Dance
Non-verbal / In English
Trigger warning: smoke, pitch darkness, nudity, live animal, royal python, 16+

Imre Vass is a defining figure in the Hungarian contemporary dance and performance scene, whose choreographies in recent years have been defined by relaxation, meditation and intimacy. His repertoire includes playing on expectations, humour, and flirting with both ambiguity and unambiguity. MMXXV takes Enigma’s 1990 album MCMXC a.D. as its point of departure along with the cultural and sensual world it evokes: a peculiar intertwining of spirituality and sexuality, meditative immersion and pop-cultural aesthetic. From a perspective of thirty-five years, Vass regards this music as a source of dramaturgical inspiration, capable of rendering desire, attachment, vulnerability and trust tangible. One of the most powerful choreographic features of MMXXV is its consistent use of simultaneity. Dance sequences taking place simultaneously at different points in the space do not organise themselves around a single dominant event or perspective. This is a queer dramaturgy which, in the sense proposed by Mathias Danbolt, is capable, through the compositional principle of simultaneity, of subverting the hierarchical order in which one event necessarily precedes, replaces or overshadows another. In the space of MMXXV, different modes and intensities of connection instead coexist, and the choreography renders the qualities of plurality and coexistence perceptible. It is particularly alluring that MMXXV achieves all this not through the conceptual aesthetic of contemporary dance, but by embracing sensuality, the joy of musicality, theatricality, eroticism and playfulness. (Ádám Czirák, curator)

The choreography bows down before the musical masterwork, Enigma’s iconic album MCMXC a.D; the creator-performers surrender themselves to the music’s gentle pulse. They do not impose their theatrical or compositional ideas upon it – they allow themselves to be led. They yield, releasing the possibilities hidden in their pelvises; and at the sound of the emblematic, synthesized shakuhachi flute, a desire awakens in them to connect freely, without shame or inhibition, with themselves and with the human and non-human materials and beings that capture their attention.
“Good evening
 This is the voice of Enigma
 In the next hour, we will take you with us into another world
 Into the world of music, spirit, and meditation
 Turn off the light, take a deep breath, and relax
 Start to move slowly, very slowly
 Let the rhythm be your guiding light.”
Released in 1990, Enigma’s debut album MCMXC a.D. begins with these lines. Michael Cretu, the Romanian-born composer and producer, spent nine months at his Ibiza home studio recording his taboo- and groundbreaking album. Blending elements of worldbeat, new age, Gregorian chant, ambient, dance, and pop, it explored themes of religion and sexuality.
MMXXV invites the audience to a collective album-listening experience, where we can examine our relationship to intimacy, desire, and attachment – or the resistances and fears connected to these – within a sensual and safe space. 2025 was the Year of the Snake in Chinese Astrology, a period of transformation, healing, and shifting perspectives.

CREDITS

Concept, direction: Imre VASS
Choreography, performance: Márton GLÁSER, Adrienn HÓD, Imola KACSÓ, Csaba MOLNÁR, Imre VASS
Lights: Kata DÉZSI
Costume: Márton GLÁSER, Adrienn HÓD, Imola KACSÓ, Csaba MOLNÁR, Imre VASS
Stage design: Imre VASS
Production management: Brigitta KOVÁCS \ Next Stage+

Special thanks: Zsófia LELKES, András MOLNÁR, Luca PETRÁNYI

Production Partner: Katlan Group, Workshop Foundation

Supported by: Life Long Burning, NDA Slovenia, European Union, art quarter Budapest, under500 festival, Artus, EMMI, Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary, Next Stage+

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

REVIEWS

 “For although, on paper, the transcendent stands above that which can be experienced through the senses – meaning that it is not even remotely possible for the two to exist in symbiosis – here it is as if they are trying to show us that there are, indeed, points of convergence: on the one hand, at the point of entry, in that neither can exist without passion and self-surrender; and on the other hand, at the point of exit, in that catharsis is potentially present in both.”
– Csaba Králl, Élet és Irodalom, 2026.

TOURS, FESTIVALS

Inota Festival, Várpalota, (HU), 2026.
Co-Festival, Ljubljana, (SL), 2026.

BIO

Imre VASS (Vasi) is a Budapest based performing artist and author who wanders between the fields of dance, choreography and performance. His works are inspired and determined by self-reflection, insights and pitfalls related to the objects and qualities of perception.
“I host environments for a non-harmful exploration of the comfort zone, to overcome the uncomfortable while tuning, training and sharpening the muscles of attention. I play with expectations and I flirt with ambiguity on the playground of performing arts.” (Imre Vass)
In 2025, he premiered Reading The Room, a solo performance, and began developing ADULT SWIM, an adult dance class format. He is currently creating a new solo performance, FIREWALL, which explores the notions of protection and safety, while also developing Constant Climax, an ongoing research project with Patrik Kelemen.
In Hungary, he worked with choreographers and companies such as Patrik Kelemen, Dávid Somló, Viktor Szeri, Marcio K. Canabarro, HODWORKS, Hollow, Willany Leó, The Symptoms and STEREO Akt. Abroad, with the companies Ultima Vez (BE), Rapid Eye (DK), Ingri Fiksdal (NO) and United Sorry (AT\NL).
He graduated at the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy (BA dancer). He was a danceWEB scholarship recipient (2010), participated in SPAZIO (2012-2013), the Philadelphia Bilateral Artist Exchange Program (2016) and he was a member of iCoDaCo (2018-2020, he was a Creative Crossroads artist (2023-2024) supported by Life Long Burning.
He is a three-time STAFÉTA winner: STANDING GROUND (2017), Game Changer (2021) and RELAX (2023), a two-time Péter Halász award and a Rudolf Lábán award winner.

CONTACT

Imre Vass
imrevassimre@gmail.com
imrevass.hu ​
instagram.com/_imrevass/
 
Brigitta Kovács \ Next Stage+
bkovacs.theatre@gmail.com