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| A | Authentic folklore |
Selected Gala Program with Authentic
Folklore from the Hungarian Speaking Areas of Central Europe
One or two parts shows (program length
according to requirements, e. g. 2 x 40 or 2 x 50 minutes) especially
arranged for foreign audiences offering the most beautiful, exciting and
versatile examples of authentic village music, dance and song.
Ágas bogas fa (A Tree with Many
Branches)
This one part program (60 minutes) joyfully
explores the folkore of the Central and Eastern European people. The dances,
songs and music of neighbouring countries presented offer a homage to
the many cross cultural influences of these ethnic groups whose destiny
must be of mutual understanding and respect of each other’s culture.
Jeles napjaink - Folk Customs: The
Famous Days
This performace (60 minutes in one or two
parts) depicts the famous Hungarian folk customs through the period of
a year:
Betyárok (Outlaws)
This theatrical composition (length 45
minutes) recreates some possible scenes of 5 famous Hungarian outlaws
from the last century. They are shown in real life situations and within
their cultural environment. The composition is a study in humanity, history,
emotions and above all folklore in an exciting theatrical setting.
Hungarian Wedding
This 40 minute composition recreates the
most beautiful moments of a Hungarian wedding. It is unique since it takes
the audience to different regions of Hungary where a specific custom of
the wedding is still alive.
Szerelmi varázslások (Magic of Love)
This choreography (10 minutes) explores
the relationships which root from the most magical phenomena of this world
called love. The musical and dance compositions focus on occurrences of
this phenomena in Hungarian folklore.
Csárdás! -
The Tango of the East
This is a brand new choreography especially
made for the North American tour presented by Columbia Artists Management
and Centrum Management in 2000. The program is now being prepared and
will soon be part of our Repertoire.
Bonchida
- háromszor (Bonchida Three Times)
Full length program featuring the songs, music and dances of one single
multiethnic village of Central Transylvania (Rumania). Living Hungarian,
Rumanian and Gypsy folklore illustrates the richness and variety of peasant
culture emerged over the centuries as well as the importance of mutual
cultural influences of different nationalities living together.
| B | Dance theatre based on authentic folklore |
Szárnyak zenéje (The Music of
Wings)
This 60 minutes composition is based on
Hungarian poems and special musical compositions which reach out to the
„world music" territory. Some compositions recall famous but universally
appropriate Hungarian poems, archaic dances like the fox dance and dances
to musical arrangements of themes like immigration, oppression and loneliness.
Egy mondat... (One sentence...)
55 Minutes program of Zoltán Zsuráfszki’s
own choreographies based on Hungarian poems.
| C | Special programs |
The Budapest Dance Ensemble also performs special dance house programs, improvising dances on stage and then involving the audience to participate with the dancers.
It also collaborates with leading amateur groups or other professional ensembles to create large scale thematical productions involving hundreds of dancers. Such productions were
The Shaman Festival at Szeged and the
Keleti táncvihar - Dance Storm from
the East,
a large scale major theatrical event resembling
the „Riverdance" concept and featuring many folk dances of nations
from the East besides Hungarian (i. e. Georgian, Russian, Romanian, Uzbeg,
Gypsy, Yakut). The production was first shown at the Budapest Spring Festival
on March 13, 1998 and was acclaimed by an enthousiastic audience of nearly
10.000 spectators.
The last large scale choreography of Zoltán Zsuráfszki with the participation of the Budapest Dance Ensemble was The Opening and Closing Ceremony of the European Athletic Championships in Budapest Népstadion, on August 18 and 23, 1998 with over 700 participants.