A few weeks before his 83rd birthday, Imre Dózsa, Kossuth and Liszt Ferenc Prize-winning Hungarian dance artist, ballet teacher, ballet and theatre director, hereditary member of the Company of Immortals, university professor, former director general and rector of the predecessor of the Hungarian Dance University, hereditary member of the Hungarian State Opera House, president of the Hungarian Dance Artists’ Society and the World Association of Hungarian Musicians and Dancers, passed away. Another giant of the Hungarian dance scene has died, leaving an irreplaceable void in Hungarian cultural life and dance.
Imre Dózsa graduated as a ballet artist from the State Ballet Institute in 1959, and in 1963 he also graduated as a ballet teacher. Between 1959 and 1989, he was employed by the Hungarian State Opera House, and in 1963 he became a private dancer. In his first role he acted the Duke in the ballet The Nutcracker in 1961. In the same year he married ballet dancer Vera Szumrák, with whom he lived happily ever after.
Photos by Hungarian Dance University and Hungarian State Opera
As a true danseur noble, Imre Dózsa spent almost three decades as a soloist on the stage of the Hungarian State Opera House between 1959 and 1988. There he gave memorable performances in modern choreography as well as in the classical-romantic repertoire. As the director and ballet master of the State Ballet Institute, later the Hungarian Dance Academy, he guided the education of generations of dancers for two decades from 1979 to 1991 and from 1997 to 2006.
In 1968, he went to the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad (now the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg) on a six-month scholarship. From 1969 to 1974, he was a soloist at the Royal Swedish Ballet, and from 1975 to 1980, he was a guest soloist at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the Festival Ballet in London.
On the occasion of her 80th birthday, the doyen of Hungarian ballet presented a celebratory programme of his memorable roles, including a selection of classical and neoclassical concert scores. The gala performance at the Erkel Theatre included pas de deux from The ill-guarded Girl, The Flames of Paris, Seherezade and Spartacus, as well as Imre Dózsa’s Adagietto, choreographed to Mahler’s music.
One of the most prestigious scholarships awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation to support the professional work of dance artists bears the name of Imre Dózsa, Professor Emeritus of the Hungarian Dance University. Among his many awards and recognitions, he was awarded the Order of Merit of Hungary with the Star in 2019, 41 years after his Kossuth Prize.
The Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the Hungarian State Opera House and the Hungarian Dance University consider Imre Dózsa as one of their own dead.
Goodbye Master!
Cover photo by László Emmer
