Fox spirits, which occur frequently in Chinese tales, provide the starting point for the performance. These spirits, possessing a very sensual nature, often take the shape of human beings, lifting their heads at the moment of death, crawling among the roof beams and striking fear in people, the company says on its website.
An installation constructed of tonnes of recycled wood has been built at the performance venue ? an abandoned factory ? and forms an integral part of the show. The audience enters past the sculptures, then the performers wander among the audience.
In Élet és Irodalom, one of Hungary?s most important literary journals, Ágnes Veronika Tóth praises the performance for the encounters between the audience and the dancers:
?The creatures in the title are enchanting, sensual things with a special ability to transform and a capacity to influence humans? fate?.Yet, Fox Spirits is not only about these creatures. For me, the show is much more about the thrill of the encounter between autonomous artists coming from a number of directions ? a thousand times more exciting than when one's vista reaches only as far as one?s own navel?.This is a light, miraculous and wonderful show. Don't miss it."
Critic Csaba Kutszegi, writing in Magyar Hírlap, a nationally-distributed daily, also offers kudos for the performance:
"Live sculptures moving around in the niches of the space installation mounted by the Basin Group using tonnes of recycled wood are what the surprised members of the audience see first. The path leading to the performance venue is lined with the accessories of a modern mythology on par with those of any ancient tradition. The performance is made up of movements, rhythmical panting, quiet whispers, mystical and everyday voices, music, kind and close staring at members of the audience, and the use of objects that become symbols. Meanwhile, a myth expressed through poetic, spatial images is born, and this myth is about everything that all other myths concern too: the relationship between men and women, birth, death, wicked and seductive soul demons, and creative humans who have upset the magical unity of the world by straining for rationality?Fox Spirits is, quite simply, a work of genius."
The dance troupe won the Best Alternative Troupe Award from the Budapest Assembly Cultural Committee for ?Fox Spirits? in 2005. And ?Fox Spirits? was awarded the Rudolf Lábán Prize by the Trafó and MU Theatre in 2006.
?Fox Spirits? will be performed at 20:00 on May 4, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 14, Sztregova u. 7, in Budapest?s District XI, in the factory behind the Budai Fonó arts centre.
Reservations: artus.aniko@nextra.hu, 204-3755
Performing artists: Tamás Bakó, Katalin Dombi, Bea Gold, Gábor Kocsis, Péter Lipka, Andrea Nagy, Nina Umniakov
Assistants: István Oldal, György Tr.Szabó Space: Basin Group Production assistant: Anikó Rácz Technical assistants: Gábor Kocsis, István Oldal Director: Gábor Goda
Funding for the performance is provided by the National Culture Fund, National Dance Theatre
