Freedom, in So Many ‘Words’ : Dance: The 70-member Hungarian State Folk Ensemble enjoys the opportunity to bring its ideas, as well as songs and movements, to Costa Mesa in modern and traditional forms.

Make no mistake: The fall of Soviet communism brought changes, including new artistic freedoms that have allowed a Hungarian choreographer to present a dance with an anti-government message.

Originally, “Dance Words,” created by Sandor Timar for his Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, was outlawed by the Communist government after only four performances.

“But now,” Timar said recently, “we can do it whenever we want to.” The 70-member song and dance troupe will do “Dance Words” and other pieces here tonight under the sponsorship of the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

Like the company’s other numbers, “Dance Words” is derived from traditional native steps and dances, most of them hundreds of years old, Timar said through an interpreter, on the phone from an early stop on the troupe’s three-month American tour.

The vocal accompaniment, however, departs from the norm: Dancers, somewhat like rap singers, shout words of protest written by Hungarian poet Laszlo Nagy. Nagy’s poem is about youths “looking for their place in the world” and decries “the Communist regime,” Timar said. He recited Nagy’s lines: “Let us go where we are needed . . . where we are happy.”

Since the 1970s, young people across Hungary have been happy to frequent nightclub-like “dance houses” where a resurgence in folk song and dance continues today, Timar said. He noted that the tanchez, or dance house movement, gave rise to “Dance Words,” which is performed in costumes resembling street clothes and is accompanied by the gardon, an instrument shaped like a cello but struck rather than bowed.

While his and other folk troupes worldwide aim primarily to preserve ancient folklore, Timar said his use of a modern concept reflects his conviction that ideas ultimately are more important than the means by which they are expressed. “The message is what matters. The main thing is what I want to say.”

The collapse of communism hasn’t been entirely positive, Timar continued. While the Hungarian government’s financial support of his troupe has not decreased, he said, inflation--this year at 20%--has increased everything from costume costs to salaries to touring expenses.

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All that has not forced a reduction in tour dates, however. The balance of the cost, Timar said, is made up largely by Columbia Artists Management Inc., which sponsors the troupe’s tours, and by private Hungarian foundations. In any case, Timar said he opts for democracy, and believes the current state of economic affairs is temporary, the result of a transition.

“I know that the present hardships are due to the last four decades of communism,” he added.

“Homeland” is the overarching theme of Tuesday’s program, designed specifically for this tour, the group’s fifth trek from Budapest to North America. The program is called “Elindultam Szep Hazambol” (“I Am Leaving My Nice Country”), after a song said to have been sung by Bela Bartok as he left his beloved native land for the United States.

“This has been a world problem for thousands of years--people leaving their homelands--and it is something everyone can understand,” Timar said. “Nowadays, for example, people are escaping from the former Yugoslavia, if they can.”

* The Orange County Philharmonic Society presents the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble tonight at 8 at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $13-$35 (student, military and senior rush: $7 for unsold seats, one hour prior to curtain). (714) 556-2787. The troupe performs Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. $12-$32. (800) 300-4345.