“This will be the best day ever,” one of the youngest dancers from Apátfalva participating in the Dancing on the Square project already proclaimed right at the start of the regional dance rehearsal. We hope the young man felt the same way at the end of the day.

A great deal of preparation goes into the 16 June performance in the square outside Saint Stephen’s Basilica, in the heart of the capital, featuring hundreds of children and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. The children have been learning the choreography for the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 since February – and it is not an easy one! Bertalan Vári, lead choreographer of the Dancing on the Square project, has once again given the team a good workout, and will turn the kids into real little contemporary dancers by the summer.

To make the event a success, we organise regional meetings each spring, rehearsing the dance with several groups at each. We have already visited Vásárosnamény, Apátfalva and Salgótarján. Two outstanding educators, Andrea Csenteri and Benjámin Losonczi, are the hosts of the rehearsals this year, and we must say: they work wonders with the children, most of whom come from disadvantaged regions. Thanks to the expert guidance, they start to soar before our very eyes.

We are also joined at each location by the terrific team of the Foundation for Democratic Youth, who help make it as natural as possible, and as efficient as possible, for the kids to collaborate with and pay attention to one another. And not only while Dancing on the Square – but at any point in their lives. They get in tune for the dance through shared playtime, concentrating and paying attention and by spending quality time together.

In Apátfalva, we not only held a rehearsal, but also had a surprise in store for the teams: local young people welcomed their visitors with a very cool zither performance. Enjoy the best moments of the Apátfalva regional meeting, as captured in the photos of Fanni Benkő-Molnár.