The Honvéd Dance Company was born in Bartók's and Kodály's spirit in 1982. As Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály brought folk music from its authentic appearance to the concert stage so did director-choreographer Ferenc Novák, founder of the group. From the elements of folk dance he created drama on stage. He managed to win young artists as partners for his work: he succeeded in engaging at Honvéd Ensemble nearly the entire graduating class of the Academy for Dance making dance history with this step. He founded the Hegedős Ensemble to provide musical accompaniment to his dances.

With his dramatic works for dance theatre Novák created a new school and a workshop where many young choreographers get the opportunity to show what they know.

Several of his students venture daring, experimental projects creating expressive or even surrealistic choreographies from the authentic material.

The „mother tongue” of the group of 35 dancers is the folk dances of the Carpathian Basin. They build up their manifold repertoire including grandiose dance dramas, folk comedies, classic tragedies, fairy tales etc. from the elements of this language.

Beside the common roots, all their works are distinguished by exceptional dynamic, the virtuosity of the dancers, the spectacular scenery and the rich colours of authentic folk costumes.

That is why the world famous dancer, Pina Bausch invited the Honvéd Dance Company to the international celebration of her company's anniversary in Wuppertal.

The Honvéd Dance Company has been travelling the world for the past ten years now. As representatives of Hungarian culture they performed at the world expo in Sevilla and Lisbon and at numerous festivals of the world from Montpellier to Mexico City, from Thessaloniki to Johannesburg. During the last five years they performed on 43 occasions in 19 countries including Sweden, China, Israel and Australia.