HOLD.me examines the high-contrast terrain of contemporary alignment, exploring phenomena such as touchless interaction, superficial wellness, and the convenience of inaction. It explores the pursuit of the aesthetic markers of wealth, alongside practices of extreme self care.

The performance sheds light on the tension between external directives and intimacy, revealing how bodies are guided or constrained by invisible systems in the absence of physical touch. The performance engages both emotional and physical registers of contact, including imagined and remembered touch, self-contact through images, proximity, warmth, and touchless gestures. It explores how bodies respond to a lack of readiness for touch, and how contact with animate and inanimate forms shapes perception.

The project invites the audience into a nuanced sensory landscape, shifting attention away from vision and encouraging close listening to what is there to hold.

Irene Plaque is a Budapest-based Hungaro-Slovenian collective working across dance, choreography, facilitation, and philosophy. The collective consists of Katalin Bitó, Zsófia Szász, and Alja Branc Barbosa.

Their collaboration arises from shared economic, human, and artistic needs, driven by a desire to create work on a human scale and guided by anti-capitalist thinking. Their practice is also shaped by the current states of the performers and the specific contexts in which the work is presented. Irene Plaque approaches contemporary dance as a form deeply attuned to both body and mind, and they actively cultivate shared reflection and discourse around dance, art, and community.