Gyula Glaser

The feet magician

When a sixteen year old Gyula Glaser sat in front of the TV one day, he couldn’t believe what he saw –the magic of fast moving feet, pure rhythm and precision – he had to learn it too! And he found the best Irish dance teachers in his hometown of Budapest who had been dancing with Lord of the Dance and Dancing on Dangerous Ground: Ronan Morgan and Stephen Scariff.

His talent and ambition were soon noticed and he had his first stage experience with the Ronan Morgan Dance Ensemble which took him to the most prestigious houses of Hungary. But more success would follow when he won three European titles and qualified for the World Championships in Belfast.

The Northern Irish capital would turn out to be his favorite Irish city – not only because of the full Irish breakfast which he enjoyed EVERY morning – but also because of two important auditions.

Encouraged by this success, the desire to be a professional dancer grew in Gyula and he was lucky. Gaelforce Dance hired him for a several month long tour through Ireland and Europe and shortly after, he would dance the role of the „devil“ in the production Magic of the Dance that would bring him as far as Holland and Taiwan.

An absolute highlight was to dance in front of Leonardo DiCaprio and meet Liam Neeson backstage at the Cinema for Peace gala. But one of his big dreams was to be part of the creation process of a show and Brendan De Gallai would give him the chance with Noctú: Out of hundreds of dancers he was picked to tour Ireland and spend one month at Off-Broadway in New York in 2011. A key moment of this adventure was standing at ground zero on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Today Gyula lives in Berlin where he is choreographer and soloist of the Irish Beats Dance Company and the production Cornamusa – World of Pipe Rock and Irish Dance. He is also program coordinator of the Irish Festival Berlin and Camp Rince Berlin.

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