| Staged folk dance is a unique mode of performance that uses folk forms as the basis of artistically staged choreography. As one of the first professional folk dance troupes in Central and Eastern Europe, created during Hungary's Communist Era in 1951, the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble continues to thrive despite the dramatic political, social, and economic changes of the past several decades. Its persistence as a socio-cultural form of expression, and its existence alongside several other professional and non-professional folk dance ensembles, suggests that the artistic framing of folk forms through staged performance continues to hold a special communicative power in Hungary's artistic and cultural life. Yet despite the fact that thousands witness folk performances every year, little scholarly research has been carried out to understand why staged folk dance has persisted as a socio-cultural mode of expression to the degree that it has. The little research that has been done tends to focus exclusively on political or representative aspects. This dissertation explores how meaning can be created from the constitutive elements, the existence of staged folk dance performance as an expressive medium dependent on both "folk" and "art". Understanding this theoretical divide, and its manifestation in other Hungarian expressive media, is crucial to understanding how meaning can be created in a way that has contemporary relevance for contemporary audiences. I examine the use of these theoretical categories as artistic devices in two of the Ensemble's most recent choreographies, A Foldon Apam Fia Volnek (2004), and Pannon Fresko (2005). Through this analysis, I suggest that the State Folk Ensemble communicates much more than just a pleasant presentation of archaic forms. Staying true to its institutional role as the national bearer of heritage preservation, the State Folk Ensemble provides commentary on tradition, the transmission of tradition, and its own role in ethnographic preservation. |
