Gábor Mihályi

Gábor Mihályi was born in the town of Jászberény in 1958. His career is closely linked to the Hungaraian State Folk Ensemble, where he served as a solo dancer (1982-1995), acting artistic director (1998-2001) and later as dance troupe director (1998-2001). Between 2002 and 2016, he worked as the artistic director of the Hungarian Heritage House – Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, becoming head of the ensemble in the summer of 2016. He is a graduate of the Hungarian Dance Academy with degrees in folk dance pedagogy (1992) and choreography (2007). Under his artistic leadership, the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble won the Béla Bartók Commemorative Award in 2006, the Prima Award and the Prima Primissima Audience Award in 2007 and the Pro Budapest award in 2014.

Since the early '90s, aside from his work with the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, he has worked as a choreographer for the Jászok Ensemble, the Udvarhely Folk Dance Studio, the Háromszék Dance Ensemble, the Danube Art Ensemble, as well as Szolnok's Tisza Dance Ensemble. He has choreographed, edited and directed numerous major productions, notably the Danube Carnivals and various cultural programmes for national holidays and celebrations. He has won choreography awards at several dance festivals and is also a three-time winner of the Hungarian Dance Association's Choreographer of the Year Award (in 2000, 2009 and 2013), while also receiving the EuróPAS Hungarian Dance Award (2007), the Zoltán Imre Award (2011) and the Seregi Award (2016) and being named an Eternal Member of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble (2011) and an Artist of Merit (2014).