Dance performance
Non-verbal with English subtitles
Trigger warning: intense sound effects, smoke, 13+

Zsófia Tamara Vadas is a choreographer, contemporary dancer-performer and dance teacher whose performances bring movement into interaction with sound, space and different states of consciousness and perception. Her individual and collaborative works are both characterised by an experimental attitude whereby she approaches dance from the perspective of other artistic practices. Crater is a particularly fascinating further exploration of this creative practice, as it is not a conventional fixed choreography, but an evolving performative research project that manifests itself in different locations and constellations. Its point of departure is the duality of loss and new beginnings: a crater is simultaneously the trace of a mighty event, a wound and a void, but also the site where a new landscape, a new form emerges. Particularly exciting is the way Vadas seeks to grasp this conceptual point of departure by means of physical intensities instead of a narrative format: through the dramaturgical arc of ecstasy, agonising, letting go and reorganisation, she explores the dialectical tensions between destruction and creation, absence and excess, the loss of control and the emergence of a new form. At the centre of the performance is an intriguing fictional creature that seems to emerge from a “crater”, or from the negative space of it. Vadas’s choreography is always based on the specific architectural, atmospheric and acoustic qualities of the particular space, treating each location not as a backdrop but as an active partner in the choreography. Each encounter with a new location inevitably begets a new version. (Ádám Czirák, curator)

Crater is a series of instant performances that explores the concepts of loss and new beginnings, moving from the invisible toward the visible. It investigates the transformations of ecstasy, agonization, and letting go. This is an emotional and physical inquiry in which the intense alternation of concrete and abstract processes is physically embodied, leaving imprints of our emotional states.
These instant performances also serve as experimental platforms – manifestations of an ongoing, practice-based research.
Crater always invites the specific space and acoustic qualities of each location to become partners in the choreography.
The creature formed within the crater is a sensing, intimate being that, through its behavior, embodies the fictional space where different realities can meet. This reality becomes tangible through the tools of the body and perception, through layers of sound and space, in continuous dialogue with the atmosphere of the place and the presence of the audience. 

CREDITS

Performer: Zsófia Tamara Vadas ​
Supported by: Trilateral Exchange Program, Workshop Foundation, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Art Quarter Budapest, Sín Cultural Centre: Zero Step Program / Nulladik lépés program, National Cultural Fund of Hungary (NKA), Katlan Group

BIO

Zsófia Tamara Vadas is a Budapest-based dancer-performer, choreographer, and dance educator. Her work moves across the fields of contemporary dance, performing arts, and interdisciplinary collaboration. At the core of her practice is the act of engaging, experimentation, and the creation of performative situations in which different disciplines mutually influence and shape one another.
In her work, she explores the space between the audience and the performer, as well as the “field of not-knowing,” through improvisation, instant composition, and various embodied practices. She often works with artists of different ages and backgrounds, creating horizontal, non-hierarchical working environments. She does not maintain a permanent company; instead, she works through project-based collaborations and spontaneously formed collectives.
Alongside her creative and performance work, she also works as an outside eye, dramaturg, and choreographic consultant with numerous Hungarian artists. As a dance educator and facilitator of creative movement classes and workshops, she supports the development of curiosity, body awareness, and imagination.
She is the founder of the Balta Award, which supports innovation, risk-taking, and keeping the creative spark alive within the field of contemporary dance.

Contact

Zsófia Tamara VADAS
cukkerova@gmail.com
@t_o_n_y_t_o_n_y_a/