Charlie

The project is in the creation process. Károly Tóth (performer), Adrienn Hód (choreographer), and Judit Surányi (sociologist) began a research project together in January 2024. Although they have collaborated before, this is their first equal-role collective process. 

“Our project aims to raise awareness about inclusive performing arts, to challenge expectations and to promote a more inclusive cultural environment. We believe that contemporary performing arts can be a catalyst for fundamental social change. By rethinking the rules of contemporary dance, we emphasise inclusivity and challenge normative expectations. Through performance, we aim to encourage critical thinking about social norms, cultural expectations and the role of art in challenging and reshaping them.”

Adrienn Hód, a pioneering figure in Hungarian contemporary dance since 1993. As artistic director of HODWORKS since 2007, she’s earned international acclaim and collaborated across mediums. Her work transcends norms, blending contemporary dance with theater and performance art. Emphasizing the body’s raw expression, she challenges societal taboos and offers immersive experiences.

Károly Tóth is an electric wheelchair dancer and performer. He uses dance to show what life is like for people with disabilities. He has been dancing for seven years, during which time he has participated in numerous performances as a member of the Táncánia Ensemble. He is a member of the ArtMan artistic council and a regular participant in the ArtMenők Programme. He joined Hodworks in 2023 as a dancer and has participated in the contemporary dance performances Harmonia and Idol. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570405411541

Judit Surányi is a sociologist, cultural anthropologist, and the main organizer of the Rehab Critical Mass Festival. She directed the documentary “Nyomik” and collaborated with Károly Tóth on the performance “Body Image, Disturbance.” Surányi’s work, based on long-term fieldwork, addresses socially sensitive topics through documentary filmmaking, theater, and dance. https://rehabcriticalmass.hu/

“Even though I speak in ANOTHER way, even though I move in ANOTHER way, I try to make an impact on people with these tools.”

ARTISTIC APPROACH

Hód’s simple but profound goal is to highlight Károly Tóth’s personality on stage. As a non-normative bodied performer in a wheelchair, Károly – through showing experiences of his everyday life – can talk to us about patience and openness in a formatively inspiring way. For this purpose Hód and Surány have conducted an in-depth interview series with Károly, who has given an intimate view into his life, free of taboos.

Contemporary dance and disability

Charlie is the third inclusive creation by Adrienn Hód. In 2022, the Lábán Rudolf Prize-winning mix-abled production Harmonia debuted at the Theater Bremen in collaboration with the Unusual Symptoms company, and in 2023, Idol was presented in collaboration with ArtMenők in Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest. Harmonia and Idol both created a space where normatively able-bodied and non-normative bodied performers could work together on stage, creating a world they would also want to live in their everyday, personal lives. The two performances highlight the timeliness of this kind of rethinking and overriding of the often rigid expectations of contemporary dance, both locally and internationally.

Previous pieces working with the themes of non-normative bodies and inclusitvity that Adrienn worked on:

ArtMenők & HODWORKS: Idol

Trailer

HODWORKS & The Unusual Symptoms:

Harmonia

Trailer

The solo piece

The idea of continuing the path charted by Idol and Harmonia was conceived in the form of a solo at the end of 2023. The piece is focused on Károly Tóth, a wheelchair-dancer with whom Adrienn first worked during the Idol process, but whose work she has been following for years. She first saw him perform with the Tánceánia Ensemble.

The starting point of the solo performance is Károly’s personality and his ‘way of living’. Its aim is to break down the taboos and the lack of knowledge that we may have about people with disabilities. We are full of fears and preconceptions that often paralyze us. We do not know how to approach people with disabilities. We don’t know what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to do. We simply don’t know how to behave.

With this project, we aim to resolve these situations through the presence and transparent existence of Károly and to create an experiential sharing between performer and audience. The difficulties shown in the performance, the challenges of living independently, become common physical tasks during the play, which the audience is also invited to solve. Through what they see, they can experience how liberating collaboration can be. An essential part of the creative process is the audience meeting after the show, where we engage in a discussion free of taboos about what we have seen and catalyze it with the creators and other audience members.

The venue

The piece works well in a studio, but is also suitable for a classroom, basement, large hall, gallery or even a small club or bar. It is important that the space has to be wheelchair-accessible.

Goals

Our aim is to challenge and reorder our ideas about the body and the systems built around it. Together we want to explore the diversity of the human body and reflect on established dance forms in a self-deprecating and ironic way. Our own experiences have led us to the idea of opening up the subject and bringing it to a wider audience.

The process helps not only us, but also the audience, to shed unnecessary anxieties and to be more open. Károly’s presence can release us from the weight of what we think of disability.