Gyökerek • A Dráva Múzeum tanulmánykötete, 2004
Vass Oszkár: Egy archaikus táncok – A somogyi kanásztánc
Voss Oszkár Egy archaikus táncunk - a somogyi kanásztánc OSZKÁR VASS 1 AN OLD DANCE FROM HUNGARY - THE SWINE-HERD'S DANCE FROM SOMOGY COUNTY SUMMARY The dance-culture of the Carpathian basin shows a very variegated and complex picture. The rich model and motive treasure sheds light retrospectively on the history of the development of our dances till to the Renaissance. Oszkár Vass's essay would like to present an archaic Hungarian dance. This is the swine-herd's dance from Somogy county. The colorful dance fashions sweeping through Europe reached the Carpathian basin too, and infiltrated into the local dance tradition. The various motives lived on and advanced in the circle of the Hungarian nation and those models could have been varied without restriction. This fact influenced strongly the Hungarian paired dance tradition which was forming at the end of the 18 th century. In the South Transdanubian region the herdsmen's society was the primary carrier of the old layer of dance tradition. Soloist, men's doubles and collective models of the herdsmen's dance are known. The dance was mostly performed with some kind of instruments and the appliances may have been sticks, halberds or hatchets. The most characteristic motif of the dance is the so called "cifra" (adorned) with the rhythm of "Л J". And by means ofthat it connects tightly with the European and the Carpathian dance tradition. During the 20 th century this archaic society underwent a change and became open. More and more opportunities came into being to admit new impressions. For example the wine-herd's dance was inherited and adopted by the farmers but they didn't take the original form as a basis when they integrated it into their own culture. Afterwards from this dance - which was taken over and transformed by the farmers developed the recruiting dance of Somogy county. 1 The author of this essay is a qualified folkdance instructor, finalist ethnographer at the University of Pécs. 142
