The company

The HODWORKS company was founded in 2007 by Adrienn Hód. The ensemble works with freelance artists and is active both in the Hungarian and international contemporary dance scene. The core dancers of the troupe have been working together for years in varying constellations. The performances mark unknown, boundary-pushing directions, often dealing with the physicality of the completely stripped human body. The content of their works is characterized by a subtle movement between an abstract appearance and a concrete, often verbalized meaning. Their topics range from universal human experiences to the specific critique of the world of contemporary dance. The performances of HODWORKS have been selected three times by Aerowaves, and the company is a multiple winner of the Rudolf Lábán and Imre Zoltán awards in Hungary.

The performances of HODWORKS strongly expose the performer’s situation and demonstrate it with extreme human conditions, both through physical and verbal means. The aim of the pieces is not to investigate specific taboos, but to create and present a liberated creative space where signs can be freed from their predetermined interpretation. The troupe investigates the cultural topos related to the human body and contemporary dance with constant curiosity, always questioning the boundaries of the stage space. The dancers appear as sovereign characters in the pieces, the creational processes are always enriched with their personal points of view. Their performance tools are not only limited to physicality: verbality and humor are also given significant space. In their constant resarching and performing work, they examine their own identity and existential questions, often in the form of direct or abstract questions addressed directly to the audience.

Adrienn Hód imagines the theater as a safe space where the topics raised and the dialogue about them can be explored in their full depth and made artistically visible. The creational processes led by her are not driven by a single unquestionable choreographic vision. With her company, she examines the various talents that are present, giving space to their knowledge, experiences and emotions that came into the space of the rehearsal room along a specific theme. Her creative process is always based on improvisation, and she often uses knowledge provided by external, invited contributors. Finally, the pieces created during the fine-tuning and precisely constructed structuring can have a broad perspective, with a rich and diverse end result. The performances presented in the theater space are always presented with a strong atmosphere, which Hód achieves by involving various musicians and lighting specialists.

For HODWORKS, art is an alibi for freedom. Above all, the troupe emphasises the complexity and radicalism of personal expression, laying bare the multilayered constructs of identity. Their works may also be read, in the context of endangered artistic and personal autonomy, as marking a movement of defence and of re-obtaining said autonomy.