Recruit dances (verbunk, verbunkos, verbuňk)

Verbunk, verbunkos, verbuňk. What do they have in common? They all come from the German word Werbung, meaning recruitment. Verbunk was a dance, with which Hussars showed off their skill and agility to attrackt new soldiers for their regiment. The verbunk originates in a time before the military reforms of Joseph II of Austria, who changed the way of recruitment in a way that each regiment received a fixed are of land from which it drew it's recruits. Before that bands of recruiters just roamed around and tried to attrackt new soldiers in village pubs, at markets etc. Because hussars cut the most dashing figure in their colourful uniforms, they were frequent recruiters, as they appealed to naive country lads more than other, plainer Austrian uniforms. This is why the verbunk is closely associated with hussars. This however changed at the end of the 18th century and in certain areas the verbunk simply became either a dance that men would perform before joining the army or it became a popular folk dance amongst the peasent population. The word verbunkos (also hongroise or ungarischer Tanz) is used when talking about the style of music that accompanies the dance. This is most often a newer style of Hungarian folk music played by cimbalom bands in a 4/4 tact of various tempos. Most often it starts out as a slow or moderate tempo (lassú in Hungarian) and then switches to a faster tempo (friss). There are many regional variations of the verbunk dance, it is known throughout many lands of the former Kingdom of Hungary, especially Slovakia, Hungary and Transylvania. Romanian lads dances are similar in appearance, yet I wouldn't group them together with verbunk. When I say Transylvania, I specifically mean the dances of the Szekely Hungarians, which are specifically called verbunk (Széki verbunk from Sic, Felcsíki verbunk from North Ciuc). Sometimes the music is accompanied with singing by the dancer. Although nowadays this doesn't always hold true anymore, an important characteristic of the verbunk is that it is an improvised dance. Even if danced in a pair or in a group, each dancer should improvise for himself and not use a set coreography. Even though the figures in the dance are usually set and vary regionally, the intensity and order in which the dancer employs them, how often he repeats them, how much he moves about - this all should be an expression of the individual dancer's skill, character and temperament. Modern folklore groups sometimes create a uniform coreography for a whole group of dancers, but that defeats the original purpose of the verbunk: individual expression and showing off. After all the dance was also used to impress girls by showing your health and trength. The use of set coreography seems to be most common in Slovakia, to some degree in Hungary as well, altough in the latter case it's usually the use of common patterns. It has become usual to learn in dance schools certain figures following each other in a certain way, but one is not obliged to use them only in that way. 

Here are two examples of the most common form in Hungary, the magyar and szatmári verbunk with its characteristic melody accompanying it.







Next are two examples of the Szekely from Transylvania in Romania. The Széki and Felcsíki verbunk, both of which employ a music distinct from the previous two examples.






Next is an example of a verbunk from Slovakia, more specifically from the area of Zámutov.