The Arena is the place of our constant fights, inner struggles and continuous wrestling. The performance explores sunken instincts and desires while wandering in a decadent world glowing with power. The choreography depicts constant impulses and aggression, demanding high physical preparation and concentration from the dancers. Rivalry and agony is happening inside, however, it overwhelms the characters with uncontainable intensity, making them pace up and down inside one another like encaged beasts. They are puppets endlessly fighting among invisible ropes in a mechanical way, regardless of historical eras, social status, gender identity and physical abilities. It is simply encoded in them.

Éva Duda's Arena is a series of dreamlike, unforgettable images: a slow cycle of interknit bodies, the tissue of blurred contours and flowing movements with inner rhythm. It is the play of slowly moving, fluttering shadows. There is no story, there is no didactic moral, no imitation of theatre, Arena is stubbornly dance-focussed and "inescapable", and it is almost entirely made up of the dancers' presence demanding extreme mental and physical concentration.

Éva Duda choreographed Arena in 2007 based on the invitation of the Central Europe Dance Theatre, and it brought her significant professional recognition including an invitation to the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatres. In Budapest it is one of the most frequently played contemporary dance performances.

Arena

Choreographer: Éva Duda

Performers: Gábor Bora, Anna Gulyás, Mariann Hargitai, Adrienn Horváth, Zoltán Katonka, László Mádi, Nóra Palcsó

Music: Péter Kunert, Plastikman, Karmanov

Costume: Róza Bánki

Light, sound: Zoltán Fogarasi

Consultant: András Kozma, Petra Máriás