations that constitute this problem, beginning with dance learning within a village and social control of dance practice. I will go over various constructions and partial solutions that have been attempted by dancers learning and teaching the art form. Concepts include flow, exact imitation, and the true meaning of the saying, “A Hungarian cannot perform the same improvisation twice.” I will then talk about how points of view and solutions change and are affected as we cross geographical boundaries and as dance practice has moved through time.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Judith E. Olson (NYU, U Colorado) historical musicologist--traditional Hungarian music/dance in Romania, Hungary, and among Hungarians in the United States/Canada. She combines research in traditional settings, Hungarian dance camps, and revival groups with analysis of dance/music structure, process, and improvisation. She presents frequently at International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, International Musicological Society, Analytical Approaches to World Music, Society for Ethnomusicology, and AHEA. She performs research and organizes táncház in New York City with Hungarian House and American Hungarian Folklore Centrum. Secondary research areas: International Folk Dancing in the US, Balkan brass bands, and 19th-century German music/culture.