“Conservation in connection” – Transferring the elements of tradional folk culture to today’s urban environment

The applicant organization is Bartók Cultural Dance Association which is a civil organization maintaining the Bartók Dance Group of Budapest. The Bartók Dance Group is a workshop which has been educating youngsters and adults for 56 years. The dance education at our Group is not formal but outstanding. The main profile of the Bartók Dance Group is to teach and adapt for stage the dances of ethnicities living in Hungary and in the Carpathian Basin. Our method is the Tímár-method which has been developed in this workshop by our founder. The goal of this method is for the dancers to acquire the dances on a native level and to be able to redefine and recreate them according to their own personalities and abilities.

The goal of the Bartók Dance Group is not only to learn and perform dances but also to maintain a community which has an important social role. By the cooperating with the Nyitnikék Folk Dance Ensemble we can create a continuing relation between our countries, and make a contact in profession. The members of the Group firmly believe in both saving and creating values while bringing their community together.

Several members keep a lot of relevant experiences, wich help the competition to be successful. A Hungarian identity is formed through learning about traditional culture. In addition, we contribute to creating a culturally colorful Europe by teaching appreciation and tolerance toward the cultures of other nationalities in the Carpathian Basin (Gypsies, Romanians, Slovakians, etc.).

Our leaders, Gergő Sánta and his wife, Anna Sánta-Bíró dispose important relations in profession, so they help our ensemble to get rare values, and they also cooperating with the Institue of Musicology of Hungary.

The purpose of this project is that the association would like to establish international relations in order to place its activity outside of Hungary. Our goal is to become acquainted with the dance cultures and teaching methods of other countries. Furthermore we would like to present our rich dance traditions and our teaching methods; the Tímár-method and the dance-house method, the latter included in the list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2011, to whole of Europe.

The establishment and maintenance of international relations, the acquiring of international teaching methods and practices are the most important from among the expected results of this project.

The project was supported by the European Commission