'In his performance of USA, Máté Mészáros, former assistant to Wim Vandekeybus (founder of Ultima Vez), presents dance and the work of a choreographer simultaneously from both the outside and from the inside. It is a show with a double bottom, one that considers neither the creative process nor the work itself as sacrosanct. What is more, it observes everything with infinite irony and (self)sarcasm. We roll with laughter watching the performance that is abounding with masculine energies, that struggles to unveil itself and to trample our views on the dignity of art. Step by step, the image of a performance develops in front of our very eyes. An image that is authentic, and that successfully builds up its own self as a work of art. It is theatre within a theatre and choreography within a choreography. However, this double mill is not confined to the airy space of the stage that engulfs the dancers like a white shell. Also, it engulfs the viewers and occasionally puts them on the spot.' Csaba Králl, curator

CREDITS

Creators and performers:  Tamás Bakó, Patrik Kelemen, Dávid Mikó, Gáspár Téri, Máté Mészáros

Music: Áron Porteleki
Lights: Tamás Bányai
Lights technician: Kata Dézsi
Set: András Éltető
Artistic consultant: Zsófia Tamara Vadas
Special thanks to: Balázs Fischer, Nóra Horváth, Catarina Teixeira
Choreographer: Máté Mészáros
 

REVIEWS

‘USA raises important questions with a playfulness that is creative and liberatingly natural.  Those who like these attributes will be happy to join the game. Those who prefer heavy loads in a show, will have no choice but to learn to play. Nevertheless, there will be one thing we will all recognise: that things that have no/without boundaries/limits have no edges nor a middle either.’ Ákos Török, szinhaz.net

‘Is it an endless game, a precise parody of art and the self, or a fake documentary insight into the creative processes of a performing arts workshop? It is even difficult to tell where the stage ends and where it faces. The stage on which Patrik Kelemen, Dávid Mikó, Gáspár Téri, Tamás Bakó and Máté Mészáros, the choreographer, although there are several contestants for this position, move with enormous energy. The roles are changing all the time; direction and free will become fluid, another open question, until in the next moment what had seemed clear is all turned upside down again.

In the new production of Máté Mészáros, the creators approach the body as a dynamic object, and the space as an ever-changing scenery. The counter-effect of objects, bodies, sound and light create this transforming scenery. The body does not feel or seek, it only moves and executes.’ Orsolya Bálint, Dancing on the Edge of Art

TOURS & FESTIVALS ABROAD

Summer Intensive Festival – Summer Stage, A-dos-Cunhados, Portugal (2018)
Sommerakademie – International Dance Festival, Tanzfaktuur, Cologne (2019)
Theater Bremen (2019)

MÁTÉ MÉSZÁROS 

Máté Mészáros graduated at the Hungarian Dance Academy in 1999. After 3 years at the Szeged Contemporary Ballet he worked at various European companies (CarteBlanche – Norway, Lanonima Imperial – Spain, Ultima Vez – Belgium). Amongst others, he worked with Ohad Naharin, Sharon Eyal, Amanda Miller, Myriam Naisy and Wim Vandekeybus. After his long international career as a dancer he returned to Hungary in 2015. His own projects are produced in co-operation with SIN Arts Centre (Hinoki 2014, United Space of Ambivalence 2018, Mechanics of Distance 2019). He choreographs for various Hungarian companies, and has a worldwide practice in giving workshops. His works were presented at: ImPuls Tanz Festival Vienna (AU), Next Festival Kortrijk (BE), New Dance Festival Beijing (CHN), Summer Intensive Festival (PT), at.tension Festival (GER), Gdanski Fetiwal Tanca (PL), Győr International Dance Festival (HUN) and Trafó House of Contemporary Arts Budapest (HUN).

In his workshops Máté Mészáros teaches partnering techniques. They are based on the material he has acquired over the past 10 years and on his personalised approach, which he developed whilst conducting his own research and choreographic work. The workshops feature various combinations that convey the experience of power, support, speed, acrobatic movements and the unique feeling of connection. They are dynamic and powerful, and deal only with the physicality that defines the essential movements. 

CO-PORDUCERS

SIN Arts Centre, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts

SUPPORTERS

National Cultural Fund of Hungary, the Municipality of Budapest, BVA Budapesti Városarculati Nonprofit Kft., Staféta, Füge Production
The performance is realized as part of the Staféta Program initiated by the Municipality of Budapest.

CONTACT:

Anikó Rácz – SÍN Arts Centre
racz@sinarts.org
+36.20.525.1551