As part of the Pannonia Scholarship Programme, 24 students from the Teacher Training Institute of Hungarian Dance University (HDU) had the opportunity to participate in professional training in Slovakia before the start of the semester between August 21 and 24. What made the folk dance course special was that the university students were able to learn Slovak dances from local Slovak dance teachers in Zemplén.
During the course, students learned not only about movements and motifs, but also background information that cannot be gleaned from analyzing individual film clips. Participants were recruited from three different grades.
During the multi-day course, Lenka Bogdán Sciraková and Péter Vajda taught the couple dances of Pozdisovce. The boys learned the Visnovskehoi verbunk from Robert Sabol, while the girls learned the Pozdisovce karikázó from Lenka.
The course was conducted in Slovak and English. Balázs Bogdán, a dance teacher student, undertook the professional translation, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his work!
In addition to intensive folk dance practice, participants were able to spend quality time together in the evenings. The Bakator Band provided live musical accompaniment, followed by a dance party at the end of the course.
Andrea Kupec and Mihály Kupec contributed greatly to the success of the weekend by providing the headquarters of the Ilosvai Selyemes Péter Ensemble for the university students. This allowed the course participants to spend the weekend in a wonderful, well-organized, and excellently equipped venue.
On behalf of our colleagues and ourselves, we would like to thank the management and department head Gyöngyvér Hortobágyi for supporting the implementation of the programme! We would also like to thank the Pannonia Programme for the opportunity, as well as the teachers, the Ilosvai Ensemble, the Bakator Band, and the Kupecz family for their contributions! We hope to be able to hold similar professional programmes in the future!
Dávid Dudás, university lecturer, and Nóra Oláh, art teacher
