William Penn Life, 2008 (43. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2008-11-01 / 11. szám
Magyar Matters A family tradition A mother's love for teaching Magyar dancing lives on in Cleveland Carrying on an 86-year tradition of teaching Hungarian folk dancing in Cleveland are (l-r) Betty Rose Galgany, Sonya Paster, the Rev. Csaba Krasznai, pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church of Cleveland, Elaine Galgany and Andrea Tajgiszer. by Elaine Galgany My mother started teaching Hungarian dances in 1922 when she was 12 years old. The minister at the church where she taught had to be in the dance hall with her to maintain order since the other children and teens would not necessarily listen to a 12 year old. She taught the dances for 60 years, not only at our church but also in churches around Cleveland, Lorain and Columbus. The hey day for the Fall Harvest Festivals were from the 1920's through the 1950's when there was a large Hungarian community living close to the church. The first and second generation Hungarian- Americans participated fully. After that, with movement away from the "old neighborhood" and the increasing occurrence of marriages with non-Hungarians, attendance started to dwindle. In the 1960's and 1970's there were still large dance groups, but by the late 1970's and early 1980’s participation greatly declined. During my mother's last 10 years of teaching, there were only two groups: the very little ones ages 3 to 6 and the middle group ages 6 to 12.1 helped her with the instruction, dancing with the children and showing them steps while she gathered them together, called the steps and fine tuned their practices. During this time teens did not seem interested in ethnic dancing. In 1982--the last year my mother taught-a remarkable thing happened. I spoke with her about the large number of 11 and 12 year olds who we had dancing who wanted to continue. We realized we would be able to have a third group, for teens, once again. We were both so happy about that. Unfortunately, my mother died in June 1983 of colon cancer, so I was left with the task of carrying on the tradition of dance instruction. This is something I love doing, so the only regret I have is that my mother was not there to see the revitalization of the traditional dances at our church. That new group formed in 1983 continued on for many years. They honed their skills year after year, and the highlight of their dancing years was a trip to Hungary for two weeks. We went with two bus loads, 88 of us, in 1988. Fund raisers were held for a year prior to our departure so that the 14 dancers—seven teen girls and seven teen boy partners—had their expenses paid. They performed two dances in Miskolc, Hungary, at the Reformed Church. We have been fortunate these past 26 years to continue the annual Fall Harvest Festival. Our group sizes were a bit larger earlier on with about 60 children and teens dancing, but now we have approximately 40 who comprise three groups. This year we had a very large group of 3 to 6 years olds, with 14 in that group. There are many members of our church who work very hard to hold this annual festival. About 50 people work the event. Major coordination is done by my sister, Betty Rose Galgany, who has tirelessly and avidly worked during all these years. We value the cooks, shoppers, fank makers, decorators, servers, ticket sellers and clean-up crew. We also would not have this type of event if it weren't for the dancers and their parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents who bring them to the practices and invite their friends and family to the festival. We now have two church members who have begun to help with instruction, taking major responsibility for the youngest dancers and for the middle group. These two dance instructors, Andrea Tajgiszer for the youngest dancers and Sonya Paster for the middle group, were members of all three age groups and were two members of that remarkable 1988 dance group that toured Hungary. The tradition will continue as long as there is interest in our Hungarian heritage. |wpl| William Penn Life, November 2008 II
