Dance, it's Spring!

In Budapest, Erszébet square, March 28:

Now that is what I call folk dance.  I knew before coming here a thing or two about Hungarian folk dance.  The Smithsonian folklore festival in Washington DC last summer featured Hungary, and Josh and I went out to the dance barn there and learned our "ta, ta, ti ti ta."  Those rhythms are now back on display, during the Budapest Tavaszi (Spring) Festivál.  This has made it real easy for us to get down contry style.  The roots revival of folk dance is still going strong since  1970, apparently.  Later the night of this video, I ventured out to a place called Fonó, where average joes were doing this boot-slapping dance.  And I joined a large circle dance which felt like a sped up version of the hora.  

At the other end of the spectrum, weird modern dance is really easy to find now as well.  The night before, we watched an abstract dance video of a woman breaking out of a coccoon, followed by a dance group that looked like pleather astronauts who have just discovered a freaky laser beam synthesizer.  Thank goodness it was free.  We witnessed circus dancing last night, we'll be seeing a multimedia fashion show tonight, and on Tuesday, we'll attend the world premiere of "Mata Hari" the musical.

Also during this spring festival is a chess tournament.  This one is for Daanish.

Aside from the festival, we have been enjoying the heartiness of Magyar food and the well-preserved neo-Gothic buildings, like the fisherman's bastion.  Not to mention the excellent public transportation and the nice apartment we found through Airbnb.  We are definitely enjoying the relaxed pace of our time here.