Gábor Keveházi was born in Budapest on 25 February 1953. After his graduation from the State Ballet Institute (1970), he continued his studies at the Vaganova Ballet Institute, St. Petersburg for a year (1970–71). He was a member and principal soloist with the Hungarian State Opera House from 1972 to 1992. In this period, he danced almost all male main roles of the ballet literature. He won a gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition (junior category, 1972), and a silver medal in 1975 (adult category).

During his career as a ballet dancer he has danced at such prominent theatres around the world like Covent Garden, London, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Munich Staatsoper, the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre and the Kirov Theatre, St. Petersburg. During his career he gained some insight into the operation of the world’s leading classical ballet companies, and, in the meantime, he gained significant leadership experience and a wide international network of relations.

Gábor Keveházi is not only a ballet dancer, but also a creative artist. His choreographies, including Balinka (Music: Deep Forest), Cristoforo (Music: Béla Szakcsi Lakatos), Zorba (Music: Mikis Theodorakis) and Human Anthem (Music: Ludwig van Beethoven), have been performed with great success both in Hungary and abroad, e.g. in Mexico and Greece.

Gábor Keveházi was the director of the ballet of the Opera House from 1989 to 1992 for the first time. In 1992 he established the ‘Budafest’ Summer Opera and Ballet Festival, which is held every year with great success. From 2001 he was the director of the Pécs Ballet for four years, and with hard work he managed to develop the company to be renowned in Europe.

He was appointed to be the director of the Hungarian National Ballet on 1 August 2005 again. Under his directorship the company has premiered the following ballet performances: Past and Present (modern ballet gala, premiere: 4 March 2006), 3 Bartóks (modern ballet night, premiere: 31 March 2006), Gone with the Wind (premiere: 23 March 2007), Step by Step (modern ballet night, premiere: 26 May 2007), Passion (modern ballet night, premiere: 8 March 2008), Le bayadère (premiere: 15 November 2008), Balanchine Evening (premiere: 7 March 2009), The Karamazovs (premiere: 7 November 2009).

István Hiller has announced that the former and newly appointed Director of Ballet’s term is for five years."

Source: Opera.hu