Ein Brief aus Budapest

In Hungary it pays to sit on cultural boards.  

While this may only be a postcard from Budapest, I will be the first to admit that new dance has only deserved a postcard or two worth of news in recent years. Mostly, the community just sits around and glances at one another suspiciously. But today, things are getting more exciting: we have some meat on the bone, so let’s get chewing.

A select group of Hungarian artists or their representatives have developed a flare sit on the boards of the countries funding bodies, with the result of leaving themselves more concerned with doling out cash to through their participation in various committees rather than doing what they should do best: creating. And what’s worse, yet not surprising, is that they seem to prefer doling it out to themselves.

Wake-up call

The wake-up call for the sleepy world of Hungarian dance rang this spring when the feisty local dance critic Sisso of the liberal weekly Magyar Narancs (translated, Hungarian Orange) outlined, in an article entitled “Misplaced millions (The decisions of the professional dance body),“ what she described as a professional battle between “conservatives and progressive elements“ played out ...