Mar 11 • Táncház
Tanchaz Dance Etiquette Revisited
In an April 2012 article in FolkMagazin which has recently been making its rounds on Facebook, there was a transcription of a Transylvanian villager from Korond talking about how dancing to live music happened in village dance halls. I think it’s a wonderful and important reminder of what I perceive to be somewhat of a lost art of dancing to live music (whether or not there are microphones involved). I would like to see Tanchaz dancers adopt “back” to these customs and traditions, because they make so much sense, including from the perspective of a musician, but also in terms of community and the development of dancers. The most important take-away points, I think, are that the dancers in the room should move/circulate; no one is “entitled” to be in front of the band the whole time; depending on where you are, who you’re in front of, and who you’re dancing with your style/approach should adjust; and the contact/relationship with the musicians is critical. THOUGHTS, COMMENTS?
“In the dance hall, the dancing did not stay in one place — the dancer did not stand still and dance in a fixed spot — but rather the dancing community, that crowd, swirled from left to right. It was very crowded, yet everyone found their own place, and the dancers never knocked into one another, they were so careful….
Now, as the dance went around the room like this, the couples danced differently in different parts of the hall, because dancing in front of the band was quite different — there you had to show your musical ability in front of the musicians. And let me stop here! The musicians would actually call out to a truly fine dancing couple, to a good dancing lad: ‘Don’t move on, stay here, there’s a cup of wine for you!’ — because it was easier to play music after a good dancing lad, since his rhythm was sure, his musicality was sure; the musician watched him and then played very confidently and effortlessly.
When the couple moved on from there, this section — the part near the musicians, moving to the left — was typically where the men stood, and here you had to dance seriously, in a manly way, you had to show that you were a lad, and not just any lad. So here the men expected to see that their son had good posture, was solidly built, and not someone who would fall on his backside for any reason….
And then the lad danced in quite a different way again when he met the girl he was in love with. This varied by age. When a very young lad met his partner, he was terribly flustered — he didn’t know what to do with his hands or his feet. If the girl was a little livelier, more spirited, she would try to put him at ease — especially if she liked the lad too. But if not, she let him flounder, and stepped on his feet more than once too, of course, because she didn’t like the lad. But if she did like him, she moved alongside him so skillfully and positioned herself so beautifully close to his heart, placed her hand on his waist or his shoulder, put her arm around his neck with such grace, and responded with such warmth, that whether he wanted to or not, the lad relaxed — and then all at once he began to fly. ‘Oh, I can dance with this girl!’ He could, because the girl also wanted to dance with him. It was usually here, at the dance, that people of like minds found one another. And these couples often remained together for life….”
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Tanchaz Dance Etiquette Revisited
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