43rd National Táncház Festival & Fair • 5–7 April 2024
Issue:
Starting page: 20
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Blága Károly „Kicsi Kóta” (January 13, 1931 – January 19, 2022) Sötét Patak, Gyimesközéplok/Lunca de Jos, Harghita County, Romania. Blága Károly was a key figure in his community, well known as a good dancer who lived like most others from the traditional forms of subsistence farming and animal husbandry of Transylvania’s Gyimes region. He was well-known also in the dance house movement community as one of the great traditional village dancers. His wonderful dancing has been well documented with films housed in the Dance Collection of the Hungarian Institute of Musicology and in other archives. In 2003 Hungary recognized him with the title of „Master of Folk Arts”. The following was spoken by parish priest father Málnási Demeter at his funeral in Gyimesközéplok on January 21, 2022: „Though we here on earth have lost him, I believe that tonight the Gyimes skies gain another star. For the community gathered here to mourn him, I hope that Kicsi Kóta’s life and death shall become a forging strength and message heard far beyond our Gyimes region and the borders of our country. Rest in Peace.”