1. A Little History

In this chapter, we look at the dances and music of three central European countries: Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic (a.k.a. Czechia). We’re doing these countries together because there is a fair amount of similarity in many of the dances done in these countries, even though they represent different ethnic populations.

The Magyar, or Hungarians, are only one of a few groups of people in Europe who don’t speak an Indo-European language. Their language is Finno-Ugric and is related to Finnish and Estonian. The Czechs and Slovaks, by contrast, speak closely related Slavic languages: Czech and Slovak. These languages are similar to Polish and Ukrainian. In these countries, there are also significant minorities of German-, Croatian-, Romanian-, Romani-, and Rusyn (Ruthene)-speaking people.

Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic were all part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the First World War. After the war, the Czech region and Slovakia became part of a single country called Czechoslovakia. Moravia, located between Slovakia and the Czech Republic, made up one-third of the new nation. Czechoslovakia split apart when the Iron Curtain fell in the 1990s, and now there are two democratic republics.

The Czech Republic consists of two major regions culturally. In the west, there is Bohemia, which musically and dance-wise has more in common with Austria and Germany. In the east, Moravia is culturally similar to Hungary and Slovakia.

Much of Slovakian dancing and music is similar to Hungarian music and dance, but in border regions, you also find similarities to Polish and Ukrainian dance.

2. Costumes

Women’s costumes from the region are usually covered in very colorful, floral embroidery. Women’s skirts often sit on top of as many as seven stiffly starched, finely pleated petticoats. Their white blouses have puffy sleeves and lace borders. Often, they wear either a vest or a fancy, silky shawl with long, silky fringe over their blouses. A matching silky apron partially covers their skirts in the back. They complement their festival ensembles with flowered or heavily beribboned headpieces.

Men typically wear either black pants or white/cream pants with heavy embroidery on the front, often featuring geometric designs. Over their blousy, long-sleeved white shirts, men usually wear a black open vest. Men’s footwear often includes knee-high boots that the dancers slap to make noise. Men wear black fedora hats.

3. Music

The primary instrument in the music^[1] of this region is the violin. The rich violin duos of Hungarian folk music underlie many of the canonical melodies in classical music. Famous classical composers such as Bartók and Dvořák went out into the villages, notated folk tunes, and arranged them into now-famous orchestral pieces.

Violins became popular among villagers sometime in the mid-1800s, when they entered mass production and thus became affordable. Other traditional instruments include the davul drum, the koboz (cobza) or short-necked lute, and the cimbalom, a hammered string instrument that’s an ancestor of the piano. Additionally, there are the duda (a bagpipe)—called a Bock in Czech, the terkero or hurdy-gurdy, the tárogáto, a shawm-like instrument related to the clarinet and the oboe, and the doromb or jaw harp.

The gardon looks like a cello but is played like a percussion instrument. This last instrument is particularly prominent in the music of the Csángó people, Hungarian speakers living in Romania.

• Jaw Harp (Doromb) music
• Duda music
• Cimbalom music
• Csángó music
• Czech music
• Bartók
• Brahms
• Csárdás

4. Dances

The most characteristic dance of the region is the Csárdás (Hungarian, Čardaš in Czech and Slovak). This is a couple dance that rotates to the right and left but doesn’t move around the room. There are traditionally two parts to a Csárdás. They start slow (lassu) and move into a friss (or fast figure). Every region has its own distinctive style of Csárdás. Perhaps the most impressive Csárdás is the Meszőségi Csárdás, in which the woman performs rapid spins while turning around the man. Starting in the 1970s, Hungary saw the emergence of a new tradition called táncház, or “dance houses”, in urban centers where you could go and do Csárdás for hours on end to live music.

The verbunk is another common dance style from this region.^[2] Before World War I, verbunk dances were done by teams of military officers wearing impressive costumes. These recruiters would travel from village to village seeking out young men suitable for the army. Their impressive slapping, heel-clicking, and leaping figures were meant to encourage the villagers to enlist in the military. Verbunks were the original flash mobs. Typically, they’d start with one or two dancers doing a routine where they’d slap their boots and arms, and then others would join in as the music sped up. The verbunk is related to the plattls of Germany, which are also men’s slapping and clapping dances. The verbunk is found throughout Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

There are also much older traditions of circle dances in the region, including the Karikázó and Csángó dances. Hungarian girls dance Karikázós to their own singing, often starting slowly and building up speed and excitement toward the end of the dance. The Csángó are Hungarians who live in Romania, so their dances incorporate elements from Hungary, Moldova, and Romania. Characteristically, they take rapid steps, do a lot of stamping, and often the dances become rather frantic speed-wise toward the end.

In Bohemia (in the Czech Republic), the dances are quite different in style. They feel closer to German dances. While we associate polkas with Poland and Germany, the dance probably originated in Bohemia.

• Meszőségi Csárdás
• Slovak Čardaš
• Czech Čardaš
• Táncház
• Street dancing in Budapest
• Verbunk
• Hungarian-American performance group (starts with a Verbunk, then moves into a Csardas)
• Transylvanian flash mob
• Karikázó
• Csángó dance (Ördög Útja)
• Bohemian National Polka

Further Reading

• Buday (1950), Crane-Geary (1922), Czompo (1998), Czompo and Ann Czompo (1979), Heimann (2009), Martin (1974), Molnár and Magyar (2001), Rearick, Elizabeth (1939). See the reference section at the end of the book for full citations.
• http://www.socalfolkdance.org/articles/csardas_and_verbunk_reisz.htm

Some Suggested Dances for Teaching

The following links take you to descriptions and instructions from my website, Folk Dance Musings, for dances appropriate for teaching to new dancers.

Hungary

• Körtánc
• Adjon Az Isten
• Születésnapra
• Régi Tánc
• Ne Félj Lányom
• Duda Nóta
• Ugrós
• Székely Friss

Csángó

• Ördög Útja
• Gergelytánc

Czechia and Slovakia

• Mistrinská
• Doudlebská Polka
• Horehronský Čardaš