PROJECT No. 2191 – Work in Progress

Adrienn Hód, internationally acclaimed Hungarian choreographer, invites Helsinki Dance Company and their audience to a radically experimental but sensitive exploration. In her works, Hód investigates how to liberate the person, the body, from taboos and prejudices and somehow free them from the pressures of cultural context.

In the rehearsal space, through tasks and sessions including guided improvisations, she creates sensitive situations that give the dancers a safe space and trust. She sees the dancers and other close collaborators all as creative partners, who can share their own stories, interests, professional and personal responses to the subject matter. She tries to keep the creative process in the present as much as possible, and to react to the day-to-day changes. For Hód the stage is a playground, where creations always reach new dance forms and dramaturgical principles, re-examine different ways of connecting with spectators, and explore beyond the possibilities of contemporary dance. 

In the current creation we want to investigate the effect of different movement qualities on the nervous system and the soul. We are fascinated by the different professional backgrounds of the performers and their years spent in the theatre. The performers contribute their colourful professional knowledge and varied life experiences: their individual responses and solutions, filtered through their bodies, provide the material for the performance. 

The venue, the city, the fact that the performance is being created here with these performers and for this audience, and that it will be on for a finite period of time, all have an effect on us. We want to celebrate this uniqueness and finiteness together with the audience. What do we do with the conditions that are all around us, which we are part of? Do we use them? Do we go against them, or how can we hack them? How do you find freedom within the framework? How do you open new spaces?

Once the body is liberated from the systems, expectations and taboos that have been built around it, accompanied by the living nature of performance and the possibility of encounter, the process might be seen as a political act. Perhaps it can provide answers and solutions to the events of the present.

The body has knowledge and therefore power.