Press room Language Menu Menu - Expo 2025 Osaka - Hungary Pavilion - Business relations - News - Events - Miska Kitchen Bar - Wines of Hungary - Career - Visit Hungary - Contact Timár Dance Ensemble April 29 @ 19:00 - 20:00 Pop-up Stage Outer East Cultural events Sándor Timár (94) has been one of the most prominent figures in the field of Hungarian folk dance and choreography during the latter half of the 20th century. He has been a leading proponent of the so-called new folklorism movement, in the context of which he fundamentally redefined traditional notions of Hungarian folk dance. Inspired primarily by Béla Bartók’s oeuvre, his art is characterized by the staging of folk dance in its pure and authentic form, complemented by the structural and stylistic elements of classical European art music. Since 1979, Sándor Timár, his wife, Böske Timár, and their family have been countinuously invited year by year to Japanese universities to teach Hungarian folk dance. Over the past 46 years, thousands of dancers across Japan have had the opportunity to master Hungarian folk dance culture thanks to the unique Timár Method. Sándor Timár’s work has been recognized multiple times by the Emperor of Japan. At the personal invitation of the Japanese imperial couple, the dance ensemble founded by Sándor Timár had also the privilege to perform at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Sandor Timar passed away yesterday at 94 years of age. He was one of the most impotant person in the development of the tanchaz movement and the collection, teaching and presentation of Hungarian folkdance.

Here is a quote from Zoltan Kodaly re-posted a few hours ago by folkMAGazin, a reminder about how getting to know our neighbors’ music being an important step in knowing our own. This applies to dancing as well, and all cultural treasures of the Carpathian Basin and beyond. It’s something that I didn’t find that important when I was 18 years old but now at the age of 52 realize how crucial it truly is! Translation: “What is Hungarian in music cannot even be determined without a thorough knowledge of the music of the surrounding peoples; otherwise we may fall into the gravest errors… Therefore, first and foremost, we need to become acquainted with our neighbors so that we may see the boundaries of our Hungarianness as clearly as possible. But it is also worthwhile to know them for their own sake. Every people has created its own distinctive forms of beauty; in each we find something that does not exist in others. Thus we can only be enriched by it. Finally, nothing characterizes a people as much as its language and its music. No one can say that we have come to know our neighbors sufficiently so far. Only good can come from striving to see and understand them better through their music as well.” (Zoltán Kodály: “Neighboring Peoples” [after 1942]) – István Pávai: Zoltán Kodály, the Ethnomusicologist (folkMAGazin 2008/3)