Romanian dances from Enyed area

There are 3 kinds of Romanians in Fehér county: the mocz, the mokány and the ones from Lapály.  In Nagyenyed and in the surrounding villages (Felenyed, Palacka, Magyarbago, Fugad) live the lapály Romanians.  Dances from these villages will be introduced during camp. 

The characteristics of the Maros-Küküllö area, especially around Enyed, are dominated by the interaction between the Hungarian and the Romanian dances.  The two populations preserved the interaction between the Hungarian and the Romanian dances.   The two populations preserved the different characteristics of their own culture even within the same village despite the fact that, going to the same village dances and using the same musicians, they knew each others’ dances to perfection.

The Romanian dances from this region have their own characteristics.  Their men’s dance, the spectacular haidau, which requires the most skill, not only became the national dance but also has connections to the slow men’s dances that led to the Eastern European couple dances as well as verbunk.  We can follow how the stick dance eventually fit into the dance order where, danced with a woman instead of the stick, it combined with the couple dances.  Very colorful motifs (figurázás) are still typical for this dance.

The purtata (walking-turning couple’s dance), danced to ardelenana-kolomejka music, is in a 9-10/16 uneven rhythm.  The invirtita (turning dance) occurs as a couple or in a special cases as a threesome dance (one man and two women).  The musical and structural characteristics of the invirtita are older than csárdás.

In the first half of the 19th century the newer style folk music with the csárdás gained a lot of territory influencing the Romanian’s couple dance culture as well.  This is when the hategana fast turning couple dance with upper accent evolved.