The rich and colorful pageantry of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, complete with dazzling costumes and choreography based on traditional Hungarian folk dances, will come to the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis next month.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest folkloric dance troupes, the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble will perform spirited and authentic folk dances accompanied by the music of a live orchestra playing traditional Hungarian instruments.

The event begins at 8 p.m. on Jan. 12 in the Mondavi Center’s Jackson Hall on the UC Davis campus.  Tickets are available from the Mondavi Center Ticket Office at (530) 754-ARTS (2787) or online at MondaviArts.org.

The event is part of the Mondavi Center’s Java City Global Beat series. There will be a pre-performance lecture featuring Barry Moore, president of Sacramento Folk Dance and Arts Council, in the Mondavi Center’s Studio Theatre at 7 p.m.

The Hungarian State Folk Ensemble was established in 1951 to collect and play authentic Hungarian folk music and to preserve the accompanying dances and traditional costumes by adapting them for stage performances.

“In the genre of staged folk dances, the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble is among the best,” the Washington Post wrote.  “Most impressive was the company’s ability to transmit across a large concert hall the intimate feeling engendered among a line of dancers who breathe together like a veteran string quartet.”

During the more than five decades of its existence, the ensemble has come to be regarded as one of the foremost touring companies specializing in folkloric material. The ensemble has performed in 44 countries across four continents before audiences of nearly 8 million people in regular tours of North America, Western Europe and Asia. The Ensemble gives approximately 100 annual performances in its home venue, the Corvin tér theater, in the Budai Vigadó.

The ensemble’s choreographies are all based on authentic dances, some of them collected in isolated villages and featuring elements that date back hundreds of years. The extraordinary folk music that inspired classical composers including Franz Liszt, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály is put on stage by live musicians in two ensembles, the Folk Orchestra and the Gipsy Orchestra. The members of the Folk Orchestra play authentic, traditional instruments and perform Hungarian folk music to accompany the dancers, while the Gipsy Orchestra plays both dance accompaniments and concert music by Liszt, Kodály, Bartók and Johannes Brahms.

The program for Hungarian State Folk Ensemble’s Mondavi Center performance includes the 15-part suite titled “Hungarian Concert.” The piece is subtitled “Homage á Béla Bartók” in tribute to the great 20th-century Hungarian composer who was also a pioneering ethnomusicologist. The material includes traditional couple’s dances, czardas and war dances.

“The Hungarian State Folk Ensemble is well-established as one of the finest touring folkloric companies, and we look forward to presenting their vivacious and colorful program of traditional Hungarian music and dance,” said Don Roth, the Mondavi Center’s executive director.