Horizont Nemzetközi Kortárstánc Fesztivál (Horizont International Contemporary Dance Festival) 2021 Miskolc (2021.08.24-28)

Article updated: 2022.04.07

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I was able to visit the Horizont Nemzetközi Kortárstánc Fesztivál (Horizont International Contemporary Dance Festival) 2021 dancing event on Miskolc, at 2021.08.24-28. At the dance festival, organised by the National Theatre of Miskolc, the visitors could watch dance performances from dance groups from multiple countries. There are also free open air concerts for those who wish to relax between the main events.

The Horizont International Contemporary Dance Festival event was founded in 2017 by the National Theatre of Miskolc, and since then this is the fourth time we have seen dance groups from all around the world coming to it.

In 2021, the following dance groups performed:

Contemporary Ballet of Szeged (Hungary), El Carromato (Spain), Eva Duda Dance Company (Hungary), Gangaray Dance Company (Hungary), Gergye Krisztián Company and Gloria Benedikt (Hungary), Grecsó Brothers (Hungary), Hodworks (Hungary), Miskolc Ballet (Hungary), MN Dance Company (Slovenia), Oriantheatre - Mehdi Farajpour (France)

image © Szeged Contemporary Dance Company	image © Eva Duda Dance Company
Szeged Contemporary Dance Company	Eva Duda Dance Company

image © El Carromato	image © Gangaray Dance Company
El Carromato	Gangaray Dance Company

image © Gergye Krisztián Company	image © Várkert Bazár
Gergye Krisztián Company and Gloria Benedikt	Grecsó Brothers

image © Hodworks	image © Miskolc Ballett
Hodworks	Miskolc Ballet

	image © MN Dance Company	image © Oriantheatre - Mehdi Farajpour
	MN Dance Company	Oriantheatre - Mehdi Farajpour

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Mozdulattalan némaság (Muteness with no motion) - Photo exhibition of Éder Vera

In the Chamber Theatre, there's an exhibition gallery from the works of Éder Vera, the official photographer of the Miskolc Ballet.

In the video above you can get glimpses into her works.

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Day 1 - Horizont Dance Festival 2021 (2021.08.24)

El Carromato: Big Dancers

image © El Carromato

I mostly missed the open air Big Dancers performance of the Spanish group El Carromato in the Déryné Garden, but what I've seen of it was interesting and a unique way of dancing.

While speaking to their choreographer (Adri Varo), he told me he is working on a new show based on lights and reflections, I'm looking forward to seeing that performance in the future.

"Big Dancers is a street performance featuring giant dancing puppets. An amazing show: think human sculptures, different geometric forms, lights creating a powerful visual impact.
These giant characters perform in their colourful costumes, flooding the streets with their “electro-energetic” music and positive energy.
The artists will collaborate with the audience to generate an atmosphere like a street party, whilst inviting audiences to dance along and have fun."

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The two other performances were grouped due to the similar theme of breaking taboos, although I've got to learn about this later, as I tend to not read the preview leaflets, as I prefer to avoid spoilers, although in this case it would have been useful to give an experience I can understand better.

Miskolc Ballet: Forbidden Paths

image © Miskolc Ballett

For our full review, read: Tiltott ösvények / Forbidden Paths by Miskolc Ballet, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.24)

The Miskolc Ballet performed Forbidden Paths, that was about a society that forbade touching each other, but there were some discontents who joined a community that was more forgiving about touching, and it allowed a boy and a girl to love each other. Their uniforms were interesting, and the music was good, and an essential part to understand the story.

Preview video about the Forbidden Paths performance

"Forbidden Paths is a dedication to those who are not allowed to dance freely. There are countries where it is forbidden by law to dance publicly, to touch each other, to practice the art of dance. American choreographer Garrett Smith created this production for Bruce Wood Dance Company in Dallas first, and Miskolc Ballet is the first dance company in Europe to perform this piece which emphasizes that the freedom of art cannot be restricted, we must fight to dance freely, to live freely."

Gangaray Dance Company: Agora

image © Gangaray Dance Company

For our full review, read: Agora by Gangaray Dance Company, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.24)

The Gangaray Dance Company used only female dancers in Agora, and a very dynamic performance. I have to admit that I didn't understand the story at all, but it didn't bother me either. For me, it was enough to enjoy the cavalcade of dancers, displaying their innate feelings and energy. I also loved the music that was written by the choreographer.

Preview video about the Agora performance

"'Agora' is the consecrated communal space for the ancient Greek, in Portuguese it means: now. „For me, this is a sacred place where where the faith, ideology, passion and hope of the community are intertwined, whose mother tongue is dance. The “sanctuary” where the members of the association respect spiritual values and the laws of the universe, where they protect nature and preserve culture, hold their own roots in high esteem, living the present but not forgetting the past. The encounter of this ancient value system with the present, that is, with the now. This is my agora. Pure dance, composing dimensions, rhythmic elegance.” (József Hámor choreographer)"

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Day 2 - Horizont Dance Festival 2021 (2021.08.25)

During the dance performances, there was an open air jazz concert outside in the Déryné Garden, by Dobrik Petra as singer, and Kovács Zoltán on guitar.

