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Éva Maria Kish

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Éva Maria Kish

BACKGROUND

Information: Éva Maria Kish, teacher of Hungarian dance.


Éva Maria Kish (Kis) was born in Hungary. While being best known in the Minnesota Hungarian community as the dancer who teaches and runs the program at the Minnesota Hungarian's folk dance parties (Táncház), she is well-known throughout the United States as an expert in Hungarian folk arts having choreographed and taught from San Francisco to Boston. Locally, she is a resident choreographer for the Ethnic Dance Theatre and serves as Chair of the Encore Dance Theatre (EDT) Board. Éva completed bachelor's and master's degrees in education before studying in Budapest at the State Ballet Institute's Folk Dance Department and was a guest artist with the Bartók Ensemble under the mentorship of Sándor Timár. Éva also gives beginning Hungarian language lessons in the Twin Cities.

The EDT is the only professional international dance company in the Upper Midwest (and one of only a few in the entire USA), dedicated to the artistic performance and preservation of world music, song, and dance. EDT has brought more than 50 different cultures and traditions to life in colorful and spellbinding performances. With a company of 25 dancers performing to live music by the EDT Folk Orchestra, EDT's extensive repertoire of folk dances and music includes such diverse countries as Austria, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Costa Rica, Pakistan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Tibet, Turkey, and Ukraine. Each year, the company presents over 300 programs, including performances, smaller ensemble programs, school workshops, residencies and informances. In celebration of the enduring nature of folk dance as a participatory activity, the company also hosts annual community dance parties where audience members explore their own cultural traditions as well as those of others through dancing and cuisine.

Éva was a guest performer with the VDSz Bartók Béla Dance Ensemble, Budapest, Hungary; is a founding member of Banevolks folk dance group, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana; founder of Eszterlánc Hungarian Folk Dance Ensemble, San Francisco, California; founder of Forrás Non-Profit Association, Boston, Massachusetts; and a recipient of the Jerome Foundation Research grant to Hungary.

Éva married Dr. Robert A. Hoerr on October 10, 1981.

She taught at Moshe Eskayo's IFC Winter Folkdance Festival in Holiday Hills, Pawling, New York.


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