The Hungarian University of Dance (formerly State Ballet Institute) celebrates its 70th anniversary. The first part of the gala show will be the Hungarian premiere of Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht, presented by the graduating ballet dancers, with the support of fellow students from lower years. The choreography is taught by Rebecca Metzger, a ballet master delegated by the New York-based Balanchine Trust, while the rehearsal coach is Katalin Volf, Kossuth Prize laureate dancer and artistic director of the University.
The second part of the evening comprises the chamber productions of schools for professional dancers, featuring young performers from Dresden, Istanbul, Ljubljana, Bratislava and Prague. They may come from different parts of the continent, yet they all speak the same language, that of dance.
The gala show ends with the performance of the university’s folk dance programme. The twenty artists of the final year will select from the works of choreographers who draw on folk dance but represent modern styles of dance theatre, such as János Appelshoffer, Zsolt Juhász, Szilvia Nemes and Béla Ónodi.

This performance of the Budapest Spring Festival is presented by Budapest Festival and Tourism Center as a joint program with Hungarian University of Dance.