At its programme entitled Dancingly Yours, the ballet company of the Hungarian State Opera presents a selection of the most popular contemporary one-act works. The works by outstanding creators of the dance world, demanding breathtaking technique, portray the relationship and interdependence of men and women, offer a glimpse into an exciting yet unknown future, and depict finding your path on stage, where ballet itself also becomes a protagonist. With the combination of classical and contemporary, intimate and spectacular, melancholic and uplifting, the Hungarian National Ballet remains “Dancingly Yours”.
Sol León & Paul Lightfoot / P. Prado – A. Dominguez – E. Lecuona – R. Barretto – Trio Los Pancho: Sad Case
“Now in hindsight we realise that energy is everything. When we created Sad Case in 1998, so far in to Sol’s pregnancy, the hormones were jumping and emotions were high. It is these hormones of laughter, madness and the trepidation of the unknown ahead that are the umbilical chord of this work,” says the British Paul Lightfoot, thinking back to the origin of the ballet. He and his partner, the Spanish Sol León share credit for the performance’s choreography and set and costume designs. Up until 2020, León worked as artistic consultant and Lightfoot as artistic director for the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), where they were responsible for bringing about sixty creations, including Sad Case, which is undoubtedly one of the pillars of their work. In it, surprising movements set to Mexican mambo music reflect the ongoing search for the tension between the satirical and the serious. The OPERA had long planned the staging of this irresistible modern piece for Hungarian audiences – and by way of it, the art of the world-famous Lightfoot.
Girls: Maria Beck, Erina Yoshie, Aglaja Sawatzki, Yuki Wakabayashi
Boys: Gergő Ármin Balázsi, Taravillo Mahillo Carlos, Motomi Kiyota, Valerio Palumbo, Francesco Sardella, Riku Yamamoto
Featuring the Hungarian National Ballet.
Koreográfus / Choreographer: Sol León, Paul Lightfoot
Set designer: Sol León, Paul Lightfoot
Lighting designer: Tom Breevort
Répétiteur master: Lou Menghan
Company répétiteur: Cristina Balaban, James Forbat
Composer: Perez Prado, Alberto Dominguez, Ernesto Lecuona, Ray Barretto, Trio Los Panchos
Hans van Manen / Erik Satie: Trois Gnossiennes
Built around the magically beautiful music of Erik Satie, Hans van Manen’s Trois Gnossiennes draws a picture of a unique relationship. This double portrait painted with sensitive brushstrokes flashes with images of trust, submission and dominance, and relativity and interdependence. Masterfully alternating between lyrical and grotesque elements and weaving together memorable human traits, van Manen depicts monologues and dialogue, as well as symbolic moments of a relationship rich in intimate profundities. The bravura elevation of simple poses to the level of acrobatics and the enigmatic and fantastic play with a living body that goes limp make this short but dense work an unforgettable one.
Solo girl: Maria Yakovleva, Lili Felméry, Soobin Lee
Solo boy: Vlagyiszlav Melnyik, Mikalai Radziush, Boris Zhurilov
Featuring on Piano: Nataliya Pinelis, György Lázár
Featuring the Hungarian National Ballet.
Choreographer: Hans van Manen
Set designer: Hans van Manen
Costume designer: Joop Stokvis, Hans van Manen
Lighting designer: Jan Hofstra
Répétiteur: Igone de Jongh, Mária Aradi, Tamás Solymosi
Company répétiteur: Mária Aradi, Tamás Solymosi
Composer: Erik Satie
András Lukács / Philip Glass: Whirling
Whirling, a pas de deux by András Lukács, a former soloist with the Hungarian National Ballet is set to the second movement of Tirol Concerto by Philip Glass's, one of the greatest masters of repetitive music. The nearly fluid movement, the infinite harmony among the dancers and the unique style of choreography make the scene both quite exhausting and complicated. In 2010, the Hungarian National Ballet commissioned Lukács to create an expanded version for nine pairs. Tastefully and thrillingly combining elements based on classical techniques with modern devices, Lukács primarily creates plotless choreographies that are highly expressive. In Whirling, along with the music, the spiralling movements of the dancing superbly illustrate a vortex of water: the water into which the suicidal Virginia Woolf casts herself to music once again by Philip Glass in the film The Hours.
Conductor: Johannes Marsovszky, Paul Marsovszky
Solo girl: Jessica Leon Carulla, Lea Földi, Tatyjana Melnyik
Solo boy: Iurii Kekalo, Louis Scrivener, Luca Massara
Ballet soloist: Yevhenii Fomin, György Lázár
Featuring the Hungarian National Ballet and the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra.
Choreographer: András Lukács
Costume designer: Mónika Herwerth, Zsóka Szomolányi
Lighting designer: András Lukács
Company répétiteur: Marianna Venekei, István Kohári
Composer: Philip Glass
Harald Lander / Carl Czerny – Knudåge Riisager: Études
Études is a one-act ballet which poses a great challenge to ballet companies because its subject is the technique of classical ballet itself: the school, the everyday training and the assessment of understanding and skill. Perhaps this is why the famous American dance critic Arlene Croce dubbed this work an “anti-ballet”. Because, in a ballet, the perfection of skill in dance is traditionally presented to the audience through the content, and the arduous everyday practise usually remains hidden from the viewers. The dancer’s everyday work takes place in the ballet studio, where the “vocabulary” of dance is formulated inside each dancer’s body, which will later become the base for the performance of choreographies on the stage. The audience sees only the outcome. Danish choreographer Harald Lander, however, decided to initiate the viewer by presenting on the stage how a ballet exercise is constructed, and how the pure beauty of classical movements and steps triumph over even the laws of physics. Since the rediscovery of Études in Budapest, it has represented a tremendous opportunity for the company’s soloists and provided enjoyable, spectacular entertainment for the audience.
Conductor: Johannes Marsovszky, Paul Marsovszky
ETUDES Balerina: Tatyjana Melnyik, Maria Beck, Erina Yoshie
ETUDES Male soloists: Motomi Kiyota, Yago Guerra, Gergő Ármin Balázsi, Boris Zhurilov, András Rónai, Vince Topolánszky
Featuring the Hungarian National Ballet and the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra.
Choreographer: Harald Lander
Artistic advisor: Lise Lander
Staging ballet master: Johnny Eliasen
Company répétiteur: Ildikó Pongor, Stanislav Beliaevskii, Anastasia Dunets, James Forbat
Composer: Carl Czerny, Knudåge Riisager
Premiere: Feb. 7, 1998
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