Trafo`s thirsty experience

The Get in Motion series at Trafó - The House of Contemporary Arts, is a three- month program devoted to the theme of dance, which will culminate in a `Dance Marathon` on May 19-20, open to everyone interested.

But before that, and still part of this series, there is a special treat from young Hungarian choreographer and dancer Adrienne Hód, a bold and talented artist who will present her latest act, I am thirsty.

Hód - who won the main prize at the Budapest Fringe Festival last year - has choreographed the performance of four dancers (Júlia Garai, Andrea Horváth, Viktória Varga and Tamara Zsófia Vadas), without taking to the stage herself this time.

There will also be six musicians, outnumbering the artists on stage, who will play music especially composed for this show, providing the framework for the dancers` surreal movements, and sometimes even interacting with them on stage. The performance intends to create `rural` and `urban` moods, rather than concrete stories, and aims to achieve a state of temporary `emptiness,` a comforting void, which should, ultimately, be extended onto the audience itself. Hód`s initial abstract movements, developed during her years as a student at the Budapest Dance School, have been further enriched with gestures inspired from everyday life, as well as the street performances she has repeatedly held during her 10 year career as a dancer and choreographer.

She has added to these her own visions, hence the dreamy aura of her performances.

In I am thirsty, voices, a guitar, drums and a piano will create a wide range of sounds from wedding and ball tunes to opera arias and rap, while Hód`s team will explore the boundaries of dance.

`I wanted to see what the body can express beyond a mere movement, I created an imaginary world with no thoughts, that started from instinctive, thoughtless gestures,` says the 32-year-old choreographer.

Here, the world of the senses is theatrically magnified, heavy breathing will convey the overpolluted atmosphere in a town, light itself will trigger dramatic movements, and so will the distant noises of an imaginary village where a pig is being killed in a traditional ritual, and a dog barking marks the end of the day.

`This is reminiscent of my own memories. I grew up in Debrecen, and the puszta is not far away,` says Hód.

`I love the puszta, the horses and the ritual of pig killing,` she explains. But, beyond the life around Hód, her ultimate concern, in her latest work at least, is the death, or perhaps a `stillness` like that of death.

`The question of death preoccupies me, but not in a negative way. I like to think that that state of ‘death` feels good, because everything comes to a halt and the everyday responsibilities of life are no longer felt. The reality can then be clearly perceived.`

This instant lucidity, it seems, generates the desire (thirst!) for more `stillness,` in which time and body and life itself cease to exist. Once experienced, the artist feels compelled to convey this `easier to define through movement` feeling to others.



I am thirsty

April 13-15, 8pm

Tickets: Ft1500

Students: Ft1100

Trafó

Pest, Distcit IX, Lilliom utca 41.

Tel: 456-2050.

www.trafo.hu



Andreea Anca
www.budapestsun.com - Wednesday, April 11, 2007