“TÜNDÉRHON” – The Fairy Circus
The Baross Imre Academy of Circus and Performing Arts presents a truly special creation for the festival’s Newcomer programme.
Cast:
Leticia Jakab (aerial pole)
Ilona Dora Horvath and Janka Monori (hand to hand)
Matyas Korda (flying trapeze)
Daniel Kovacs (juggling)
Matyas Gurabi (wasinghton trapeze)
Blanka Nagy (aerial rope)
Molly Patricia Szeitl (foot juggling)
Petra Miknai and Blanka Munkacsi „The Petit Blanc Vertige” (rollerskate)
Mate Varga (aerial straps, aerial pole)
Andor Lorincz (ladder act)
Eszter Beres (ladder act)
Reka Bulyaki and Bianka Pesenyiczki (hand to hand)
Szamira Kaloczy and Fanni Karsai (chinese pole)
Virag Papp (multicorde)
Livia Andreka and Veronika Szanto (aerial straps)
Vivien Harle and Blanka Arki (hand to hand)
Mimi Punkosti (aerial rope)
Veronika Prosek and Boglarka Szanto „Duo Bora” (trapeze)
Laura Trizna (handstand)
Titanilla Beres (handstand)
Dancers: Bettina Boros, Reka Roman, Daniel Szabo, Marton Rusvai
Narration: Vivien Kitti Baranyai, Viktoria Maria Mohacsi, Violetta Jandacsik
Violin: Blanka Arki
Ensemble: 9th grade students of BIAK Academy
Light, sound and video: oktOpus Academy
Director: Gabor Denes Kovacs
Directed by Gábor Dénes Kovács, Tündérhon – The Fairy Circus is inspired by one of the masterpieces of Hungarian Romantic drama: Mihály Vörösmarty’s Csongor and Tünde. In a dreamlike landscape, flesh-and-blood heroes cross paths with fairy-like beings who seem to step beyond the usual physical limits of human existence. Told in two 50-minute acts, the production draws on the full expressive range of contemporary circus, enriched by the music and movement of Hungarian folk traditions. Through this blend of disciplines, the show gently leads us back to the great questions at the heart of the original poetic work.
What values guide a human life? What choices, temptations and trials await the travellers on the roads of Night, Dawn and Noon? And what wonders are promised by the golden apple tree planted by the fairies?
Rather than answering in words, the performance responds through images, movement and emotion. Fourty young artists of the Academy – many of whom are already building international careers – bring this fairy-world to life for the professional audience of the Budapest International Circus Festival.
Hungarian Circus Artist Training Today: BIAK Academy
The Baross Imre Academy of Circus and Performing Arts, now celebrating its 75th anniversary, is Hungary’s only professional institution dedicated to circus artist training. Over the decades it has become the country’s key centre for nurturing new generations of circus performers.
Since 2019, the Academy has undergone a major renewal in its structure, artistic vision and teaching methods. Under new leadership it has integrated the oktOpus Multimedia Institute, an affiliated school offering professional training in creative and technical backstage professions. Together they now form a dual-mission institution of around 100 teachers: at once an educational academy and a vibrant performing arts organisation.
A central aim of the Academy is to train the next generation of circus performers – and the technicians who support them – through complex performance projects and large-scale, interdisciplinary productions. Students are encouraged to think and work as an ensemble, discovering in practice the power of teamwork and collective creation.
The Academy regularly stages full-length productions in which circus is the primary artistic language, while theatre and dance play equally significant roles. These shows blend classical dramaturgy with elements of contemporary and new circus, broadening and enriching the rapidly evolving circus arts landscape.
With such multidisciplinary productions, the Academy has achieved remarkable success at the last two editions of the Budapest International Circus Festival. In 2022, its students brought Shakespeare’s timeless story into the ring with Midsummer Night Dreamers; in 2024 they created a circus adaptation of the beloved tale The Nutcracker. Young artists featured in these performances have since gone on to appear at major international venues such as Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, Cirque Imagine, Salto Show and Winter Gardens Blackpool.
Beyond its large-scale, genre-shaping shows, the Academy’s students have also distinguished themselves at leading circus festivals around the world. In the past three years they have won more than thirty awards at events including the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris, the Wuqiao International Circus Festival, the Italian Circus Talent Festival in Latina, the European Youth Circus Festival in Wiesbaden, the Budapest International Circus Festival and the Circus Princess Festival in Saratov.
The Academy also sees it as a core part of its mission to support non-professional organisations working in circus arts and to nurture individual talent. In 2024 it launched MANÉZS – the Hungarian Circus Talent Festival, which regularly offers hundreds of amateur artists the chance to perform and gain visibility.
As part of the 16th Budapest International Circus Festival, on 8 and 9 January 2026 at 11:00 a.m., the Academy will present the festival’s New Comer programme: a circus adaptation of one of the great works of Hungarian literature, the 19th-century dramatic poem by Mihály Vörösmarty. The production will be presented under the title Tündérhon – The Fairy Circus.