You have been a soloist at the Staatsoper in Vienna. The Austrian capital, with its respect for tradition and decent calm, must be a perfect place for you.
I am addicted to Budapest but it is indeed good to live in Vienna. I like the city?s atmosphere and have found what I wanted here. What?s more, it is very close to Hungary, so I can overcome my homesickness.
I would not even think of that word in connection with you. In your professional career, one can see a series of cities abroad. Already the first one must have been a serious experience: the Elmhurst Ballet School in London.
The most important component of this one-year scholarship was André de Villiers? modern classes, called ?contemporary? but actually an individual take on mixing Graham?s and Cunningham?s techniques. Villiers completely changed my career and my relationship with the profession. I felt the world of modern dance opened up for me in England. Villiers? influence could be strongly felt on my first choreographies, such as Connection, Elegy and Letter to Martha Graham.
But these pieces were already created back at home.
Yes, after the scholarship ended, I spent three fantastic years at home. The Opera House?s repertoire at that time included works by Hans van Manen, William Forsythe and Myriam Naisy. After the Forsythe premiere, thanks to ballet director Gyula Harangozó, I got the opportunity to travel to Frankfurt for a month-long study trip but I ended up staying for a year after Forsythe, who headed the Frankfurt Ballet, offered me a contract.
What are the basics of his system of movements that you summed up as a choreography ABC?
It is difficult to say because he starts off completely from classic ballet and within that, perhaps because of being American, he is most linked to Balanchine?s style. At the same time, he is really extravagant, his works always impress audiences and by the 80s and 90s, he developed that tight and incredibly revved up style that often had an almost shocking effect and from where it was not possible to step further. That?s when he opened towards dance theatre. I should add, however, that companies ? currently the Opera in Paris and the Staatsoper in Vienna ? prefer to show his older, more ?ballet-like? pieces. No wonder, since besides his own troupe, what he does now can only be performed by the Dutch Dance Theatre NDT and perhaps a few other contemporary groups.
You are a classically trained artist, but ?the world of modern dance has opened up for you?. What did you get from this dance form?
I think these two directions support each other. Modern techniques can help liberate classic precision, they guide dancers towards using the upper body and the arms more freely, to breath more consciously. Perhaps that?s why I felt the Paris Opera school was a Mecca for classic ballet. Their elegance and easy-going style somehow took me closer to liberty. In a sense, the otherwise excellent Vaganova rules also should be liberated somehow. That?s why I am grateful for being able to go so many different places where I could gather experiences. If I look at an old performance today, I can see the changes even on my own body. Because modern techniques also shape the body or even reshape it while you learn to think and work in a very different way. My choreographies are also developed in a different way these days. I can feel that I am much more conscious and I think I can give my dancers a more precise image of the style I expect from them and what I increasingly feel my own.
You said Vienna was an ideal place for you because it represents a certain atmosphere, taste and civil calm. I can also sense in you this endeavour to achieve balance.
Yes, I am absolutely like that. Perhaps because I am a Libra and indeed I always work towards harmony.
Is that how you were brought up?
I was born in a very harmonic family and there were very few situations in my life that had a negative character. When they did happen, however, it took me a long time to get over them.
In a past interview you said it was your mother who decided that you should go to ballet school. If you had been more rebellious, you would not have become a dancer and choreographer. Was there any other career that attracted you?
I enjoyed drawing and my teacher would say that I should study fine art and drop dancing. I should add, however, that next to André de Villiers, the other individual who made a defining influence on me was Tibor Kovács who taught me to love dance. I only discovered modern dance later, even though we did have one Graham lesson a week during the third and fourth years and what Kati Lőrinc showed us indeed seemed like a miracle, but the ballet overshadowed it at the time. The proportions changed in England because half of the work was tough modern training and that?s when I realised that this would be the real thing for me. If I think about it now, my choreographies reflect this combination, since I always use the classics to build up very defined modern lines.
The effort to create synthesis is well reflected in your works, including the choice of music, movements, stage design and the arrangement of dancers on stage.
Interestingly, my mother would say that each of my pieces reflect my insistence on order, clarity and precise arrangements. I think, I am manic for order, unfortunately.
Then you probably do not leave others to decide even the smallest details of your choreographies.
I find everything important, from the position of the head to the little finger and the same applies to costumes. The poor designer, my old friend Mónika Herwert, sometimes goes crazy when I come up with a new idea even after the 58th version and then eventually we return to the first version. But she is fortunately a good partner in all this.
The history of your piece Vortex shows that these themes have repeatedly concerned you. But perhaps it is difficult to match tragedy with your need for harmony.
The Philip Glass score that served as an inspiration to me can be heard at the end of the film The Hours. It was used to emphasise the dramatic ending of Virginia Woolf?s life, as she walked into a swirling river. Indeed, considering the writer?s illness and suicide, the theme may sound too heavy and naturalistic but I am hoping that something else will also unfold on stage. I did not even mention this in the programme booklet, because the evening also features Robert North?s The Death and the Maiden and in my duet it is the man who embodies death, the swirling waters, the woman?s illness, her fight against illness and eventually her surrender, but I wanted to avoid all analogies.
The title of the ballet evening is In Vortex ? which is probably no accident.
Yes, it all leads up to this, because eventually everyone?s life is a vortex, we live in a vortex and we work hard not to go down with it.
The vortex has negative connotations, such as fear but dancing may bring up dynamic opportunities and questions about music.
The music is a defining factor to me, that?s where everything begins. I admire Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and Arvo Part? But I created the choreography for my piece Elegy on an excerpt from Delibes? opera Lakmé. I consider it important to find beautiful music because I cannot work with something that does not have an effect on me. I do not care about musical trends, I always start off from my soul because I literally want to create things that talk to the heart. For the same reason, I consider it unnecessary to tell stories. I consider it an unnecessary question to ask what a pas-de deux is about. It?s about nothing. It needs to be enjoyed, one must open up to it and whatever he or she senses and can identify with, that?s what the piece is about.
It seems as a choreographer you also follow your heart and soul.
That?s the only way I can express myself and I can only see myself through my works.
Interviewer: Márta Péter / Photo: Dániel Kováts
