About the Folk-dance Tradition in Prekmurje

Music and dance go hand in hand. The former sets adrenaline free, while the latter enables us to get rid of it through dancing and singing. This is the basis of folk music and folk dances as well. It is only natural that it doesn´t happen the same way everywhere. Different traditions incorporate different moves and feelings, and through this variety the set of motifs expands and grows in quantity.   

Rudolf Toplak and his wife, Alenka, discovered their love of the folk-dance tradition as early as their childhoods. Their love for the dance has been steady ever since and through the years they have strived to get to know the dances even better. Their aim was to put together a bouquet collection of dances, typical of this region. In order to achieve this, they started, in 2007, to collect the traditional folk dances and folk music of the region around Lendava. Several experts in the field supported their endeavour. Ten years later, they got the chance to continue their research, but this time it was in the region of Goričko.

The Toplak spouses´ aim is to uncover the traditional folk dances of the region, get to know them better and to hand over their knowledge to the younger generation so the folk dances of the Hungarian minority in Slovenia can become more accessible and popular to a wider audience.