June 11 /Saturday/, 7 pm
Plovdiv Drama Theatre - Chamber Hall
Official Closing
Freestyle
Rita Góbi Dance Company - Hungary
Dance: Ruri Mito (JP)/Fanni Esterházy & Rita Góbi
Choreography: Rita Góbi
Music: Dávid Szegő
Lighting design: Pavla Beranová (CZ)
Lighting technician: Péter Kiss
Dramaturgy: Anna Zsigó
Production assistants: Lena Hashimoto (JP) & Liliána Maros
Creative producer: Ágnes Bakk
Supported by: Budapest Spring Festival, Performing Arts Japan, Creative Europe Programme (i-Portunus), Life Long Burning, Workshop Foundation, Sín Culture Centre, MOHA - Orkesztika Foundation, Ministry of Human Resources, National Cultural Fund, The Saison Foundation.
Photo: Péter Peti, Marcell Piti, Bálint Hrotkó
Japanese-Hungarian co-production
Freestyle playing field is animated by the physical presence and interaction of two characters, Ruri and Rita. The playfellows react to each other while engaging in intense action: running, jumping, swimming, being under or above the water. Yet this competition is not about speed or winning. Harmonic or disharmonic responses to the mysterious body signs of the other contestant (fellow human): these are responsible for the sense of competition, these are the real goal of the body contest. This time, the participants contend with their own bodies, rather than with someone else.
Rita Góbi is a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher, who is continuously exploring the styles and languages of dance. Born in Novi Sad, Serbia; graduated at Hungarian Dance Academy in Budapest. She was a participant of various international dance workshops and residency programs like the US-based OMI DANCE Residency, VARP residency at SE.S.TA-KoresponDance, in the Czech Republic, and in Morishita Studio, Tokyo by Japanese Foundation.
Rita started her career working with several Hungarian-based dance companies – Ballet Pécs, Yvette Bozsik Company, Réka Szabó’s Company-The Symptoms, Natural Art Disasters, Eva Duda Company, L1 Dance Association – and working with the film director Miklós Jancsó.
In 2006 she founded Góbi Dance Company. Since then she has created several contemporary dance productions, interactive performances for children and took part in various interdisciplinary projects (exhibition openings, fashion shows, etc.). In the past years, Rita cooperates with artists internationally, and she is touring worldwide with her performances. Her solo piece Volitant (2017) received several national and international awards. In 2018 and 2019 she created two Japanese co-productions, titled Vibration and Freestyle.
She is also a dance teacher at Nemes Nagy Ágnes Art Vocational School, and she regularly holds workshops in Hungary and internationally at various festivals. She also works as an invited choreographer in puppet theatres and movement theatres working with actors.
The works of Rita Góbi could be best described as brave and experimental as well as precisely choreographed. She has a geometrical, minimalistic, rather reductionistic style. Her concept of choreography is based on instinctive, monotonic and repetitive, miniature movements, and phasing of the body and state changes that evolve from these movements. She transforms the line of motions slowly and consistently. The accord of movements, music, projected visual effects and lights are creating the futuristic atmosphere of her performances.
