Maria Fay was a renowned classical dancer and teacher who enjoyed a long
and fruitful association with Royal Ballet School after her flight from
Hungary at the time of the Hungarian uprising in 1956. This is Maria
Fay's third and final book published shortly after her death in 2019 and
covers the evolution of her approach to teaching character dance to
classical ballet dancers. First written some years ago, but never
published, it includes an entertaining narrative account, together with
descriptions and analysis of exercises for seven different character
dance styles: Hungarian Court, Polish, Hungarian Gypsy, Russian,
Romanian, Georgian, and Hungarian Peasant. Her particular system has
formed the foundation of classes taught in recent times at the Royal
Ballet School by her former students Amanda Maxwell and Tania Fairbairn.
This historical record of an important strand of work by the renowned
Hungarian dancer, teacher, choreographer and coach will be of interest
to the dance community worldwide.