Articles by Initial Letters
Anca Giurchescu (1930–2015)
- Issue: 2015/4
- Starting page: 14
- Author: Felföldi László
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Anca Giurchescu 1930–2015. “Anca was an internationally renowned dance scholar from Romania. She grew up in Transylvania and then moved to the capital Bucharest, where she studied Rhythmic Dance at the University of Physical Education in 1949. In 1953 she took up a research position in the Choreology Department of the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore. Despite being prevented from continuing her studies several times by the communist authorities, she graduated in 1963. By the time she left the department in 1979 she was Head Researcher. During her time at the institute Anca contributed to the foundation and development of folk dance research in Romania, conducting fi eldwork in over 240 localities. As well broad-ranging research on dance, she investigated, from an insider’s perspective, the way traditional symbols were manipulated by communist cultural management for political power legitimation. In 1979 Anca defected from Romania and was granted political refugee status in Denmark, where she remained active as a dance scholar. She returned to her homeland in 1989, following the fall of the communist regime, to continue her research (started in 1968) on the process of transformation of the healing ritual Călus¸ and dance tradition of the Roma minority.” (from University of Roehampton, London – website) Anca also knew and worked with the great Hungarian folk dance researcher Martin György (1932–1983). Felföldi László’s tribute to Anca and her work includes a partial listing of her publications.