Szeged Contemporary Dance Company - 2024. Fall
Szeged Contemporary Dance Company 
2024. Fall
„We will have a lot of performances” informed us Szeged Contemporary Dance Copmany’s director. András Echéry-Pataki said they broke a record with last season’s 105 performances but are planning to surpass it in the upcoming season of 2024-2025. Regarding the foreign guest performances: they will be on stage 24 times in four months only by December 31, the number of which last season was 25 in total.
András Echéry-Pataki
Director of Szeged Contemporary Dance Company
According to artistic director Tamás Juronics all this takes serious physical efforts. „You can only have a geat deal of shows if there is a request on the audience’s and invitors’ side. In our case there is no better proof than the fact that we perform the widely high number of performances with full houses in Szeged, as well as in Budapest and other Hungarian and foreign venues. By playing many pieces of our repertoire we were able to speak to over 60,000 people. Even theatres with large groups would be proud of such numbers. We are able to create all this with small budget and little support which is why distribution is important to us. Without these incomes we would not be able to operate and create new pieces. From the perspective of the market assessment and support of a company its appearance weight cannot be left out."
Tamás Juronics
Artistic Director of Szeged Contemporary Dance Company
András Echéry-Pataki - taking the operation conditions of the company into consideration – engages the attention of the financial part of the realization of the performances and tours. As he mentioned: the unpredictability resulting from the transition of the financing in cultural life means an uncertain situation for them. "We have to think about several plans side by side but since our work is planned well in advance and for the long term it is extremely challenging. We constantly wait for decisions that could make our financial planning for the next period predictable. In addition we must continue to maintain the professional standards that typify us."

The company playing Carmina Burana fulfilled three festival invitations as a VIP guest of the series of national holiday programs organized around the twentieth of August. To the great joy of Tamás Juronics - who is originally from the lake city – the premiere of his piece met great success at the closing event of the newly opened Tata Open Air Theatre. Next day the company performed in Sopron as part of the cultural program series called „1100 years in Europe, 20 years in the Union”, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation. Finally in Debrecen as the closing chord of summer program series the tunes of Carl Orff were played on the Nagyerdő stage.
Carmina burana
Fairy tales are highlighted this season and the high number of performances is due - among other things - to double children's and family plays. Following Szeged Cinderella will also visit Müpa and as winter approaches the The Nutcracker will play the main role. "We have been playing Tchaikovsky's classic fairy tale ballet for 12 years so we decied it is time for it to be completely formly renewed. It will have new scenery, costumes and the story will also be extended with unseen scenes serving also the visual needs of the adults accompanying the children." Tamás Juronics also revealed that beside the two main pieces of the repertoire: Carmina Burana and Black Swan they will continue playing Wilds, Bolero, and The House of Bernarda Alba too. Due to the busy schedule another great audience favorite, Lear will return to the stage at the end of January. "We do not want to leave this piece behind as it holds dashing roles for our dancers. Our team is fantastic, the members of which have special skills both regarding dance technique and acting. As a change Desirée Bazzani left and to our huge regret Petra Bocsi after many years in the genre decided to stop dancing but she, as a marketing manager, remaines to strengthten our team. We will welcome two new members: Chiara Gionti already joined us dancing in Black Swan in April and in May she brilliantly took over the title role of Cinderella in Müpa. Her attitude as a performer, her spitz technique and presence on stage are especially gladsome for us. Málna Csató, a recent graduate of the Hungarian Dance University has also become a member of our company. „I thought it was important to choose someone from the university's graduating students who, this way, will have the opportunity to join us immediately, start working and developing in the direction to what our company represents. I was convinced already at the concert exam that Málna is an outstanding, talented dancer." 
Black Swan
The company's tours are guaranteed day by day, coordinated by our Belgian manager, the owner of Ballets.be. The long term collaboration between Didier Durieux and Szeged Contemporary Dance Company has begun years ago and still continues unbroken. Reconciliations are already ongoing for the 2025 autumn premiere: To rephrase Bergmann, Scenes from a Marriage, told by the choreography of Tamás Juronics will be seen for the first time in spring in Szeged. András Echéry-Pataki revealed that they are also negotiating another large-scale live orchestral performance for which they are looking for national, international partners and they would like to involve Szeged as a twin town. "We are leaving for France at the end of October performing for two weeks in Paris at the Le 13ème Art Theater which is an important stage for our brand building abroad. It is a huge challenge as we have never played in Paris before. It is culturally an extremely colourful city so to draw attention to the company at a first appearance is not a small task. We will bring two shows: Carmina Burana and Black Swan, both 6 performances each.

After the local premiere of The Nutcracker we will return to Helsinki’s the Savoy Theater in the second half of November and after performing Carmina burana at our guest performance last year we will now bring Black Swan. We will not be coming home from there but continue our journey to Brussels where last year the company exceeded expectations so they were happy to invite us back there again. We are bringing three pieces to Cirque Royal - which by now almost feels like home: Carmina burana, Black Swan and as a novelty, The Nutcracker. We will perform each of them twice. It is a serious international challenge to perform a fairy tale ballet. As part of our long-term plans we are in preparation of an addition program. