Gizella Som, dancer and ballet master, former ballet dancer of the Hungarian State Opera House and teacher at the predecessor institutions of the Hungarian Dance University has passed away.
Gizella Som was born in Budapest on 10 October 1934. She studied at the Ballet School of the Opera House with Margit Kőszegváry and then with Ferenc Nádasi (1943-49). In 1968 she obtained a licence to teach basic acrobatics, and in 1974-1977 she graduated from the State Opera Institute as a dance teacher specialising in ballet, lifting and historical ballroom dancing.
She was engaged by the Opera House as a scholarship holder in 1949 and remained on stage until 1989, performing in all the company’s colourful repertoire and on its tours around the world. Her principal roles include The Three Great Swans and the Pas de trois from Swan Lake, Two Solo Flakes from The Nutcracker, Chopiniana and solo roles in the operetta Samson and Delilah. From 1966 she was the gymnastics coach of the most famous Hungarian sports club FTC figure skating department and later ballet master of FTC.
From 1968 she taught acrobatics as a ballet master at the State Ballet Institute and as an assistant to Károly Aszalós. From 1969 she taught acrobatics as an assistant teacher, and from 1 September 1973 she became a ballet master. In 1989 she was appointed associate professor. She accompanied five classes of folk dance classes as ballet master until her qualification examinations (1979, 1983, 1987, 1991, 1995).
From 1 September 1998, she was invited by the city of Crotone, Italy, where she had previously been a ballet master, to teach in Italy for nearly two decades. She compiled and put into writing the methodology of acrobatics and gymnastics and was also the head of the acrobatics working group in 1988-90. She also taught at the Wolfsegg International Summer Course.
Honours: For Socialist Culture (1980), Ministerial Commendation (1981), MTE Lifetime Achievement Award (2020).
The memory of the Master is fondly preserved!
