Attila in Action: Leave Your Expectations in the Lobby!

On a cold winter Budějovice evening, Milk and Honey tracked down one of the city‘s most daring and challenging artists, Attila Egerházi. For seven years Mr Egerházi has been quietly building up a ballet company and artistic scene which expands far beyond our little city and brings the waves of the world into České Budějovice. The modern ballet performance “Pas de Trois” consists of two parts, which are so radically different as to seem like two separate productions. But both are united by the music of composer Mario De Rose and violinist Pavel Šporcl who, alongside Attila together make up the “pas de trois” of the title. In the Metropol lobby before the show, Attila Egerházi took the time to share his views on ballet, Budejovice and beyond.

What is ballet for you?

Ballet is the “piccolo mondo”; all life is there. I love the power of sounds and pictures. Words cannot express what goes beyond words so we express that in motion. Tonight’s “pas de trois” also captures the challenge of working in equal part with the work of two fabulous musicians, setting all these powerful forces into contact with each other. The ballet is interactive, between the artists and the musicians, and between the audience and what they see. This is not storytelling as we know it, but impressions and feeling. The audience are brought in through understanding what they see with their hearts and senses.

Is it true that you created the choreography for this ballet before the music? How and why?

For “Lost and Found”, we created all the choreography along with the dancers first and then Pavel created the music to accompany them once he saw the movements of the dancers. For me, music is movement and movement is music. So it is possible to create movement before sounds. The music of the ballet was inside the dancers from the start; unheard, silent. Then it was up to Pavel to come along and interprete the right music to accompany them. For the dancers this was of course novel, surprising. But you see the result on stage.

How should we two Milk and Honey correspondents best prepare ourselves for this ballet?

There is no preparation. I prefer to say that here in the lobby there is an „expectations box“, into which viewers should throw all their ideas about what ballet is and what this ballet will bring them. You know, ballet, and art in general, is the ideal way of bringing us back to the child in us. The child which is fascinated by sounds and pictures, curious about what it sees. The child which is, unfortunately, often locked away or blocked but which longs to see the world with curiosity and excitement again. If you bring that type of awareness to the ballet this evening, then you will be best prepared.

Do you think most of the audience here will manage that?

I can only say that the audience here has been growing over the last years and this style of ballet seems to be gripping them. This is a huge pleasure to see and it means even more than all the awards we have won with this company. The point is that you cannot go shopping with full bags. You need some space to allow new things in. When I see such a large and growing public here, I am confident that they have made space in themselves to be fascinated by this type of ballet.

How will you remember your period in CB when you look back on your career?

As a period of complete freedom. I enjoyed my work here immensely because I was allowed to work with new ideas and to experiment. It has been a very exciting and fruitful time for me. Everyone has been very kind and supportive. Also the dancers are fantastically committed and talented. I have thoroughly enjoyed my seven years in CB.

And do you feel part of the community here after seven years?

Hard to say. I do not feel a huge difference between Czech culture and that of Hungary; I feel the mentalities are similar and that to a large extent they complement each other well. So that has made settling in here easier. But, in all honesty, I have not had much time to really „live“ in CB as ballet takes up most of my time. And energy. As you can see from this evening, it all involving.   My community is the Jihoceské ballet, although I have thoroughly enjoyed living here.

How would you say your ballet group company has affected the town?

A group of this quality is not common in smaller cities. I would go as far as to say that this is a “treasure” of the town. We have dancers from all over Europe and the world who came here specifically because they wanted to work with this choreography. And it is a great blessing. But this company is still in progress. It takes a minimum of ten years to set up a ballet company. This group is still growing, evolving. It is not yet such an integral part of Budejovice as it would be if we remained here for another seven years.