Nothing There

Nothing There is based on the coexistence of sophisticated interactive technologies and living bodies on stage. The real-time video technology employed by this piece reacts to the position in space of a body in motion, as well as its shape, direction, and dynamics of movement, transforming the gestures of the six dancers into the projection of their anxieties and fantasies, and their web of relations into a mobile abstract painting. The projected images and figures are equal partners to the dancers on stage, with whom they enter into a personal relationship.

The original music score of Nothing There was written by Hungarian cellist and composer Albert Márkos, and is performed by renowned musicians and singers of the Hungarian experimental jazz scene.

The piece was performed to great acclaim as part of The Turning World international season at The Place (London), the National Theater in Prague, at Schauspiel Köln, Tanzlabor Bielefeld and at the Aura Dance Festival in Kaunas (Latvia). In 2010, it was awarded the Most Original Exploration of One Segment of Theatrical Language at the INFANT festival in Novi Sad.

“Performed to thudding jazz, the piece plays out a waking dream shot through with bizarre terrors. Half-glimpsed tableaux reminiscent of David Lynch’s film Eraserhead morph into surreal ballroom sequences in swimsuits and spats that pay homage to Pina Bausch. Vignettes of pain, fear and sadness swim dreamily against a lighting track of eye-popping strangeness. Extraordinary.” (Luke Jennings, The Guardian)

Credits

Director/Choreographer: Réka Szabó
Dancers: Ákos Dózsa, Rita Góbi, Andrea Nagy, Dániel Szász, Zsófia Tamara Vadas, Imre Vass
Dramaturge: Krisztián Peer
Computer technology: MTA SZTAKI Media Technology Group (Gábor Papp, Anita Sárosi, Viktor Vicsek)
Music: Albert Márkos
Light and Space: Attila Szirtes
Photo: Gábor Dusa
Costume: Fruzsina Nagy
Production Executive: Dóra Paizs

A performance coproduced by The Symptoms, the Trafo KMH, and MTA SZTAKI.

For further information please visit http://thesymptoms.hu/.