Eryk Makohon (PL) – M Studio (RO): Dirty Dancing | 14. SŐT7 festival

The performance, while its title clearly references the 1987 film classic (which premiered in Poland in the landmark year of 1989), is not a reinterpretation of it. Instead, it is an autonomous and radical response to the idea of "dirty dancing"—as a metaphor for transgression. We are interested in dance that we understand not merely as a choreography of movement, but as a performative act of crossing social norms: ethically, aesthetically, and emotionally. Dirty Dancing is a dance that is impure, shameful, lustful, disturbing—yet simultaneously liberating and transformative.

Together with four performers from M Studio, we conducted a study on individual “awkward performances.” Each artist developed their own stage alter ego and a series of movements and gestures balancing between the awkward, the ridiculous, and the joyful. A key element of the process was guilty pleasure—understood not as pop culture entertainment, but as an act of crossing social boundaries and testing the limits of comfort zones. We explored what happens when pleasure is no longer burdened by guilt.

The performance examines the political potential of the awkward performance—as a strategy of resistance against social expectations, norms, and pressure. We are curious whether the conscious transgression of the boundaries of "good taste" and convention can lead to a new quality of presence—a more authentic, embodied experience that is more sensitive to one’s own emotions. In this sense, Dirty Dancing is not a performance to be intellectually analyzed from a safe distance. It is an event that engages the viewer on a physical and emotional level, inviting empathy, vicarious shame, and shared laughter. It is also a proposal—risky but honest—to treat our own sense of shame as a gateway to freedom.

Credits

• Concept, Direction, Set Design: Eryk Makohon (PL)
• Performers: Zoltán Deák (RO), Eszter Nagy (RO), Emília Polgár (RO), László Szekrényes (RO)
• Dramaturg: Daria Kubisiak (PL)
• Costumes: Zsuzsi Szőke (RO)
• Director and Choreographer Assistant: Paweł Łyskawa (PL)

Attention! The performance is recommended for audiences aged 16 and over. The performance contains a strobe light effect and is therefore not recommended for those sensitive to light.

The Dirty Dancing performance is realized within the framework of the Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery Creative Europe project (2023–2026), created by the Central Europe Dance Theatre (Hungary), Bunker (Slovenia), Croatian Institute for Movement and Dance – HIPP (Croatia), Kraków Dance Theatre (Poland), M Studio (Romania), and Vitlycke – Centre for Performing Arts (Sweden) to foster the local development of the contemporary dance field.