”Our body and our self are treasury of the imprints of our memories, that is created by the interaction of materials, space, bodies and fragrances.”

Tricks & Tracks 2 is an ironic, cruel and provocative show, where dancers change characters one after the other, strip off themselves, then redress in their created roles. Leaving real traces, their bodies clash with each other and with the white surfaces, eagerly searching for a presence of the other. Existence leaves passionless traces outside, inside, on itself, on the earth and on the walls. Is it happening randomly? Our ego is tattooed on the skin, every lie of us is a dress, a costume, that we wear even though it doesn’t fit us. Honesty might be just under the skin.

The show as an exciting hybrid evokes purity, calligraphic beauty, transparent minimalism and colourfully insane cities of Japanese culture. Pál Frenák has no fear using vivid colours on the white canvas of the stage. His choreography bears an unbounded dynamism, an organic chaos-butoh.

Sometimes it is dynamism and pulsation that keep the space under control, while dancers endlessly intensify the potential of the Frenakian sign motion. Some other times it resembles a contemporary butoh performance, creating a maximum impact with minimalising motion and using the ever so important presence, silence and inner concentration of traditional Japanese movements.

In honour of the 15th anniversary of the company, both experienced members and a new generation of dancers, including many of newly-discovered ones, will be at stage.

Pal Frenak was born in Budapest in 1957. His childhood had a determinant factor by his parents having been deaf and hard-of-hearing. Therefore his first language of communication was sign language, giving him an extraordinary susceptibility of mimics and gestures, as well as self-expression through the whole body.

For Frenak the first stage of finding his way was in Paris, where he moved to at the beginning of 80s. He worked there with many of well-known figures of classical ballet and learnt Cunningham and Limón dance techniques.

It was down to his architect wife, Catherine Frenak, that he started to have an insight into the world of contemporary arts and got to know the classical usage of form and space.

His creations were influenced later by films of Italian director, Pier Paolo Pasolini, works of Francis Bacon and writings of French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze. In 1998, he was given the Kyoto Villa Kujoyama choreography award and spent over six months in Japan on that basis.

This experience made an important impact on his art and as a consequence Japanese motion and visual art, along with butoh, appear in many of his pieces.

In 1999 Pal Frenak Company was transformed into a Paris and Budapest based, Hungarian-French company and was expanded with young Hungarian dancers. A unique language of dance was created, characterized by the integrated usage of mimics, sign language and moving of the body, as well as including other genres (circus, theatre, fashion show, contemporary music) into the performances.

With its dynamic world of motions, modern sensibility, forms of expression that goes beyond verbal messages, Pal Frenak gave birth to a radically new style in the Hungarian dance world. His innovative usage of space and body had a determining influence on the development of Hungarian contemporary dance.

He was awarded twice the Lábán Rudolf award, in 2002 the Harangozó award, in 2006 the Knight of Cross from the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic, in 2007 the Imre Zoltán choreography award and nearly every year his current work is nominated to the best dance performance of the year.

Beside his creative works, he regularly holds professional workshops, organizes engagement performances for high school students, participates in audience discussions and dance forums, placing emphasis on the cooperation with other forms of art and on keeping continuous dialogues with audiences.

„People have asked me what I'm interested in, what my pieces are about? Well, it's really simple: human relationships. (...) My plays are ambiguous? Well of course they are! I'm deaf and I'm not. I speak Hungarian and I don't. I live here and I live there. I'm high and I'm low. I crash and I fly. What do they want? Why I'm so extreme? What should artist be?" - Time Out Budapest, 2009

Date: 20/02/2015 8pm

Duration: 50'

Location: Trafó Theatre Hall

Ticket price

2800 Ft / Student: 2200 Ft
General Season Pass is valid
Twin Pass is valid

22 March (Saturday) 2014, after the performance, a premiere party of Tricks & Tracks 2 will be held in KONTRA Klub with the participation of dancers and contributors of the company. Admission is free of charge with a ticket for the performance.

Source: trafo.hu