This choreography of Pál Frenák was inspired by the same impressions as those which influenced him in his former creation, titled Skateboards. It seems as if the usual themes of previous years – such as human relationships, sexuality, sexual identity – stepped back and that the pulsive intimate states of an individual and a group, the dynamic erosion and rebuilding of relationships are in the frontline.

In Seven he attempts through the language of dance to grasp the „entre-deux” experience, well-known from post-colonial literature. This dual self-identity - separation from one’s own culture and integration in a new society - is in the focal point, an interim state that cannot exist without the feeling of rootlessness which at the same time makes you free and depressed.

He deals with metamorphosis, transformation, the boundary between clear shapes and established identity. That interim state full of doubts in which things appear in their clear and evident nature only for seconds. As is usual in Frenák’s art, the theatrical space and the elastic spatial shapes give definite and understandable contours to this permanent movement and the explosive presence of the dancers.

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The hidden man holds a special mirror in front of us, in which we can see the „Macho”, the „Narcissus” and also „Hercules”, and we can closely examine the archetypes of man. Frenák alternately calls up male chauvinist violence, stupid pretentiousness, the balance of power that structures our exchanges with others. Frenák offers us a radical vision, somehow desperate, of human relationships. He probes male sexuality through its different aspects: its origins, as well as its unconscious sources. Its sensuality is without compromise, its rudeness is poetic. The symbols used prompt us to make associations.

The desolate emotions and stereotypes, which nowadays are so characteristic of human relationships, are expressed with dark comedy, irony bordering on aggression. Pál Frenák’s choreography shows cinematographic, almost theatrical dimensions in its conception: it is the expression of his intuitive knowledge of human functions. The hidden man is a kind of direct access to the deepest strata of the unconscious as well as a social vision without concession.

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Compagnie Pál Frenák presented their composition titled Mil An in 2006, in which the infinite duo of the human-sized marionette and the flesh and blood being retreating ever further into his own shell plays the main roles. In 2009, Twins came to life as the twin piece of this earlier choreography. Two dancers, two masked figures: they are about to encounter unity, togetherness, separation, loneliness and solitude sometimes as twin marionettes, sometimes as twin brothers.

Twins speaks of the deeper strata of twin existence in the language of dance. It carries symptoms and signs instead of analysis or solution. The two dancers circle as twin stars in the peeling orbits of space until they live through the paradox of twin existence in their relationship believed to be inseparable: the monozygotic unity is all for nothing, the great journey after birth is asynchronistic for them, where they have to find the unity of their own independent personality. The creator is not looking for final solutions. He is rather interested in the process itself, consisting of facing the irresolvable.

Photo: Jókúti György

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This performance is the result of a joint creative work by a choreographer, a dancer, a composer and a video artist. Trace, due to the four creators, represents the four separate but not entirely unconnected conditions of human self. These four aspects of human self - the instinctive one, the self-reflective ironic one, the one in trance and the conscious ego - ceaselessly search for their identity, at times completely absorbed in their role, at others testing their boundaries and transcending their frames. Through a grotesque representation, the choreographer makes the torments of the search for self-identity seem light and playful.

The four square-shaped platforms that form the space of performance symbolize the four independent but inextricably intertwined aspects of identity. The blue light projected on the set creates the illusion of a swimming pool. The dancer’s costume – frog legs, swimming goggles – completes this image.

After many grand-scale and visually shocking performances, Frenák has this time created a restrained, almost minimalist universe, with a work that focuses on intimate, inward-looking spirituality.

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MenNonNo is a mysterious blue universe. Frenák’s six-month long journey through Japan inspired the choreography. The dancer comes to life from statue-like stiff postures in this performance that draws on the art of minimalist movement peculiar to Butoh. The gestures unfold in an imperceptible way, projecting onto each other the means of expression used by the dancer and the sign language of the deaf and dumb.

The large blue costume which first covers the space then envelops the dancer reminds of a huge mass of water, the sea or the ocean. The force emanating from the blue surrounding and the enveloping train of fabric also recalls plastic art personalities and creations such as Yves Klein’s Klein Blue or Sam Francis’ Blue balls.

The performance opens up sensibility, addresses us, impels us towards re-evaluation and imbues our own being. The lived gestures convey the spatialized ideas with an explosive force. The paint-brush of the body is filled with blue, where the costume holds it together as a skin at times, but also flows like paint amidst the curious gaze of the people.

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Wings. Pascal Contet, Pal Frenak and Nelson Reguera trio.

Frisson is based on the dancers’ shadow-play, projected on a square-shaped platform on stage. The fantastic journey in the realm of shadows is obviously a symbol: the search for the deepest layers of man and their unconscious contents, to extend limits and to find some final truth, some kind of pure reality, the most desired goal of mankind.

The shadows on the platform attract our attention. Not only the spectators, but also the dancers are trapped by their own silhouettes coming to life. They are moving together, trying to touch or possess them. However, the tempting or sometimes fearsome phantoms flying by within reach finally prove to be unreachable.

In the western civilization, people are afraid of their phantoms and want to defeat them. In the Japanese culture however, which has had a deep influence on Frenák’s art, facing the inner self is a virtue. In this new creation, Frenák tries to remind us that shadows are stronger than the physical body, because they cannot be touched by fate, and since we are unable to control this world of shadows, it is best to accept it and dissolve in it.

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„K.áO.sz!” was originally inspired by Bizet’s Carmen, the famous romantic melodrama of wild passion, debauchery and betrayal, but it is definitely not a mere remake or paraphrase of this classic opera. On the stage carefully set up by Frenák, through mixing together the myth of opera with other elements taken from the world of circus and wrestling, as well as with the fashion creations of Tamás Király, it becomes a dynamic, physical dance theatre.

The stage-setting is not ordinary: coffee-bar tables and chairs around a boxing ring in the middle: a real arena where a powerful and daring dance-struggle takes place. Again and again new figures come into the ring to fight with each other and with themselves. Fanatic lovers, enemies, ones seeking vengeance, debauchers and victims: passionate about each other. But this boxing match is a public attraction: not only do the „players” participate in the piece, but also the spectators. The dancers – players of this harsh and raw fighting – interact with the audience. In the chaos of bodies, noises, mysterious lights and cigarette smoke no one can be sure who is a spectator and who is a dancer.

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