Popular dance music elements in the folk music of Gypsies in Hungary

Abstract

Gypsy folk music is of a distinctive character compared with that of the other East European ethnic communities. The pecularities differentiating it from these other forms of folk music – improvisation and a readiness to adopt new influences – have continued to be of significance. While in several cases the folk music of peoples who have established themselves in national states is kept alive by artificial means (e.g. by promoting folk singing groups, by teaching folksongs in schools and by various revival movements), the vast majority of Gypsies have preserved their traditional music as an almost exclusive musical language.

Kalbeliya Dance from Rajasthan: Invented Gypsy Form or Traditional Snake Charmers’ Folk Dance?

“…After a while, people started to like our dance, and now we have good food and clothes every day. (S. Sapera, interview, 2012) 32 In India, multiple local artist communities 33 have now ostensibly reified and commercially transformed their former nomadic lifestyle in an assimilation process referred to by Kovalcsik (1987, 47) as a “ Gypsifying process.” In particular, artist communities associate themselves with other imagined “gypsy” communities because it is socioeconomically beneficial for them to be affiliated with the “Gypsy world.” Benefits for Kalbeliya dancers and their families range from being remarkably wealthier, 34 having more access to education, 35 achieving social and economic emancipation of women, etc 36 . Following the example of Gulabi, many Kalbeliya families willingly exoticized themselves as Gypsy performers beginning in the 1990s.…”