Why did you go to work as a contracted dancer for Ultima Vez, Wim Vandekebuys' troupe?
I fell in love with the troupe when I watched a trailer of their dance film Blush on the company's home page.
You saw a few minutes and that was enough?
That was quite a good two minutes and fifteen seconds.
Actually, I understand you. I was also deeply affected by their dance film Here After.
I was taken by that wild, elementary and all-encompassing swing that characterises them, and of course I also liked the dominance of male energies and qualities in the troupe. Beside that, what they liked about me was that I have characteristics that are opposite to this. There was a generation change in the troupe last year, they recruited several new and young dancers and that's how we got in with Máté Mészáros.
You had some good things going in Hungary also. You worked with Adrienn Hód in exciting pieces, performed with Réka Szabó, and your own choreography was a success. What was missing?
Adventure. I consider myself a young and energetic person full of life so I wanted to see the world and wanted to concentrate only on dance. If you concentrate on your career as an individual, then promotion, writing applications and managing yourself takes away a lot of energy from dance. I did not want to waste my energies on those things. Working in Ultima Vez, I can fully concentrate on dance. I started dance quite late, when I was 21. I am not a universal dancer but what I do now suits me. My current life situation is an ideal growing ground for pushing my physical limits and expanding my mental horizons. That's the most important thing.
Wim Vandekeybus' pieces seem very risky.
Yes, on several levels. Wim said that when more than 20 years ago the first premiere by Ultima Vez took place in New York his "radically new dance style" was met with raging success. At the same time, it was totally rejected in Brazil and they said Wandekeybus should never return.
Dancers regularly hit each other, as if there was a fight; objects fall...all this may be rather dangerous.
Dangerous but the whole thing is controlled and choreographed. This type of risk-taking suits me and it is quite typical that Krisztián Peer - with whom I worked last year in Réka Szabó's piece - introduced me during the Sziget festival as a dancer who has no fear for his body.
Is that true?
Well, since then, I have met much crazier dancers than me in Brussels. But in principle I understand the world that Wim talks about and we can communicate well. For instance death is also very important to me, even if I primarily interpret it as releasing something, giving up convulsive attachment to something and the possibility of something to be born anew.
What do you think about the live music during performances, by Woven Hand and dEUs?
I like them both. The latest Woven Hand concert at the Sziget festival with Muzsikás was especially a great experience because they were joined by Zoltán "Batyu" Farkas, who used to teach me folk dance. It was moving to see how my roots are entwined.
I also saw that concert. Since then, I have also heard dEUs, with whom you work in the new piece nieuwZwart, and I like them, but missed the brutal force of Woven Hand.
No need to worry, there will be a real concert experience. Some people even ask for earplugs. From our point of view, it's very good to have live music because the situation creates energy and freedom. Also, the boys like to improvise a bit. For instance during one of the scenes, when we are fully exhausted, on the verge of annihilation, they play my favourite song, She's Lost Control by Joy Division. That helps me go beyond the dead-lock.
Do you very much depend on each other with fellow dancers at such times?
There are many independent parts but during joint dance scenes, you can feel right from the first touch what state the other dancer is in, whether he is energetic or a bit tired. It is a very fragile thing to see what state the other person is in and it shapes the entire performance.
And how about your ironic self that you showed in your solos? Don't you miss it?
There is humour in the Ultima Vez pieces. What you actually see on the stage depends 91 percent on us dancers, whatever we put on the stage and the performance. In addition to group work, I am also working on developing my own ideas. Writing, theatre and music are my main interested currently....What's important is that I want to support myself from my creative activities.
Source: fidelio.hu
