By Kíra Kertész and Bence Hajdu | Folklife Ambassadors 2024 – 2025
Though the closures and strict restrictions during the COVID-19 epidemic is something we would all rather not relive, we learned a lot about what technology can do in a crisis to spread information and knowledge. This was also true in the folklife space – where teaching continued online. Does this mean that technology replaces in-person professional training? Certainly not, there is nothing as valuable as doing live rehearsals – and yet, online still has a role to play.
This proved to be the case this past weekend at Online Magyar Iskola (OMI) and the Hungarian Folklife Association’s (HFA) joint folk dance event. The likelihood of Hungarian folk dancers visiting smaller global diasporas is small, but online anything is possible.
Through an hour-long program, children and adults from all over the world were introduced to Szatmári dances. Participants learned about the region, its dance motifs, culture and folk traditions – through activities that took people’s different ages, dance abilities and experiences into consideration. There were people who joined alone, with someone else and as a family. The Szatmári dances were an ideal platform for balancing the needs of all of the constituencies. It is very rich material – in many cases dancing occurs separately, so the basics can be mastered even without a partner. It was great to see how much joy folk dancing can bring, even through a camera.
The presentation and discussion about the region was also important. Those present gained knowledge about Szatmár as an area, its characteristic features and what remains culturally through tradition. Who and how the shepherds and outlaws lived was also mentioned – including their clothing and their function.
Everyone, including the Folklife Ambassadors, learned from this event. For folks who are used to teaching in-person, there was a learning curve to master all the technical and pedagogical challenges. The online platform works differently in terms of how time is utilized and divided within the program scope. In the end, it was a successful event with people participating from 10 different countries.
