Featuring:

Hungarian National Dance Ensemble

Director-choreographer:

Zoltán Zsuráfszky

Co-director:

Zsuzsa Zs. Vincze

Presented by Müpa Budapest and the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble.

Zoltán Zsuráfszky is one of the few artists whose life’s work encapsulates the development of an entire genre. He started out in the first folk dance class of the State Ballet Institute and has since played a defining role in Hungarian theatrical folk dance over the half-century he has spent as a dancer, choreographer, teacher and company director. From the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble through the Kodály Chamber Dance Company to the Budapest Dance Ensemble and the Honvéd Dance Theatre, and finally to the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble, his career traces an arc in which artistic consistency and continuous reinvention are present in equal measure.

Even as a young man, it was clear to him that there was far more to folk dance than just stage performance. For him, dance has always been connected to history, music, crafts, and the knowledge of local people and their communal memory. Field research has been an organic part of his journey from the very beginning: his field research in Transylvania, Gyimes and Szatmár, and among the Gorals and the Roma, has not only provided him with source material, but also reinforced the view that tradition is in fact a web of active connections.

© Cseke Csilla

As a choreographer, he has drawn on this living knowledge. In his works, respect for authentic folk dance does not mean rigid adherence, but rather provides a solid foundation for tradition to speak on stage, authentically yet freely. He has not only created performances but has also built a community around himself: he has built up companies, taught young dancers, and consistently maintained that folk dance remains a valid and powerful artistic language to the present day, thereby showing generations of dancers and audiences alike that Hungarian dance culture is not merely a legacy but a vibrant, contemporary art form.

Summing up an uninterrupted career of over 50 years is impossible, but what does he see as the key moments of this lengthy journey? “The various stages of a creative career are equally important. As a performer, a landmark moment came in 1982 when, at Miklós Jancsó’s invitation, I danced the choreography of One Sentence on Tyranny at the Kecskemét theatre. As a director, in addition to folk programmes, historical pieces are also of great significance to me: my wife, Zsuzsa Zs. Vincze, writes them for me – she has been my close working and creative partner for decades. Pedagogy is also closely linked to the creative process: I have never demonstrated what needs to be done on stage while sitting in a chair, but by moving in front of and among the dancers. This is one area where I am beginning to feel my age: the body sometimes tires, but as long as the creative urge remains, I have no cause for concern.”