43rd National Táncház Festival & Fair • 5–7 April 2024
Issue:
Starting page: 3
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Interview with directors of Urban Verbunk Dance Ensemble Tóth Judit and Moussa Ahmed. Urban Verbunk is based in the town of Gödöllő 30 km northeast of Budapest. Both directors began folk dancing in the Muharay Elemér Folk Dance Ensemble in Gödöllő in the early 1990s. Urban Verbunk does its own version of folk dance theatre. “We present folk dance in an urban way…” “I would like to make tradition livable in a form that can be authentic in 2020 too.” “Those that criticize us…cannot accept that for the stage, folk dance is a device (a tool) that is used…why can’t folk culture be both a valuable asset and a medium (a tool) for expression?...” Urban Verbunk is Hungary’s newest professional ensemble (8 dancers). The professional ensemble practices in the mornings, in the afternoon the directors are busy with administrating and teaching folk dance to more than 290 local school children (including a program for disadvantaged Roma children). By Grozdits Károly.