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Both of today's performances were done by the Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, and both used the same set of dancers. I congratulate them for their endurance.

Szeged Contemporary Dance Company: The Black Paintings

image © Szeged Contemporary Dance Company

For our full review, read: The Black Paintings by Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.25)

The first one was The Black Paintings. It had some story, but the performance mostly built on the dynamics of dance. There was one case of dividing the attention that I happen to prefer. The music was good, ominous. Despite the fake nudity of the dancers, I didn't feel it erotic at all. The costumes were wonderful.

"After the death of Spanish painter, Francisco Goya, fourteen frescoes were found on the walls of his Madrid home where he spent the last years of his life. In the images, powerful and haunting motifs emphasized the painter’s fear of mental disorder and his bleak vision of the fate of humanity. Linning brings Goya’s paintings to life, together with her vision of today’s society, and places them in the story of the battle between classical light and darkness. She shows us the struggle as we are searching for light and hope in the time of crisis, tyranny and desperation. Tuned into the supernatural music of Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 4, Nanine Linning drew inspiration from Hesiod: The Birth of Gods and from one of Goya’s arguably darkest, legendary series of The Black Paintings, entitled Saturn Devouring His Son.

In 2015, The Black Paintings was commissioned by Gauthier Dance. As a completion for the Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, Linning also choreographs a second part as the sequel of the short stories in The Black Paintings series."

Szeged Contemporary Dance Company: Blue

image © Szeged Contemporary Dance Company

For our full review, read: Blue by Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.25)

The second show was titled Blue. It was similar to the first performance, it also tried to build some story, but I think the music was a more essential part of the performance, and also, the use of special lights was an interesting choice that added to the experience. There were some moments of sexuality, but I didn't feel them erotic, they were mostly hurried, grotesque or brutal. The costumes looked nice, and they were an essential part of the performance.

"In the performance, the creators use the colour blue as a kind of symbol to build their piece around its myriad meanings. They simply colour the characters, and in this way, the play, created by the differences in colour and form between the groups and individuals, leads the audience to a wide range of associations. The performance shows the suffering and the desire for freedom of the human being trapped in societal conventions, the individual ambitions against him and the power of community that represses the presence of transcendence. The creators discuss the constant cycle of the alternation of two opposing worlds, the opposition of freedom and bondage, and at the same time their belonging together. Besides meaning a certain colour, ’blue’ in English also means ’being sad, being in a melancholic mood’. This multi-meaning explains the choice of title for the performance."

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Day 3 - Horizont Dance Festival 2021 (2021.08.26)

image © Dobrik Petra

Just like the previous day, there were free to attend open air concerts during the evening in the Déryné Garden. The first singer was Dobrik Petra, accompanied by Kovács Zoltán, then the show closed with Guido di Vona, who is also a member of the Miskolc Ballet. I liked both of them, and it was interesting to meet the singing side of Guido after watching his dance performance at Tuesday.

Oriantheatre - Mehdi Farajpour: KA-F-KA

image © Oriantheatre - Mehdi Farajpour

For our full summary, read: KA-F-KA by Oriantheatre - Mehdi Farajpour, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.26)

We couldn't attend to the KA-F-KA performance from Mehdi Farajpour, the founder of Oriantheatre, but others said it was interesting, some said it was outrageous. At least it made the audience feel some way.

"KA-F-KA is Mehdi Farajpour’s most autobiographic work in term of aesthetics, movement, rhythm and images. When watching the performance, the first question that comes in mind is: What does an exhausted body have to show? A dancer with dizzying head, muscular contractions, out of breath and balance caused by the fatigue of running backwards for about half an hour is only the very first image you would see in KA-F-KA.

KA-F-KA by Mehdi Farajpour is a free interpretation inspired by Frantz Kafka's famous text: Metamorphosis. Likewise FARAJPOUR’s other performances, KA-F-KA is also built up on an interdisciplinary (and not multidisciplinary) structure that means walking in between different disciplines instead of mixing them just for the sake of it."

KA-F-KA is the story of everyone and no one. A man, lost in the routine of his life, awakes to discover that he is transformed into another being. He suffers from isolation, solitude, hunger and pain, but yet keeps running all through his social-individual obligations."

Grecsó Brothers: More about Ourselves

image © Várkert Bazár

For our full review, read: Többet magunkról… / More about Ourselves by the Grecsó Brothers, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.26)

The More about Ourselves from the Grecsó Brothers was a unique kind of performance. Grecsó Krisztián read parts from his stories, then the musicians (György Andrea and Kertész Endre) improvised music for a scene based on the prose, that the dancers, Grecsó Zoltán and Temesvári Zsófia danced to. I have to admit that I didn't like the chosen dance style - some parts looked like they mime panels from a comic book, some others looked like a stop-motion movie with Barbie-dolls, while others felt like I'm looking at malfunctioning androids. The stories were interesting, though, and I really liked the music. Most of the performance was kind of depressive, but the final segment included some comical moments, and they involved a cute dog to enlighten the mood.

