Spinder, Stephen : Budapest - through my lens
Budapest has always been a crossroads, a place where empires have come and gone, where diverse cultures have intersected. Today, some folks come to visit and stay a week. Others are sent by a parent company and leave upon completion of the contract. Still others, looking for a place to go, somehow end up here and find in Budapest a relatively low cost of living and an abundant market for teaching English. For me, the reasons were none of the above. As a dancer, I had become fascinated with the syncopated rhythms, the improvisational boot-slapping and body-whacking, the strength in whirling the women around, the machismo of traditional Hungarian folk dancing. When I saw it for the first time, in America, I remember saying, `Hey that's how I dance, what's it called?` I was invited to come see the real thing, in Budapest and in Transylvania. In the fall of 1991, despite the slow march of consumerism, I witnessed a surviving ancient folk culture in Mezőség, Kalotaszeg and Székelyföld, in
