Folk singer Márta Sebestyén will receive this year's Dance House Award at the Saturday evening gala program of the 43rd National Dance House Meeting and Fairgrounds held this weekend. The artist will also perform at the venue of the event on Sunday, at the Papp László Budapest Sportarena as a guest of the Vujicsics group celebrating its jubilee, reports kultura.hu .

On the evening of Friday, April 5, the opening dance will be held in Fono, and on April 6-7, Saturday and Sunday, in the Papp László Budapest Sports Arena, fans of folk art and folk dances will be waiting for the largest live folk art event in the Carpathian Basin.

Those who are just getting to know folk dances will be shown the steps by virtuoso masters, while experienced dancers can freely enjoy the foot dances provided by the best musicians. During the three-day event, Hungary's outstanding folk dance and traditional ensembles, as well as folk artists from across the border, a total of more than a thousand performers will present themselves. In the Folk Art Showcase, you can meet the traditional object creation, as well as the fine and applied arts that feed from it.

Programmes

At the Aprók ball, everyone can try their hand at folk games and skill competitions, and in the program part of our Dance Traditions, the most folklore-rich landscapes of the Carpathian Basin and the national nationalities are presented. The Tücsökringató and Kőketánc, as well as numerous handicraft programs await the younger ones, and the Sarjú band plays music in the dance hall for the adolescent age group. On Sunday morning, 300 children's dancers will perform at the Magonc overture, and then dancers from all over the world will present Szék choreographies at the Minden Magyarok dance. The Vujicsics Ensemble and Márta Sebestyén, who are celebrating their jubilee, will also perform at the gala show, and then hundreds of dancers dressed in folk costumes, together with the general public, will evoke the atmosphere of the old village balls, which will be followed by the Össtantc.

Award winners

The Táncház Award was established in 2012 by the Táncház Egyesület and OTP Bank to recognize the achievements of all those who make the living folk tradition widely available. The Táncház Award and the Táncház Medals are given to personalities or groups who contribute to the success of the dance house movement as performers, educators, collectors or in any other way. In 2024, the Táncház Award and the Táncház Medals will be awarded in the framework of the cooperation of the Táncház Egyesület and the House of Traditions. The awards will be presented on April 6, at the gala program of the Dance Meeting, by István Berán, the managing representative of the Dance Association, and Miklós Both, the general director of the House of Traditions, at the Papp László Budapest Sports Arena.

Among the proposed candidates, based on the decision of the board of trustees, the folk singer Márta Sebestyén will receive the Táncház Award in 2024.

In recognition of their work for the dance house movement, they receive the Táncház Medal:

  • Budapest Capital Bartók Dance Ensemble (artistic directors: Anna Sánta-Bíró and Gergő Sánta)
  • Péter Galát – folk dance pedagogue, head of the Jókai Folk Dance Ensemble's Long-Steppers group
  • Tímea Nagy – folk dance teacher, artistic director of the Bulgarian folk dance group Martenica
  • Hédi Sztanó – television film director
  • Judit Tóth – folk dance teacher, artistic director of the Urban Verbunk Junior ensemble
  • Enikő Váradi – folk dance teacher, administrator of the Transcarpathian Folk Dance Ensemble

Cover photo: Folk singer Márta Sebestyén at the 25th Valley of the Arts festival in Kapolc, in the Muharay courtyard on July 24, 2015. Photo: Zsolt Szigetváry / MTI