under the detailed programmes
To share a love and adoration for something special makes a real connection between people. To watch together with enthusiasm, understand, discuss and analyse a play –– is simply splendid. We here at Trafó would like for contemporary dance to be at the forefront of attention and enthusiasm once again. For at the moment, we feel that the dance circle has gotten much smaller, with many deserting the genre – and our aim is to now rebuild the fellowship – a fellowship around dance.
As with all new forms, these ideas can work only when there is a firm interested, open and committed medium, milieu. To attain this sometimes requires a large-scale, internationally known and recognised dance performance – alongside, but not instead of, experimental, genre-border crossing productions.
In our series called 200% dance, we bring the performances of world-renowned choreographers: performances dominated not by experiment, but by movement and pure beauty. By excellent composition, streamlined scenography, the dynamics of movement, the atmosphere-creating power of music, the comprehensible, thought-through form. These are productions to be watched with an open mind and wonder – an experience for those who have never seen contemporary dance, and an equally valuable experience for professionals.
Let us admit, this is a rare treasure, so it is a particular joy for us too, when from time to time, we can get an important company and performance to come to Budapest.
Emanuel Gat’s two choreographies, Hofesh Shechter with his two pieces, or Akram Khan and the Chinese National Ballet’s collaborative production provide exactly this: clear, real, 200% dance. Dance events unlike any other, but Dance and Event with Capital letters!
We hope to see you there!
P R O G R A M M E:
April 3-4. 8pm
Hofesh Shechter Company (UK): Uprising, In your rooms / dance
Hofesh Shechter is one of the UK's most talked-about young choreographers, delivering intensely physical, breathtaking work that immediately connects with audiences. The vibrant, young, urban edge found in Shechter's dance has seen him working on the National Theatre's 2007 production of Saint Joan in London.
’There's something spicy about it. Something dark but smooth, and sarcastic in a very subtle way. And exciting in a very basic way. You're sitting in your seat and occasionally some adrenalin shoots into your veins. I don't know if thought-provoking is exactly the word, but it's kind of…riddling in a way.’ (Hofesh Schechter about In your Rooms)
“Shechter is ’The shooting star’ on the sky of contemporary dance.(…) he has you on the edge of your seat, dry-mouthed, from start to finish.” (The Observer)
September 16-17. 8 pm
Akram Khan Company/National Ballet of China: bahok / dance
It is almost inevitable that a collaboration between Akram Khan and the National Ballet of China should be about crossing cultures. The eight dancers in Bahok embody a vivid palette of styles and traditions: modern and classical, Asian and western. As a choreographer, Khan's preoccupation has long been with the nature of identity in a migrating world.
‘An unforgettable performance’ (Time Out Beijing)
