We’re all from Portland, Oregon, and Beaverton, Oregon (just next door to Portland).

The group started, as I remember, in 1983. Cindy (my wife) and I were charter members. A dance teacher at OSU, Kathy Kerr, had attended a symposium in New Jersey (?) and had brought back the Széki dances and taught them to us, and we wanted to “keep them alive” by getting together regularly to practice. Performing them evolved naturally from there.

We are a small group, currently four couples and two women. We are always looking for new members, naturally, so twice a month, on first and third Saturdays, we have táncház (recorded music, except for live táncház about twice a year), where we do teaching in the early evening, then dance until late evening. We try to have at least one workshop each year, usually in the fall. Last year, Zoli Nagy did the workshop (Mezőkölpényi dances).

The group is run democratically, which sometimes means chaotically. We developed our own choreographies in the earlier years, and in the last 5–8 years we’ve bought professional choreographies from Sándor Tímár, Sándor Román, and Zoli Nagy. The women have gotten choreographies and songs from Erika Bakonyi. We’ve had only one Hungarian/American in the group over the years (he’s left now, busy with his family and job), but everyone in the group is highly interested in Hungarian culture, dance, and song. Some of us are able to speak enough Hungarian to sometimes let the Hungarians know what we’re thinking, and mangle the language enough to amuse them.

We have a very good relationship with the local Hungarian society, who are our very best audience, and who have been generous in supporting our group. Lajos Eltető, the head of the German department at Portland State University, has been especially kind.

A number of us go to Barátság and TiTi Tábor, and Cindy and I and Larry and Karen (one of the other couples in the group) have been to Hungary for vacation and the Táncháztalálkozó.

Our biggest performance of the year is at the Folklife Festival in Seattle, Washington. About 200,000 people attend the festival over four days, and there are 15–18 stages that run at the same time (depending on the year), along with hundreds of small acts that occur on the lawns, under the trees, and in corners of the terraces. We generally perform on Saturday or Sunday, usually with Jómóka accompanying us (Jómóka is a táncház band from Salt Lake City that has been playing together for many years, and if you’d like a great táncház, bring them to your city; make sure you say “Hi” for me to Brian, the prímás, Bonnie, the kontrás, and Craig, the bőgős and cimbalmos).