General overview of dunaPart with the participation of the platform's international guests
The final discussion at dunaPart (AKKU, 17th November 2008) aimed to summarize the morning discussions held each day, as well as give international guests a chance to provide feedback and share their experiences of the platform (fresh, as they might be). The overview not only sums up the most exciting productions and a general impression of the Hungarian performing arts scene, but also leads to conclusions about arts and culture in the context of contemporary society.
The discussion kicked off with György Szabó, director of Trafó - House of Contemporary Arts and the organiser of dunaPart alongside Máté Gáspár from Krétakör Foundation, telling us why he thought such a platform was necessary: not only as a tool to promote Hungarian performing arts abroad, but also to answer the need of artists living in a smaller country to receive feedback from the outside.
Rolf Dennemann (artistic director, Off Limits Festival - Dortmund, Germany) agreed that this is important while stating that this also applies to artists living in a bigger country, but in a 'small world'. Nevertheless many artists avoid receiving such feedback, as they feel disturbed.
Laurie Uprichard reports from Budapest
Just a week later, after IETM, I traveled to Budapest for dunaPart, the first platform of Contemporary Hungarian Performing Arts. I’d visited Budapest fairly frequently between 1992-2002 (as Danspace Project worked alongside Dance Theater Workshop on East-West projects) but hadn’t been back for six years. It was truly a pleasure to return to this darkly beautiful city and its people. György Szabó, Director of Trafó House of Contemporary Arts and Máté Gaspar, Managing Director of the Krétakör Theater Company (which performed The Seagull and BLACKland during the 2007 Dublin Theatre Festival), organized and curated the platform. Sixty international programmers attended the five-day event, including three from Ireland (Loughlin Deegan, Dublin Theatre Festival, Fiona ni Chinneide, Irish Theatre Magazine, and me). As contemporary dance was illegal during the Soviet era, choreographers and dancers who emerged in 1989-90 came from ballet, folk dance, or gymnastics. Many artists traveled abroad for shorter and longer periods of time, and many have returned (though not all - Josef Nadj has remained — and is highly renowned — in France).