Táncház method: a Hungarian model for the transmission of intangible cultural heritage (2011)

The Táncház method provides a community educational and entertainment occasion for the acquisition of various elements of local intangible cultural heritage (folk music, folk dance, poetry, traditions, hand crafts, etc.) by transplanting them into an urban cultural context. The essence of the method involves learning these heritage elements directly from the bearer communities and from archive sources with the guidance of ethnomusicologists, ethnographers and folk dance field research.

Participants have an active role in the process – becoming members and perpetuators of the traditional community culture while learning and having fun. The direct hands-on method of acquisition allows for the local culture to become part of their way of life. Thus, participants become the bearers, transmitters and re-creators of the heritage. The 40-year-old revival movement spurring the method developed in the 1970’s in Budapest.

On 25 November 2011, the Táncház method was selected for inscription on the UNESCO Register of Best Safeguarding Practices.

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