Local Area Network

Before I applied to Aerowaves’ Springback Academy in 2016, I had already heard a lot about Aerowaves in Hungary. Dancers and choreographers from our country had been well represented in the annual Aerowaves Twenty selection for years – from Ákos Hargitay at the beginning in 1997, to Réka Szabó, Adrienn Hód, Ferenc Fehér and more recently Emese Cuhorka, Csaba Molnár, László Fülöp, Rita Góbi, Beatrix Simkó and Máté Mészáros.

In a local scene that doesn’t shower its artists with awards and recognition, being selected had become an important acknowledgement for creators and their productions. Beyond that, Aerowaves had a great role in promoting Hungarian contemporary dance throughout Europe and helped many artists and dance professionals enter the international dance scene and become part of a vibrant network. I talked to some Hungarian members of the ‘Aerowaves family’ to find out how a local dance scene can benefit from a European network like Aerowaves.

13 times in 25 years Hungarian artists have been selected for the Aerowaves Twenty

“When John Ashford asked me if I wanted to take part in Aerowaves’ work, I felt honoured. It was a kind of professional recognition,” says Gergely Talló, director of Workshop Foundation, Aerowaves’ partner organisation in Hungary since 2006. It was founded in 1992 to provide support for independent artists and to encourage their artistic development, as well as the development of the whole field of contemporary dance in Hungary. “I think it’s a great platform to meet professionals from other countries and exchange information and ideas. At the annual meetings there is always time to tell partners how things are going in our country and local dance scene, and we have the chance to introduce Hungarian artists to forty to fifty other professionals. Also of great value, as part of the Aerowaves Twenty selection process we have access to videos of hundreds of performances every year, by both well-known and emerging artists. As a member of Aerowaves, I also learnt a lot about how to operate a network while keeping it very personal. We all know each other, and I look forward to the meeting every year.”

The chance to make connections and be part of a network is something that Aerowaves artists appreciate as well. Beatrix Simkó, whose performance Long Time No See! with Jenna Jalonen was part of the Aerowaves Twenty19 selection, had been following Aerowaves’ work for years before she applied. “It looked to me like a European community that is good to be part of,” she says. “It represents a certain quality, and is a springboard for creators to get into the international bloodstream. During the Spring Forward festival you are able to meet people that you wouldn’t necessarily meet otherwise. Nowadays, when the distribution of performances is such a challenge, it’s invaluable that people can connect a face to a production and see your work live. It’s worth more than any video material or email by managers, because producers have to take much bigger risks if they invite you without seeing you live first.” She and Jalonen received several international invitations after their festival performance.

Emese Cuhorka was part of the Aerowaves Twenty three times as a dancer in the Hodworks company, with Basse danse (2012), Dawn (2013) and Conditions of Being a Mortal (2015). (According to Talló, after Hodworks’ third inclusion, members made a rule against being selected a fourth time.) As a choreographer, Cuhorka was invited for the first time in 2017 with Your Mother at My Door, her co-creation with László Fülöp under the company name Timothy and the Things. And she’s back in 2021 with Masterwork, a duet with Csaba Molnár, another long-time Hodworks dancer.

Cuhorka’s impressions of the network and Spring Forward have always been very positive. “Everyone who works there, from the members who make the selection through to the stage-builders to the critics of Springback Academy, make it feel like it’s the most important thing in the world that these performances take place, and that treasures are discovered and shared. Each festival I attended felt like it had a mission.”

She also talks about what it means to be included in the selection back home: “We in Hungary are not very good at recognising our own talent. There’s a sense that if you are successful abroad, then you are someone. The early pieces of Hodworks were mostly received with confusion at home, and so it was great feedback that many international professionals regarded it worthy of note.” Cuhorka believes it is good for a show’s local reputation if it has been selected for the Twenty. She also feels that presenters around Europe are eager to invite productions that were included in the selection.

Being so familiar with the organisation, does she try to make shows that are a good fit for the Aerowaves Twenty? Not at all. “During the process me and my partners try to preserve the freedom of creation, and we don’t want to be influenced by things we want to achieve. We just want to delve deep into our current topic of interest.”

But of course, Aerowaves is much more than just a yearly selection of the most promising emerging artists from Europe. Alongside maintaining a network of individuals passionate about contemporary dance, it works on various innovative projects throughout the year, including Springback Magazine, and most recently a virtual reality project called Springback Ringside. And the driving force behind it all is – as Talló points out – John Ashford. “It is so important that he comes to festivals and meetings, talks with the artists, tells them his opinion. And after all the work he’s already done, he’s still constantly working on new ideas.”

Talló thinks that Aerowaves has undoubtedly had an important role in opening the doors of the international dance world to Hungarian artists. But our local dance scene still has its challenges and limitations, and that leaves him with some unfulfilled dreams regarding Aerowaves too. For financial reasons he hasn’t yet been able to take their annual meeting to Budapest. And he regrets that theatres here haven’t programmed many Aerowaves artists from other countries – it is mostly just the large annual Sziget festival that invites them.

Still, it is already a huge achievement that, compared to the early 2000s, Hungarian contemporary dancers are now much more acknowledged both at home and abroad. Many artists are regularly invited to festivals, showcases and residencies all around the world and collaborate with creators from several countries. And as Cuhorka points out: these local successes are down to the hard work of people like Talló and Ashford, and organisations like Workshop Foundation and Aerowaves. As for the unfulfilled dreams – there will be enough time to make them come true in the next 25 years.

By Lena Megyeri