Exhibition | Dance Captured – from the Hungarian Dance Archives

Details

August 22–29, 2025 | 9:00–17:00
Workshops of Culture in Lublin, Grodzka 7 – corridor
Free entry

Acccesibility

Wheelchair accessible

About

For dance practice, sources matter. When they are direct and rooted in encounters with dancers, we can observe, absorb, and imitate movement. But what happens when that direct chain of transmission is broken? Does dance become an irretrievably fleeting art form?

In Budapest, Hungary, a remarkable institution strives to answer this question. The Folk Music and Folk Dance Archives, part of the Institute of Musicology at the HUN-REN Centre for Humanities Research, houses one of Europe’s largest collections of traditional dance materials.

Thie archive contains rare recordings predating World War II, though the bulk of its collection was gathered during intensive post-war institutional field research. While the majority of materials document Hungarian dances, music, and social dance traditions, the archive also includes footage and records of ethnic minorities in Hungary and traditional groups in neighbouring countries. This rich collection features materials on Carpathian Polish highlanders, Roma communities, Romanians, Slovaks, and South Slavs, among others.

Officially established in the 1940s by the Institute of Ethnology and later continued by the Institute of Folklore, the collection not only documented traditional dance but also amateur artistic activity. Thanks to dedicated field research, it expanded rapidly and, by the 1950s, was thematically organized, becoming an invaluable resource for ethnographers and dance researchers.

In 1965, on the initiative of Zoltán Kodály and Gyula Ortutay, the collection was transferred to the Folk Music Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.  In 1974, due to further institutional changes, it became part of the Institute of Musicology at the Academy.

The research continued, and the collection grew under the guidance of György Martin, head of the Traditional Dance Department. Thanks to the dedication of Martin and his team, the collection received national archive status, which it retains to this day due to the rarity and uniqueness of its earliest materials.

During the upcoming Re:tradition Festival, visitors will have a chance to view a selection of photographs and film recordings from this Hungarian archive — a small glimpse into a decades-long, multifaceted exploration of traditional dance in the region.

Archiwum Muzyki Ludowej i Tańca Ludowego Instytutu Muzykologii HUN-REN- RCH – Węgierskiej Akademii Nauk

from Folk Music and Folk Dance Archives of the Institute for Musicology, HUN-REN RCH – Hungarian Academy of Sciences