'Beat begins with a very simple ’combination of steps’: two to the left, two to the right. It is this same simplicity that the performance eases back into as it ends. However, there are countless dance twists, flips, mocking, and changes of style and tone that happen in-between. Nóra Horváth, who is also a member of the Unusual Symptoms Company (Bremen), performs Beat together with freelance dancer, Gábor Ivanov. Their duo is like an Eastern European passage. Everything we would otherwise find awkward to connect, they do so in this performance. They manage to mix folk with urban, traditional with progressive, minimalism with stylization, trash with pop culture and folk dance with various community dances, and even with the parody of a YouTube star. What is more, they top it all off with a relationship banter that remains hidden between the lines and consciously concludes in outrageous kitsch. Had contemporary dance in Hungary not been as undervalued as it is, Beat would have become a cult show by now and hosting venues would have fought to have in their repertory. But this time is yet to come. For now, Hungary is not such a place yet.' Csaba Králl, curator

CREDITS

Dancers and creators: Nóra Horváth, Gábor Ivanov
Music composition: Áron Porteleki
Light designe: Orsolya Pete
Mentor: Zsuzsa Rózsavölgyi
Consultant: Máté Mészáros
Concept: Nóra Horváth

REVIEWS

"Beat is a dynamic, ironic and self-reflective performance. The reason why it is so overwhelming is that it honestly talks about today’s casual, goofy, insecure, conceited, vulnerable, lonely, funny and vague generation, who is searching for its own valid and autonomous voice." Lívia Fuchs, ÉLET ÉS IRODALOM

"Are you familiar with a certain type of performance where you don’t have time to blink or swallow because you don’t want to miss even a micro-movement of the dance? Beat by the young and talented choreographer Nóra Horváth is definitely one of them. It’s intensive, impulsive and cool, just like sweet&sour popping candy exploding in your mouth.” Zsuzsanna Komjáthy, Dancefeed

TOURS & FESTIVALS

Theater Bremen, Germany, 2019.
Festival Deltebre Dansa, Spain, 2019.

COLLECTIVE DOPE

...funded by Jenna Jalonen (FI) and Nóra Horváth (H), is a performing arts collective which focuses on inviting artists with different backgrounds and nationalities to collaborate in contemporary dance and performing arts creations.

Jenna and Nóra share a similar history in gymnastics, but have different dance educational backgrounds. They found similarity in their interests about researching new ways of moving and performing. In their works they make complex structures with raw and simple physicality, inspired by social, urban and contemporary dance forms.

Their main goals are to communicate with an artistic approach that is easily accessible, to invite younger audiences to explore contemporary performing arts and to create new communities. Therefore, besides their artistic work, the collective organizes events offering a diverse program, including dance battles, concerts, public talks and workshops.

Nóra Horváth

Nóra studied different dance techniques at the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy and High School. She made her first choreographic pieces there before graduating in 2013. Since then she has worked with several choreographers such as Hiroaki Umeda, Eléonore Valére- Lachky, Marco Torrice, Adrienn Hód, and Máté Mészáros.

In 2016 she established Collective Dope together with Jenna Jalonen, with the aim of doing her own creations as a choreographer.

Her works:

Me, You, They or just Us (created for GG Dance Eger), Dope ‘I just wish to help you’ (created together with Jenna Jalonen) and Beat, which won the Rudolf Laban prize in 2019 in Hungary. Nóra is interested in research and the creation of pieces that are strongly based on a clear physical approach. In doing this she achieves a representaion of everyday situations in a theatrical context.

She is a member of Theater Bremen, Unusual Symptoms Dance Company, and is currently touring with her latest work, Beat.

CO-PRODUCERS

Workshop Foundation, Collective Dope

SUPPORTERS

National Cultural Fund of Hungary, SÍN Arts Centre, Mu Theater, Workshop Foundation, Life Long Burning, The European Union Culture Program, The Zoltán Imre Program