Theatre-experiment in a laboratory of movement searching for the body's gaze.
"Body is meant to find its way back to its prehistoric self."
"Taking for granted that form has a soul and spirit can be recognised in the visions of the body... "
Krisztián Gergye's company has performed in several European countries: Poland, Austria, Portugal and most recently, in September 2008, at the Southbank Centre in London, where he appeared at the DancEUnion festival with his solo, E. Sch. Eroto.
Balancing between physical theatre and dance, Krisztián Gergye has persistently been exploring the body. In his piece T.E.S.T. he chose the female body as the object of his observation rather than self-analysis. T.E.S.T. features members of his company and dancers of the Central Europe Dance Theatre performing seven individual female solos. The performance is built on the seven female dancers' personality and condition of body shape, creating an independent piece of art characterised by the duality of sensuality and devastation, intimacy and estrangement.
The central theme of the piece is the BODY (Hungarian test). The captured, maimed, disembowelled, humiliated, never-questioned body that seems to have picked this century to rebel against being unjustly forgotten. In its private reality, the monologue of the liberated, whole-some, intact, elevated BODY, which is answering without being asked and is communicating with and in itself, in its seclusion and solitude, can finally become an issue.
Building on the experience he gained from the reactions to the piece, Krisztián Gergye composed solos for seven male bodies, thus continuing his theatre-experiments in the laboratory of movement searching for the body's gaze.
"Seven shadows of the fractured soul dance their bitter solos in
the white square. Wounds opened up by force or voluntarily are shouting
with distorted faces. Boldly provocative and ruthlessly stocked female
bodies, cramped and stiff limbs make their confessions in the revue of
wounds - in seven acts."
"For Gergye body is body; it has no meaning because it only
refers to itself. For this reason, the body placed on stage by Gergye
is always filled with sexual content, and is always one that exists in
time, thus it is perishable: devastation resides with its youthfulness.
However, these bodies are far from being defenceless: the choreographer
represents desire, sexuality and erotic games with female figures,
whose individual features are hidden behind Oriental makeup (painted
masks by Balázs Károlyi)."
T.E.S.T. was awarded at the Szeged Alternative Theatre Fair, and it was also nominated for the Rudolf Laban Award in 2008.
Performers: Nikoletta Gresó, Melinda Virág, Borbála Blaskó, Móni Négyesi, Katalin Fodor, Flóra Domokos, Mariann Hargitai
Music: Alfred Schnittke
Costume: Móni Béres
Makeup, hair, mask and body painting: Balázs Károlyi
Lights: Zoltán Fogarasi
Production assistant: Dóra Trifonov
Designed, choreographed, directed and music edited by: Krisztián Gergye
Premiere: 5th April 2007, MU Theatre, Budapest
A co-production of the Company Krisztián Gergye, the Central Europe Dance Theatre and MU Theatre.
Sponsored by: Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education, National Cultural Fund