Coronavirus pandemic restrictions have led to lockdowns of international festivals across countries of Europe. Strictly observing comprehensive hygiene requirements and social distancing rules, the organizers of Veszprém Festival of Dance 2020 have successfully found a creative way to keep the lights on. Starting from 6th through 10th September the Veszprém Festival of Dance celebrated its 22nd anniversary and hosted a number of ensembles with international reputation and offered performances by a rich choice of contemporary ensembles.
As a precursor to the programs the evening of 7th September started with a livestream presentation of the French Compagnie Adrien M & Claire B x Limousine – Équinoxe. A group of people could watch the ballet show on stage projection while the Facebook audience followed the performance “Équinoxe” online. The French ensemble is famous for new approaches and groundbreaking ways in choreography design. This presentation of Compagnie relied on digital enhancements that were combined with stunning visual effects and impressive dance. In the dreamlike environment one single dancer moves within a cube, interacting with the images projected on its walls, tracing parabolas and sine waves with hands, arms and feet. The cube as a symbolic collage is the starting point for the dancer to encounter a space between an imaginary and the real world. The ensemble gave an amazing impression of creativity through the spectacular digital images complemented by fine music.
The Équinoxe livestream presentation was followed by the live group performance of the Yvette Bozsik Company. The performance HA DÔ was one of the highlights that most visitors of the Veszprém Festival of Dance 2020 had been waiting for since quite some time. The spectacle addresses themes of human destinies, and presents fragility of existence and the insignificance of life in times of wars and armed conflicts. It conveys wonderful expressions of fears, anxiety and the merciless destruction of lives in war times; at the same time it shows the constant search for hope for peace and freedom and for survival. The artistic realization guides the audience through various moments and presents the destiny of those who had been driven away from their homes, sent to or killed in camps. In the focus of the spectacle stands the constant struggle of humans for freedom, the strong desire for life, existence, safety, home and survival. The choreographic masterpiece was implemented with many troubling scenes that generate emotions and shocking sound effects leaving diverse, thrilling, high-energy buzzing feelings in the audience. The joint presentation is the result of a 3-year collaboration between the Japanese Tadashi Endo and the Yvette Bozsik Company.
The icing on the cake for the evening was most likely the performance Recortes delivered by the Central Europe Dance Theater that came as third in a row. The Central Europe Dance Theater made an attempt to capture moments and scenes in our life to illustrate what is involved that implies human relationships among ordinary people today. It presents undisguised the shallow and unobtrusive way we actually live our lives and experience relationships. Interpretations of love, passion and friendships follow each other as it happens pointing at how much we fail to recognize and reciprocate feelings of fellow human beings. By using colorful, refreshing and spectacular depictions the choreographers convey a precise artistic expression about the moral grounds that we people have fairly eroded and demonstrate how much we have become insusceptible machines instead of expressing and reciprocating real emotions. The wonderful dance performance has been choreographed with an impulsive production of life pictures and ends with an exhilarating “orange” scene conveying the message of an optimistic future.
Author: Péter Adorjáni
Photo: Balázs Jassek
Performance: Central Europe Dance Theater – Recortes