10 years of Szarkaláb Folk-Dance Group PDF Print E-mail

In November 1995 the dream of the pupils and teachers of Apáczai Csere János High School has come true, the folk-dance group of the school was officially formed under the name of Szarkaláb. Before the formation of this folk-dance group its members had danced namelessly for many years led by Pillich Gyöngyvér, Csorba Tíbor, Márk Melinda and Pillich Balázs (from Sámuel Brassai High School). Initially, Szarkaláb was led by Pillich Gyöngyvér, who – on the part of the school - was greatly assisted by the teacher, Tonk Mária. It was thanks to Tonk Mária that the pupils and teachers of the school accepted the new situation created by the performance of Szarkaláb.

We tried to create tradition from nothing also in the groves of Apáczai Csere János High School. Naturally, there are some important people whose names we have to mention, like the headmasters Szilágyi Júlia and Wolf Rudolf and the sub-headmasters Kató Levente, Wanek Judit and Mihály Béla. They all played a significant role in allowing us to dance  in the school, they did everything they could to involve as many pupils as possible in learning folk dances. Furthermore, they promoted the idea that Szarkaláb belonged to the school and to all of us involved (members of the folk group and pupils who wanted to learn how to dance).

Along the years both the leaders and the members of the folk-dance group have changed. From 1998 the lead of the folk-dance group was taken over by Pillich Balázs and from 1999, on the part of the school, it was Mihály Béla sports teacher who took responsibility for the group’s work. The members of the group completely changed in 1999, this gap coincided with the formation of a new folk-dance group in Cluj Napoca , called Ördögtérgye. Starting from this year, the majority of the group was made up by university students coming from the various parts of Transilvania and studying in Cluj Napoca , not by pupils from Apáczai Csere János High School. During the period 2000-2003, as a result of being forged together, the group took part in many national and international wellknown festivals and programmes, just like in the first five years.
In the present we could say that the Szarkaláb Folk-Dance Group is at its peak due to the high number of its regular members (although the members continually change). Last year the group arrived home with many honorable mentions and much acknowledgement earned at the prestigious festivals and programmes it participated in.

During its ten years of existence, our group was invited to more than 40 festivals, village days, exhibitions and festivals in Hungary, Horná zem (Slovakia), Voivodina (Serbia), south of Banat (Serbia ), Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. We are very proud that we were able to participate more than once in: the German sorb minority’s most important programme, the ‘Lausitz’ International Minority Festival, an event which is considered to be the greatest minority gathering in Europe; the Polish ‘Kyczera’ Minority Festival; the ‘Europe Festival’ organized in Lyon (France) in honour of the admission of the new member countries into the EU in May 2004 – where we represented all the Hungarians. In the summer of 2001 we also took part in the well-known ‘Sudmalinas Festival’ in Riga, the capital of Latvia, representing Romania as well as all the Hungarians.

During these ten years it was the Heltai Gáspár Library Foundation that has supported our folk-dance group in organizing the tours and the performances, providing sponsorship and putting its entire infrastructure at our disposal. We consider the foundation our maintaining institution. Also as a result of our close cooperation with the Heltai Foundation, we are co organizers of the ‘Szent István Folk-Dance Festival’, which is considered to be the greatest international minority festival from Romania by the professional circles. In addition, the members of our group took part actively in carrying out the cultural programmes organized by the foundation such as the dance hall of Cluj Napoca , contributing to its well-functioning over the years. Beginning with 2006 we would like to organize monthly dance courses again in the auditorium/rehearsal/conference room created in the attic of the foundation. In this way we would like to preserve the cultural programme series that are organized by the Heltai Foundation and the Szarkaláb in Cluj Napoca : carnivals, Christmas gala performances, festive dance halls, festivals, courses, etc.

Our group does not have an orchestra of its own, we have already worked together with several dance-hall orchestras from Transilvania, like: the Palló, Tarisznyás, Tüske, Pirászló, the orchestras of the folk-dance groups from Háromszék and Hargita, Fodor Netti Sándor, Fodor Sándor junior, Tóni Rudolf junior, Pusztai Aladár, Pusztai Aladár junior, Sztojka János, Kodoba Florin, Gyárfás Róbert, Simon István and Bartis Zoltán.

Szarkaláb Folk-Dance Group celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2005/2006. Last year we celebrated this anniversary with many prestigious performances, national and international tours. With the occasion of the seventh Szent István Folk-Dance Festival we commemorated the events of the past years together with our foreign fellow folk-dance groups. Along the ’Guests in Budapest’ event, in our Hungarian and Horná zem visits we tried to honour the invitations received from our partners and friends with whom we had a close cooperation over these ten years. Also at home we received many invitations and we made our audience happy by dancing at the numerous village days, festivals and festivals.

The last event of the series of feasting ‘10 years of Szarkaláb’ was organized on 25-26th March 2006, the ‘10 years of Szarkaláb’ event. With this occasion many past and present members of the group, partner orchestras, musicians and the neighbouring partner folk-dance groups joined together to celebrate. At the 26th Gala besides the present dancers of Szarkaláb, the following groups made their performance: Bogáncs (Cluj Napoca ), Zurboló, Ördögtérgye, Dor Transilvan folk-dance group, Szarkalábacskák Children’s folk group, Kaláka folk group, Tüske, Tarisznyás, Pirászló orchestras, Bartis Zoltán, Simon István, Fodor Sándor junior and Kodoba Florin.
 
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