Dyenesh, Valeria

Valeria Dyenesh in the 1910s.

Valeria Dienes ( Hungarian Dienes Valéria , nee Valeria Geiger ; May 25, 1879 , Szekszard - June 8, 1978 , Budapest ) - the ancestor of free dance and modern dance in Hungary . She studied mathematics, philosophy and aesthetics at the University of Budapest , studied psychology at the Sorbonne , where her professors were Henri Bergson and Pierre Janet ; received a Ph.D. She published two books on psychology, thereby becoming one of the origins of this science in Hungary. Translated the works of Bergson.

Especially influenced by the dance of Isadora Duncan , whose first solo concerts took place in Budapest at the beginning of the 20th century , and the gymnastics of brother Duncan Raymond. Dyenesh, with her psychological and aesthetic education, understood the inexhaustible possibilities of free dance for human development. For many years of work in this area - from 1912 to 1944 - she managed to create her own direction, called her Orhesztika , where there was a place not only for dance , but also for poetry, history, religion, choral movement, improvisation, and finally, her own teaching method. In 1915-1944 (with the exception of emigration in 1919-1923) she headed the Orchestics School.

Valeria Dyenesh worked as a dancer and choreographer , created dances for music ( Bartok , Beethoven and others) and poetry ( Mihai Babich , Rabindranath Tagore and others). In April 1917, she staged the very first performance of "Hungarian Free Dance." This was followed by the “Princess who never laughed” ( 1919 , to the music of Guy Koz), the dance about the post-war thirst for peace “Waiting for the dawn” ( 1925 , to medieval Greek music), “Three portraits of poets” ( 1930 ), dances on biblical motifs , historical dramas - "Saint Emeric" ( 1930 ), "Lady of the Roses" ( 1932 ), "The Fate of the Child" ( 1935 ) and others.

The work of the “founding mother” of the Hungarian free dance was continued by students - Shara Berchik, Eva Kovacs, Gideon Dyenesh, Agnes Sollosi, Judit Karman and others. Despite the fact that in communist Hungary free dance studios were closed, thanks to the efforts of the second and third generation of dancers, the tradition was preserved. In the 1990s, the restoration of the Hungarian plastic school became the task of the Budapest group “1 More Movement Theater” and the Orchestics Foundation, created to preserve the cultural heritage of Valeria Dyenesh.

Son - Zoltan Pal Dyenesh (1916-2014), Hungarian mathematician, psychologist and teacher ^[1] .