As I talked to the viewers after the show, some of them preferred the introspective nature of the performance, so while it's certainly not for everyone, More about Ourselves can be enjoyable experience for the right audience.

"The core of the performance consists of new, characteristic Grecsó prose, fresh poems, family stories and anecdotes, transformed into a magical theatrical experience by improvisatory jazz, „spur of the moment” contemporary ballet and the unmistakable movements of Zoltán Grecsó. The dialogue of literature and dance is unrepeatably different each and every night, but the special rhythm of responses, the ethereal game of lights and space and the proportions of art disciplines still provide a stiff framework to the performance. Just as the ironic rivalry of the brothers, dance and literary flicks also help the audience to experience recognition, since those generate such reflections of family stories in which the spectator’s own identity comes into spotlight.
More about ourselves is an honest, confessional and characteristically personal piece, employing the artistry and open-mindedness of the Grecsó brothers."

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Day 4 - Horizont Dance Festival 2021 (2021.08.27)

MN Dance Company: DE-SET

image © MN Dance Company

For our full review, read: DE-SET by MN Dance Company, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.27)

"DE-SET is set to mark the 10th anniversary of Michal’s and Nastja’s creative journey. The intertwining of dance, live music and attractive visuals will include some of the motifs from their past performances, which, in addition to a lively interest in human intimate and social essence, thematize archetypal issues of the relationship between her and him, and the energy that feeds that relationship. This energy is love, is art, is electricity between them. With their own dance style, characterized by exceptional consistency, perfection of movements and strong expression, they have combined their memories and past stories in a new conceptual form, co-created with musicians of the duo Silence, vocalist Boris Benko, and pianist Primož Hladnik, who also mark an anniversary this year, twenty years of their own joint creative journey."

Hodworks: Amber (18)

image © Hodworks

For our full review, read: Amber by Hodworks, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.27)

"The company’s latest piece – taking a sharp turn after the provocative tone of Another Dance Show from 2020 – returns to a calmer space and awaits its audience in a clean line-up with in-depth self-examination. The six dancers in the piece (Júlia Garai, Csaba Molnár, Balázs Oláh, Attila Rónai, Jessica Simet, Csaba Varga) form three pairs who pay no attention to anyone or anything other than each other. Often, they even lose themselves in their partner’s movements. In the three simultaneous partner dances of the piece, passion, intimacy and attraction become clear through the universal gestures of the human body, pushing verbality and alert awareness into the background. In their closed units, sensuality is expressed in an abstract form, undressing all personal human experiences. Behind the almost instinctive, contingent or barely controlled sequences of movements, the spectators can still discover a high degree of experienced attention, as the dancers reach the essence of passion. By looking at the surface of the piece it might not be evident at first, but the dancers do extremely demanding work during the play so that their consciousness is filled only by the presence of their partner. They work with the inexhaustibility of touch, the memory of the body. By stripping down norms, rules, and expectations, they are placed in a state of consciousness that they clearly created for themselves and their partners, yet it can have overriding power for anyone who has the chance to watch them."

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Day 5 - Horizont Dance Festival 2021 (2021.08.28)

On day 4 and 5, it was Cser Kinga who provided the open air concerts in the Déryné Garden. Unfortunately she did it exactly at the same time the performance begun, so I've only seen her start singing, then I had to leave to take my seat, and by the time I got back to her after the performance, the scene was already empty.

Eva Duda Dance Company: PRISM

image © Eva Duda Dance Company

For our full review, read: PRIZMA / PRISM by Eva Duda Dance Company, ballet at Horizont Festival (2021.08.28)

"The main topic of our production titled PRIZMA is the world which suddenly turned upside down around us. What we needed is a new way of thinking and new perspectives since our usual life became rewritten by the pandemics. Lockdown, social distancing, carefulness have changed our daily social life, our relationships, connection with people. The way we used to greet each other has changed such as how we approached each other and how we distanced ourselves from the others. All this changed our relation to our own body too. We were more lonesome, more introverted, and our daily routine strengthened the automatisms of our life. All these alterations created a great base for dramatic and banal situations that we were examining from a theatrical view: giving shape for our fears and joys by moving and transforming the overdrawn moments of our desires, lack, daily activity into dance."

Eva Duda Dance Company: PRISM Trailer

Gergye Krisztián Company and Gloria Benedikt: The Doll of Kokoschka

image © Gergye Krisztián Company

For our full review, read: Kokoschka babája / The Doll of Kokoschka by Gergye Krisztián Company and Gloria Benedikt, ballet (2021.08.28)

The The Doll of Kokoschka from Gergye Krisztián Company and Gloria Benedikt was an interesting performance, using projected backgrounds and human-sized dolls as part of the story.

"The production uses lifelike puppets, multiplying Kokoschka's gesture, and invites three emblematic figures of the 20th century onto the stage: the musical genius Mahler, the monumental painter Kokoschka and the Muse, the Femme Fatale, Alma Mahler. Written in the present, the story of the dancing dolls evokes the memory of a time in which the fictional world still had an influence on reality. Perhaps we are reminded of the last moments of the 20th century, when the concepts of romanticism, expressionism and love were still valid - and muses were still able to kiss."