Sinfonia Eroica

Sinfonia Eroica is at once a work in progress and a parody as the company’s (pseudo) public life is brought to the stage, together with flirting, love triangles, scandals and offences. Mistakes are brought to the stage, corrupting moments. Improvisation is built into the piece - such as when the dancers ape each other - as is parody.

 

Let us not forget that Michéle Anne de Mey made the piece in the 1990 and renewed it 2006. The elements of postmodern choreography in Sinfonia Eroica have been around for two decades, abroad. But in Hungary, just a few choreographers, such as Yvette Bozsik, Adrienn Hód or Attila Kun, bring out these points of self-reflection and self-irony.

 

Infantilism is also an important part of the piece, even though the title would not suggest this. The performers sometimes dance with their fingers, instead of their feet, or they play tennis with dustpans.

 

The systematic and continued effort in the piece is remarkable, reversing conventional situations on the stage and overturning the clichés of choreography. We see, for example, the parody of an examination that ends with clownish splashing. This – definitely not artistic – splashing around is especially entertaining as “rain” is one of the most overdone visible elements on the dance stage.

 

The music for the piece is interesting and perhaps a bit cheeky: a chaotic fusion of a number of different styles and techniques. And it is decontextualised as the choreographer uses only the rhythm.

Author: Ágnes Veronika Tóth