Kertész Táncegylet, Budapest

The KERTÉSZ Folkdance Ensemble was founded in Budapest in 1972. We might say that it is as old as the Hungarian folkdance-house movement, which started out exactly in the same year. The KERTÉSZ Folkdance Ensemble celebrates its 30th years anniversary this year. The Ensemble was founded by teachers and students of the University of Horticulture and Food Industry of Budapest, who now have families with more children and who are brilliant dancers without exception. Our ensemble has been regulary performing at national festivals such as the Budapest Spring Festival and the Budapest Wine Festival. It has also been a regular participant at the national cultural festival of agricultural institutes, but we could also be seen at the Folkdance anthology, in the "Folkstage" programme of the Hungarian Television, in Hungarian rock operas - e.g. István, a király (Stephen is the King) and Attila, Isten kardja (Attila is the sword of Good) and also at the Opening and Closing Ceremony of the European Athletic Championship in 1998. Prominent choreographers like Jolán Foltin and Zoltán Zyuráfszky have been working with the ensemble, and it is Jolán Foltin, Ferenc Novák and Lajos Lelkes who had the most significant role in taking the amateur group to a high artistic level and making it a folkdance ensemble recognised nation-wide. The ensemble works at the St Stephan University it recruits its members mostly from the students of the institute, but students of other univesities and people who just graduated also attend the group. At present we are working with 16 couples, our artistic leader has been Gábor Katona for more than 5 years; he controls our development using his significant ballet, folk and conterporary dance background and with his remarkable dance artist career he is also a role model for us.