News
Dance House dusts off old dance moves
15.09.2011
The series of dance nights called Dance House, which started in the Traditional Music Center last spring, continues this September and invites everyone who wishes to feel good and dance to traditional music to frolic with us.
The new season of the series of Dance Houses which starts on September 23 resembles the dance club movement which started in Estonia already in the 1990s. They share a common goal to bring people back to old dances by teaching the most popular social dances from the end of XIX and the beginning of XX century like the waltz, polka, rheinländer, mazurka, flatfoot waltz and dances from other countries.
The novelty of the Dance House lies in how the evenings are structured because differently from other dance clubs, the process of learning and the party are separated. Those who wish to learn the dance steps can do so in the workshop which is held before the dance night.
In order to help people rediscover the magical sound and rhythm landscapes of solo music, the organisers have also chosen solo artists in addition to bands to play at the dance parties. Thus, the Dance House parties help to remind us that traditional music is closely related to dance and most of the instrumental music in the genre is dance music.
People can come to the dance nights together with their family or friends or why not even co-workers. Previous exposure to traditional dances is an advantage but it is definitely not a prerequisite for attending.
The tradition of dance houses (táncház) started in Hungary in the second half of the 1970s when people started to feel the need to preserve their traditional culture which was vanishing due to the communist pressure and the increasing popularity of stage dancing. In addition to Estonia, similar party nights are held in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and France.