Meet Monty Low, who started folk dancing in the 70’s and he still dances three times a week.
He organizes reciprocal group visits to their Unitarian partner church in Homoródszentmárton, Transylvania, and Monty doesn’t miss a chance to dance with the villagers there, either. He is happy that the villagers recently re-learned their forgotten folk dances.
Howie is an amazing folk dancer. In his mini-interview, he shares his feelings about Hungarian folk dance, how he started and why he continues dancing ever since.
He also talks about the Hungarian community in the San Francisco Bay Area and his dance experience at Fonó Budai Zeneház during his travels to Budapest.
Come to the Hungarian Heritage Festival, to Belmont, CA on May 11, 2019 to see several folk dance performances on stage and try them yourself at the evening dance house!
🕺 Tihanyi László, az Eszterlánc Magyar Népi Együttes művészeri vezetője közismert és fontos szereplője az amerikai magyar diaszpóra kulturális életének és a San Francisco Öböl környéki magyar közösségnek. Aki látta Lacit színpadon táncolni, az tudja, milyen a hamisítatlan, autentikus magyar néptánc és virtuozitás. Laci elmeséli, hogyan kezdett táncolni és milyen út vezetett San Francisco-ba.
🎻 László Tihanyi, the artistic director of Eszterlánc Hungarian Folk Ensemble is an iconic figure of the Hungarian-American community in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you saw him dance on stage, you know exactly what the authentic Hungarian folk dance and virtuosity looks like. Laci tells about his first years in Budapest and how he became the artistic director of Eszterlánc.
☀️ Ismerjétek meg a csodálatos Kovács Vikit, aki elmeséli, mit jelent neki a tánc, a kihagyhatatlan péntek esti próbák és azt is elárulja, melyik tánc áll a szívéhez legközelebb.
🌷Meet Viktoria Kovacs, our dear assistant artistic director who talks about her passion for dance, the unmissable Friday practices and she shares what her favorite dance is!
On the weekend of March 23-24, 2019, Hungarian folk musicians
traveled to California to teach folk music from Sóvidék, Transylvania in a two-day music workshop.
The following parts of the sóvidéki music cycle taught:
The workshop had 9 students: 4 on violin, 3 on viola and 2 on double bass. Part of the participants were Eszterlánc members, but we also had participants from outside of Eszterlánc.
In the first part of the workshop, all instruments had their own separate lessons. Later, all instruments joined in the same room and played together. Hearing 9 instruments play at the same time is invigorating!
The workshop was sponsored by Eszterlánc and by the Csoóri Sándor Program funded by the Hungarian Government. We are also overly grateful to the Hungarian Catholic Mission in the Woodside Priory who provided the location and catering for the event.
The Orbán Laci and Friends trio also played in a cheerful táncház (dance house) on Saturday evening. The guest artist was Bence Krajcsó, zither player from Hungary, “Young Master of Hungarian Folk Arts”. Bence had a wonderful and memorable zither concert as part of his tour in the US.
