Horváth Nóra és Oláh Balázs: Bál
You are cordially invited to Bál (Ball), fifty minutes of contemporary folk pop, where well-known hits and joyful dancing await!
‘Mulatós’ is a vibrant genre of popular Hungarian music and dance, traditionally performed at weddings and festive gatherings. BÁL reinterprets this style through the innovative lens of contemporary dance. In the choreography created and performed by Nóra Horváth and Balázs Oláh, traditional male and female roles are deliberately reversed, and the dance only stops when they can no longer breathe, pushing their physical limits. Joined live on stage by experimental electronic musician András Molnár and mulatós singer-keyboardist Olivér Rácz, the piece creates a dynamic dialogue between past and present. In a deeply divided society, this performance seeks a common platform for coexisting contradictions.
Schedule
'Mulatós' is a genre of popular Hungarian music and dance, often played at weddings, village fairs or festive gatherings. Its upbeat, celebratory spirit encourages people to let loose and have fun. Many people love it, others can't stand it, but it is almost impossible to avoid it at celebrations across Hungary. How will mulatós be remembered in a hundred years from now? What defines tradition, and what is living culture? What happens when we revisit this popular genre through the perspective of contemporary dance?
On MU Theater's stage, two music and dance styles, which couldn't seem further apart, meet in the choreography of Nóra Horváth and Balázs Oláh, who combine contemporary and folk dance techniques with the mulatós genre. Another key feature of the performance is electronic music inspired by the hyperpop microgenre, known for its fractured, distorted, layered and playful sound, that is the perfect antithesis of the mulatós, reflecting the overwhelming flood of information in the digital world, which can burn out everything and everyone. The two dancers and choreographers are accompanied live by the experimental musician András Molnár, who is a regular collaborator of several local choreographers, and the vocalist and keyboardist, Oliver Rácz, who is a highly successful mulatós performer and collaborates for the first time on a contemporary dance performance.
BÁL shows that popular tradition is not just an imprint of the past, but a living heritage and part of contemporary culture that is still evolving today. In an extremely divided society, this performance seeks to create a common platform for the co-existence of contradictions found in everyday life.
In January 2021, Nóra Horváth and Balázs Oláh began their first joint research project. Their work and interests are rooted in researching and documenting the current dance culture in Hungary, along with a persistent effort to find new channels of communication through which audiences from different social backgrounds can be engaged. Their goal is to make contemporary dance—largely concentrated in Budapest—more accessible to communities with limited access to the arts. In their artistic practice, they bring today’s social dances—such as urban styles or folk dance—onto the stage, combining them with dramaturgical structures typical of contemporary performances. In doing so, they create a new artistic language that is accessible to a broader audience while also using raw physicality to reflect honestly and radically on current social issues and challenges.
Nóra Horváth was born in Budapest in 1993. She studied at the Budapest Secondary School of Dance. From 2020 to 2023, she was a member of Compagnie du Hanneton / James Thierrée (FR), performing the piece ROOM over a hundred times. Between 2018 and 2020, she was a member of Theater Bremen – Unusual Symptoms. She is co-founder of Collective Dope alongside Jenna Jalonen. Her first independent choreography, Beat, won the Rudolf Lábán Prize in 2018. Alongside her artistic work, she currently works as a social assistant at the Gyáli út shelter of the Budapest Methodological Social Center and Institutions.
Balázs Oláh, dancer, was born in 1994. He graduated in 2014 from the Hungarian Dance Academy, specializing in folk dance, and was a member of the Gárdonyi Géza Theatre in Eger for two years. In 2017, he was admitted to SEAD in Salzburg, where he studied for three years and deepened his knowledge of contemporary dance. In 2020, he worked with Tünet Ensemble and took part in Adrienn Hód’s piece Amber. In 2021, he collaborated with Máté Mészáros. He is a member of the AHA Collective, founded in 2021. In 2024, he earned a professional qualification as a stonemason at Pap Stone Workshop in Szentendre.
Dancer | Creator Nóra Horváth
Dancer | Creator Balázs Oláh
Dancer Zsófia Szász
Musician | Creator András Molnár
Musician | Creator Olivér Rácz
Lighting Designer Kata Dézsi
Set and costume designer / Csenge Vass
Assistant / Panna Makai
Consultant / Viktor Szeri
Photography / R. János Szabó
Assistant / Aranka Csige
Video / Máté Bartha
Visuals / Fanni Falucskai
Copy / Marcell Raczky
Production Manager Rebeka Doszpoth
The production was realized within the framework of the Staféta program announced by the Municipality of Budapest.
The production was created with the support of the National Cultural Fund of Hungary.
Supporters: Staféta program, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Krisztina Téglás
A Collective Dope production