Hungary’s Réka Szabó– another hit for Peak Performances!

Réka Szabó

The dance programming at Peak Performances scores again with the U.S. debut of Hungary’s The Symptoms in the two-part work, Apropos (October 16-19).  Artistic Director Réka Szabó’s solo I will be all of these things one day opened, the evening closed with the nicely danced group work, I don't remember being raised like this, an overarching play on aging with some cliché images using lights and sound.  The first part, a solo danced by the 44-year-old dancer/choreographer Szabó, was strong, confrontational, and filled with interesting parts.  She set out to answer questions about the choices she made in her life: “Can you break from the past”? “Can you make a new start”?  The audience is drawn into Szabó's world, and at times, have private conversations.  Very close to the audience is a small dressing table with varied items: hair brush, clothes hung from a chair, etc.  This is her personal corner, surrounded by the wide-open stage.  Far away, against the back wall, and in the opposite corner, is a door.  Every now and then someone knocks and in a loud voice, begs for entrance but is never given attention. Her focus is the audience so she prods with questions: "What did you have for lunch today?" "What shall we play"? "Did you cry today?" "Are you happy today"? and so on.  This journey is packed solid.  Szabó does a dance with just the meat on her belly making moving shapes (a heart, a mouth and more), in joint-driven movement phrases she commands ease, and at one point she circles the space, brushing a wig that with every stroke pulls out multiple strands of hair.  Later, now nude and under a single dim light, meditatively slow, she slithers through yoga pose after pose, finishes, then asks if we are asleep.  She walks to the edge of the stage lies face up, very still for a long time.  One astute audience member paid very close attention when earlier, drinking from a water bottle, Szabó taught us about the importance of water and how we need it to bring us back.  The audience member got up, walked to the stage, poured water into Szabó's mouth, she "awakens," they chat, and both separate, to the dressing table, and into the audience.  Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” fills the theatre as the happy Szabó gets dressed:  

Birds flying high
You know how I feel
Sun in the sky
You know how I feel
Reeds driftin' on by
You know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good...

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