William Penn Life, 2000 (35. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-01-01 / 1. szám
‘Csárdás!’-TheTour JANUARY 2000 1/14 - Friday - New Brunswick, NJ 1/15 - Saturday - Brookville, NY 1/16 - Sunday - Bronx, NY 1/19 - Wednesday - Pomona, NJ 1/21 - Friday - Hershey, PA 1/22 - Saturday - Bayside, NY 1/23 - Sunday - Boston, MA 1/25 - Tuesday - Elmira, NY 1/26 - Wednesday - Schenectady, NY 1/27 - Thursday - Storrs, CT 1/28 - Friday - Bethlehem, PA 1/29 - Saturday - Fairfax, VA 1/30 - Sunday - Wilmington, DE 1/31 - Monday - Durham, NC FEBRUARY 2000 2/01 - Tuesday - Newberry, SC 2/02 - Wednesday - Atlanta, GA 2/04 - Friday - Sarasota, FL 2/05 - Saturday - Lakeland, FL 2/06 - Sunday - Clearwater, FL 2/07 - Monday - Naples, FL 2/10 - Thursday - Kitchener, ONT 2/11 - Friday - Hamilton, ONT 2/12 - Saturday - Napean, ONT 2/13 - Sunday - Toronto, ONT 2/14 - Monday - Lakewood, OH 2/15 - Tuesday - Clinton Twp., MI 2/17 - Thursday - Toledo, OH 2/18 - Friday - Chicago, IL influence of the csárdás on the other peoples of Central Europe, including the Romanians, Poles, Croatians and Gypsies. The show also brings a new level of appreciation for the music which accompanies the lively dancing. To many, the gypsy violinist epitomizes the Central European folk culture. But, it is a simplistic image. "Csárdás!" takes the melodic songs-rooted in millennium-old traditions--and presents them in their authentic form. Listening to the music, the audience comes to understand why composers such as Brahms, Liszt and Shubert became fascinated with this vigorous music and why they were eager to include it in their own compositions. But, what about the show's title? How does the csárdás compare to the tango? "Like a tango, [the csárdás] can be an improvised couple dance which can suddenly become alluring love play," Zsuráfszki said. "The csárdás allows the partners to choose how to relate to each other in a great number of ways. And the spatial, rhythmic and dynamic variations are virtually limitless." Not too surprisingly, it is the complexity of the dance which, until now, "has been making the csárdás inaccessible for audiences," Zsuráfszki said. "Until relatively recently, for example, there were no professional dancers who could improvise this dance style. Now, any one of my dancers could join a village wedding, even in Transylvania where dances are the most complex, and fit right in." This confidence in his dancers' abilities is just one reason why Zsuráfszki thinks "Csárdás!-The Tango of the East" could be the next "Riverdance." "In Europe, Japan, North America and Australia, Hungarian dances are increasingly popular," he said. "The improvisational nature of Hungarian dance not only lets the audience access a tradition, but also allows dancers to express their own individuality." This combination of tradition and individual expression makes for an immensely entertaining experience. The csárdás as a fad may have subsided two centuries ago, but the csárdás as a phenomenon may have just been born. [>y [> || dances done with weapons, often swords. Gygpsy traditions in Northeastern Hungary have kept alive a curiously exciting bridge between the weapons dance and couple dancing: a man and woman dance together, never touching, the man twirling a stick as he would in a fight: the woman, defenseless, places her trust in her partner, the dance itself her only weapon. Although the csárdás is known and loved in all areas of the Carpathian Basin, the local variants are often surprisingly different. In Transylvania, for example, mountainous terrain and bad roads still combine to keep villages isolated. The result is that the people of one village may not recognize the csárdás done by other villagers a mere dozen miles away. The csárdás is a dance tradition whose domain stretches from Croatia in the south to Poland in the north; from Austria in the west to the Ukraine in the east. It can be simple and slow. It can be fast and furious. It can be romantic love play. It can be a dynamic exhibition. The music can be fiery, intense or exotic, but it can also strike the familiar chords played by café-gypsy orchestras resembling the music of great classical composers. The csárdás is a complex, multi-layered, living tradition that’s still guaranteed to set toes tapping and hearts beating faster. |l\ |'|[ Hilliin Penn Life, January 2000 9
