Prof. František Bonuš

Prof. František Bonuš (1919–1999), the father of Živana Vajsarová, was a teacher, collector, music and dance folklorist and a tireless promoter of folk art – above all folk dance.

He taught music folklore at the Faculty of Education of Charles University, was professor of folk dance at the Prague Conservatory and for more than thirty years taught folk dance at the Dance Department of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He collected Czech, Moravian and Slovak songs and dances, was a student and friend of Vratislav Vycpálek and Karol Plicka, and worked with many leading folklorists.

He founded one of the first Czech song and dance ensembles – the Josef Vycpálek Ensemble in Prague –, the children’s dance group Jaro and many others, and helped establish the professional Czechoslovak State Song and Dance Ensemble. An excellent pianist, he worked with the dance studio of Jarmila Jeřábková and with numerous ensembles abroad.

He is the author of the twelve-volume work Child and Dance, a major study of the Czech Beseda, many monographs on folk dances and other scholarly works. His collection of 32 dances from different regions was published in the USA as The Golden Gate is Open by Professor Edward J. P. O’Connor of the University of Connecticut.

František Bonuš was a Renaissance man, a charismatic personality whose passion for music and dance swept everyone along.

To mark his 100th birthday, the ensemble staged the commemorative performance Dance & Time at the Vinohrady Theatre in November 2019.