44th National Táncház Festival & Fair • 4–6 April 2025
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The Kolozsvár dance house and the Romanian secret police: 1977 and 1989. They began to organize dance houses in the city of Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca (Transylvania, Romania) in 1977, and were immediately under surveillance by the local secret police - the so-called ’securitate’. The secret police kept lists of dance house participants with the goal of scaring them away and/or for future reference as potential informers. The dance house organizers at the time stated: "... the dancehouse must be protected because it can be a way to preserve authentic folk culture. Hopefully the authorities will take the dancehouses under their wing….the dance house needs to be institutionalized…”. However, instead the authorities closed down one of the Kolozsvár dance houses in 1982 and then another one in 1984. From 1985 on, the dance houses went underground until the governmental changes of 1990. Könczei Ádám and his son Könczei Árpád were key figures/organizers of the Kolozsvár dance houses during the period in question. Könczei Ádám died as the result of a tragic accident in 1983. By Könczei Csilla - referring directly to secret police files. Notes/references included. First published at: szinhaz.net on 2019. 02. 20.