György Szakály, Kossuth Prize- and Liszt Ferenc Prize-winning dancer, Merited and Outstanding Artist, master artist and permanent member of the Hungarian State Opera, former ballet director, permanent member of the Society of Immortals, and former rector of the Hungarian Dance University passed away in August 2025. The outstanding artist was born in Nyíregyháza 70 years ago on December 15, 1955.
György Szakály was one of the most influential masters and leaders of the Hungarian Dance University over the past decades. He launched the careers of numerous outstanding ballet artists and educators, who remember him with deep respect and gratitude.
Photos by HDU
For this reason, the Senate of the university unanimously decided that the largest ballet room, soon to be inaugurated on the roof level of Building C on the Hungarian Dance University’s Zugló campus, an energetically renewed facility expanded with four brand-new ballet rooms, will be named after György Szakály. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the master’s birth, the university thus wishes to pay tribute to the memory of the great ballet artist, ensuring that future generations of dance artists in the decades to come will become familiar with both his name and his exceptional, exemplary career.
One of György Szakály’s main goals was to ensure that, like other art forms, dance education would also take place at the university level. The transformation of the Hungarian Dance College into a university, which was realized in 2018, was largely due to his efforts.
In recognition of his artistic achievements, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in 2009, and in 2014 he received the Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit.
