The festival’s 6th day started with a ballet gala which was followed by the closing event of Ballet Company of Győr’s miniFestival, presenting two new choreographies.

On the Main Stage Győr School of Dance and Fine Arts, the Hungarian Dance Academy and the Hungarian National Ballet performed.

First, students of Győr performed in Symphony a choreography by Bálint Sebestyén, dancer of the Ballet Company of Győr, created to Beethoven’s music.

Despite the short length of the piece, the dancers went through a long journey. Locked in suits and their inner prison they found the way to freedom where, in white shirts, purified, they could dance to Ode to Joy.

The Hungarian Dance Academy brought Robert North's choreography, The Death and The Maiden to Győr. 

I have seen this piece numerous times before, but still, I am always stunned by its poetry, the musical sensitivity of the choregrapher, our peculiar relationship with death, and the delicate description of this and another world. And I was not disappointed this time either. Even though it was danced by young people, they managed to be true not only to the movements but the real emotional essence of the piece.

With a big jump, we found ourselves in a completely different world, taken by the Hungarian National Ballet, who presented Sad Case, choreographed by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot, former artists at the Nederlands Dans Theater. Sad Case, inspired by the slang meaning of someone pathetic, ludicrous, peculiar, didn’t lack absurdity, quaintness and humour. The five dancers, wearing shades of black, grey and white, are strange creatures. reminding me of birds and sometimes clowns.

Grotesque in movements, awkward in relationships, but they are very much likeable figures. Waving, exaggerated emotions and energy bursting are embodied in erotic and playfully pulsing Latin music, making me smile even hours later.

In front of the theatre, Budapest Bár gave a concert to hundreds of people, we all sang along and danced.

However, I had to leave soon to the Ballet Company of Győr’s Studio where the closing act of the miniFestival took place with an evening called A Step Closer, presenting two choreographies.

Bálint Sebestyén’s Plastic Symphony was created from environmental concerns.  As we are entering the Studio, the dancers are already on stage, warming up, the plastic bags, they are wearing as vests, rustle. As soon as live music starts smashing, everything becomes chaotic and the stage now is flooded with rubbish.

On a TV screen, we can get an insight into the future, where it is impossible to breathe without wearing a safety mask, where the Earth is cleansed but humanity disappears. Bálint Sebestyén, like an old wizard, is walking around holding a small, lighted tree, as if he wanted to show us the way out of this mess. The dynamic production, in which the audience is also picking up the rubbish, is a wake-up call. It would work really well for teenagers for artistic and environmental education purposes too.

After the interval, we are back to the present from utopia. Another dancer of the company, Luigi Iannone made his debut as a choregrapher with his piece, Tales of Life. As the title suggests, the production is a series of life events and stories where we can see different fates, motifs and motives. Everything we experience as life becomes alive: love friendship, broken relationships, death.

Although there are some symbolic characters on stage too, embodying fate or bad influences from the other world. The movements and music, following the short, various scenes, are also diverse. The white ballet floor and the room are lit by four light tubes, simple yet powerful, which can switch colours, from sometimes burning red referring to aggression or passion, to ethereal white opening to another dimension.

This is how the first miniFestival made its closure, and I am already a bit sad that tomorrow is the last day of the dance festival.

Photos by Béla Szabó