#somaticAI #emptyhealing #joiedevivre

HOLD.me explores the possibilities of human connection in a world shaped by extreme self-care practices, performative displays of well-being, and interactions increasingly devoid of physical touch. In a dimly lit, sensual environment, a trio of dancers guides the audience through subtle choreographic gestures that reveal the outlines of a fractured world and the fragile bodies searching for one another within it. Beneath the loud masks and carefully curated images, a naked, often invisible reality begins to emerge.

The performance focuses on the tension between external expectations and the intimate experience of the body, asking how the diminishing presence of physical touch leaves us increasingly vulnerable to the invisible systems that govern our lives. Through delicate shifts and almost imperceptible movements, the performers expose the body's responses to a state of touch deprivation and explore how contact with inanimate forms comes to shape our existence. As stillness begins to move and the dominance of vision occasionally recedes, the audience is invited to sense together what remains possible to hold onto collectively.

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.