Celebrated soloists from the ballet companies of La Scala in Milan, the Bavarian State Opera, the Paris Opera, and the Vienna State Opera join the principal dancers of the Hungarian National Ballet for the tenth ballet gala held in memory of Iván Nagy. The prestigious event, taking place at the Hungarian State Opera on 14 June 2026, also features the Hungarian National Ballet Institute and the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Marcell Dénes-Worowski.
With a jubilee gala featuring more ballet stars than ever before, the Hungarian State Opera pays tribute to the memory of Ivan Nagy, who, as a celebrated dancer of American Ballet Theatre, Director of the Chilean National Ballet, and Chief Artistic Adviser to the Hungarian National Ballet, represented throughout his career the highest international standards, elegance and artistic excellence of classical ballet.
Representing the Ballet of La Scala are principal dancer Nicoletta Manni, the company’s first-ever étoile, and principal dancer Timofej Andrijashenko. Widely admired for their exceptional stage partnership and also partners in private life, they will perform Viktor Gsovsky’s celebrated Grand Pas Classique, first presented in Paris in 1949.
The Bavarian State Ballet will be represented by internationally acclaimed principal dancer Julian MacKay, the first American to complete the full programme of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. The multi-award-winning artist became the youngest principal dancer in the history of the Mikhailovsky Ballet in St Petersburg at the age of just eighteen. Following a two-year engagement in San Francisco, he has been a principal dancer with the Munich company since 2022. He will be joined by Brazilian soloist Carollina Bastos, who completed her studies in Munich and has been a member of the company for ten years, serving as a principal dancer for the past eighteen months. Together they will perform an excerpt from Marius Petipa’s Don Quixote.
From the Vienna State Ballet come principal dancer Madison Young, who returned to the company last year after several years away, having also achieved principal status at the Bavarian State Opera, and Victor Caixeta. Caixeta was the first Brazilian dancer to join the Mariinsky Ballet in St Petersburg before becoming a principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet. He joined the Vienna State Ballet last year at the invitation of the company’s new director, Alessandra Ferri. The pair will perform the pas de deux from Le Corsaire, based on Petipa’s choreography and staged by Tamás Solymosi.
The Paris Opera Ballet sends two rising stars who both advanced to their current ranks this year. Principal dancer Bianca Scudamore and coryphée Shale Wagman, formerly a principal soloist with the Bavarian State Ballet, will perform another celebrated Petipa work, the pas de deux from The Talisman.
Among the principals of the Hungarian National Ballet, Maria Beck and Benois de la Danse Award-winning étoile Gergő Ármin Balázsi will perform the pas de deux from The Sleeping Beauty, returning to the repertoire in Peter Wright’s choreography. Principals and étoiles Maria Yakovleva and Louis Scrivener will present Wayne Eagling’s Duet to music by Wagner, while principal soloist András Rónai and coryphée Oya Natsuna, renowned for her exceptional turning technique, will perform the pas de deux from Boris Asafiev’s Flames of Paris. The evening will conclude with principals Tatyjana Melnyik and Motomi Kiyota performing Agrippina Vaganova’s Diana and Actaeon Pas de Deux, joined by the coryphées of the Hungarian National Ballet.
As tradition dictates, the gala will open with students of the Hungarian National Ballet Institute (HNBI), the ballet school of the Opera House. They will perform a polonaise and mazurka from the Paquita Suite. The Institute’s graduating student Lilla Emese Varga, a multiple prize-winner who will join the Hungarian National Ballet next season, will perform a contemporary choreography by Adrienn Rafai Vetési set to Portuguese fado music. As part of the evening’s wider exploration of dance traditions, audiences will also enjoy a performance by Maya Hegyi and László Budai, one of the leading couples of Argentine tango.
At the anniversary Iván Nagy Ballet Gala, artists from the world’s leading ballet companies, soloists of the Hungarian National Ballet and the next generation of dancers will together demonstrate the artistic excellence, professional rigour and stage elegance that the internationally acclaimed dancer and company leader embodied throughout his life.
Photo by Tamás Gács
