Here is a glance and deeply worthwhile for not only tourist living or coming to Budapest to catch up with truely Hungarian traditional folk dance.
Upon invitation visiting the renewed performance of the “BitterSweet” at the National House of Traditions on Friday, April, 26. 2024. … venue: District I., 8. Corvin Square – Budapest.
This Transylvanian Anthology of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble is one of the products of a lengthy artistic process that aims to examine the relevance and significance of our traditional culture in present-day life. This dramatic performance interprets folklore in a contemporary manner and mixes it boldly with modern dramatic forms. The ensemble and the dancers preserve archaic music and folk values found in historical Hungary.
The BitteSweet is a drama of contrasts: it counterpoints the tragic and the comic, the joy and the sorrow, life and death, confronting the audience with the crucial questions of how to maintain our inherited values in an increasingly globalised society. It seeks a means of preserving our native cultural community that in turn preserves our identity in the chaotic multiplicity of 21st-century life.
According to the formulation the BitterSweet is a drama of contrasts … it is about micro human lives, which sometimes evokes dramatic, other times lighter, moments that affect the depth of the soul, i.e. it describes life.
There were several arguments in favor of the renovation of BitterSweet (Édeskeserű) so stated Gábor Mihályi – Director-choreographer in addition to wanting to introduce the performance to young people, it was also an important aspect that the new generation of dancers should experience its staging. Fifteen years ago, when Édeskeserű was staged, visuality was also of utmost importance, recognizing that the audience is no longer necessarily satisfied with the succession of beautiful dances and music remembered but the performance has not lost its relevance.
The BitterSweet (Édeskeserű) performance … due to its title … is a dance poem based on the eternal tension of opposite forces, reflecting the individual vision of the creators, which rhapsodically counterpoints the comic with the tragic, life with death, joy with sorrow, reflects on the arrangement of Pál István Szalonna – Deputy Director General, artistic director,
The dramatic dance game choreographed to the song. We could also see very good rhythmic and dynamic male solo dances with very high jumps from the excellent young men, who not only clapped their palms together, but did not spare the thighs, bootlegs, and even the outer and inner ankles with their palms. There was not a single lost or rhythmically lagging step in the dance together. Their applause always clapped together, giving an excellent rhythm to the dance, much to the delight of the enthusiastically applauding audience. Finally, they closed the show with very, very temperamental dance from Kalotaszeg.
Ladies and Men characteristic dances of the different regions in wonderful authentic folk costumes, was eyescatching great dancing … the audience thanked the excellent singers, musicians and dancers with a standing ovation.
Further details of a/m show and up coming on the House of Tradition website.
Riport by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 