Honvéd Ensemble

Artistic Direction: Ferenc Novák

Creation: 1948

The Honvéd Ensemble was founded in 1948 and has gained a worldwide reputation for the  quality of its work on the authentic folk repertoire of the peoples of the Carpathian Basin. The ensemble consists of several groups: the Honvéd Band, five choreographers responsible for research into folk traditions, the Honvéd Ballet, a group of actors, a choir and the Honvéd Dance Company. The ensemble performs five hundred shows every year, including fifty abroad. Antal Szalai and his Gypsy band are renowned for the virtuosity of their violinists. The band accompanies the dancers in the tradition of late nineteenth-century Hungarian “salon” orchestras. The Lindri Quartet represents the Hungarian folk tradition in songs and ballads. Women’s voices with a magical timbre sing the history of their people. The Armenisana Brass Band from Caransebes is a group of Romanian musicians who complement the show of Gypsy music with their wind instruments. Consisting of accordion, double bass, alto saxophone and taragot (a nineteenth-century wind instrument), the group improvises, leaving room for solos.

The Hegedös Ensemble was formed in Budapest in 1983. The name is a medieval word for a wandering minstrel or fiddler. The group plays authentic Hungarian music as well as that of other ethnic groups from the region. The players use traditional stringed instruments.

For “Black Pearls” (2001), the Honvéd Dance Company and its choreographers chose Gypsy dances from the Carpathian region as well as dances inspired by the Gypsy way of life.

Source: Dossier de presse Biennale de la Danse