“Creative experience is founded on the realisation that we are able to build something out of nothing. It is the ability to become something more. Communal creation is uplifting because it blurs borders. Accepting ourselves and others is all about experiencing our oneness while not being ashamed of our differences.”

Kriszta Bódis, CEO of the Van Helyed (You have a Place) Foundation, Ambassador for the Dancing on the Square project

Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra launched their Dancing on the Square project in 2015. This initiative is concerned not only with music and dance, but also with mutual acceptance, tolerance, respect, and the exploration of common values and experiences.
The children are the most important participants in the project; they become real heroes for the day when they dance together in Heroes’ Square to the music of the Festival Orchestra. They work for months towards a common goal, getting ever closer to each other, and they enjoy the fruits of being part of a real creative community.

In 2018, we will be organising the fourth of our free grand open-air concerts, to the delight of the community that has grown up around the concerts and the children. The participating schools are with us in wanting to make the mixture of those dancing together as wide as possible. By including many Roma and non-Roma, disadvantaged and better-off children, we enable them to feel accepted through their common experiences.

Besides the weekly dance rehearsals, we organise regional meetings and cooperate with the Foundation for Democratic Youth to strengthen community bonds and social skills. We also give the children the opportunity to meet the BFO’s musicians and thus bring them even closer to classical music.

We believe that music can build special relationships among people regardless of gender, social status, ethnic background or linguistic differences. Besides that, it teaches us to cooperate, to be open and to pay attention to one another.