He was born on 28 May 1944 in Budapest, Hungary. In 1962, after graduating from the Mechanical Engineering Technical School, he was admitted to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Budapest University of Technology, where he graduated in 1967 with a degree in thermal engineering.
He began to deal with folk dance and folk music more seriously in 1958, in the dance group of the University of Economics. His masters were Béla Halupa, György Manninger, Ferenc Novák and László Náfrádi. In 1964, in cooperation with other Budapest groups, they founded the Budapest Folk Dancers' Club in the HVDSZ Jókai Cultural Centre, which can be considered one of the initiatives and forerunners of the dance house movement. In 1965, in order to intensify dance activities, he transferred to the Bihari János Dance Ensemble led by Ferenc Novák, where he soon became the chairman of the social board. In 1968, he enrolled in the three-year course for folk dance assistants at the then Institute of Folk Culture, where he received a category B folk dance instructor's licence in 1972 (later changed to category A as a result of his ten years of work in Salma). In the meantime, Ferenc Novák gave him the task of assistant in the ensemble. He also created his first choreographies in the Bihar Ensemble.
In 1972 he went on a collecting trip to Transylvania with Jolán Foltin, Lajos Lelkes and Ferenc Novák. As a result of this experience, they decided to organise a dance club in Budapest as a continuation of the Budapest Net Dancers Club. The first one was held in the then Liszt Ferenc Square Book Club, in collaboration with the young people of the Bartók, Építők and Vasas ensembles. From the beginning, Ferenc Novák assisted in the creation of the Szeged International Trade Union Folk Dance Festival gala performances. She has taught folk dance to various Hungarian and foreign ensembles. In this capacity he was invited to become the artistic director of the Avas Dance Ensemble in Miskolc in 1974. In the meantime, he continued to work as an assistant and active dancer in Bihari, in addition to his engineering profession.
In 1976 he moved to Miskolc and became involved in the county dance scene. He organized the stage and traditional dance movement, initiated and carried out collections. Later he was entrusted with the supervision of the county folk dance. In order to make the collecting work more efficient, he and his colleagues founded the BAZ County Folk Dance, Folk Music and Costume Research Unit, which continuously cooperated with the Folk Dance Department of the Institute of Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was an active participant in the county programmes of the folk art competition "Fly Peacock!" organised by MTV. In 1978, he became the artistic director of the High School Students' Self-education Circle ("KÖDMÖN"), which was founded in Miskolc at the time.
In 1979 he was commissioned by the Avas Ensemble to write the gala performance of the Szeged International Trade Union Folk Dance Festival and to choreograph the two-part show. The programme was titled "Fair" and was performed on the big stage at the Dóm Square. In 1979, he was invited to become the artistic director of the Vasas Dance Ensemble in Budapest, a position he first took on while continuing to direct the work of the Vasas Ensemble and KÖDMÖN. In 1980 he moved back to Budapest. In addition to leading Vasas, he was given the task of organising and managing the Professional House of Folk Dancers, a national folk dance and folk music methodological centre, which was being set up under the auspices of the Hungarian Institute of Culture. He was the director until 1987, when he was replaced as vice-chairman of a small cultural cooperative that had been set up in the meantime, on the grounds of conflict of interest. He then continued to work as a member of staff at the House of Professionals. Meanwhile, in 1983, he worked for a year as an assistant folk dance instructor with the People's Army Art Ensemble. In addition to leading the ensemble, choreographing and methodological work, she developed links with tourism and related major events. From the beginning, he was involved in the organisation and implementation of the folklore programmes of the Budapest Spring Festival, he was an advisor to the IPV, and from 1984 he organised the Budapest Folk Art Days for four summers.
In 1990, Ferenc Novák asked him to become the chief engineer of the organisation and technical department of the Honvéd Ensemble, which allowed him to return to his original profession, but he also took part in artistic work. In 1992, he and Ferenc Novák founded the KOREOART Cultural and Service Company, which organised major cultural events (Passion of Galga, 1993 Dance House Meeting, Spring Party in the BS, Millennium Festival in Heroes' Square in 1996, opening event of the European Athletics Championships, Millennium Festival 2000-2001). He managed the affairs of the company as managing director without any employees.
He is currently chairman of the board of trustees of the Vitas Song Foundation, established in 2000. The Foundation's mission is to support the creative and performing activities of the Honvéd Ensemble, to preserve and archive the artistic values created, to provide professional training for the members of the Ensemble, to organise major folk art events, to research and collect cultural and folk art values, and to support activities related to national and ethnic minorities in Hungary and Hungarians living beyond the borders of Hungary.
[2016]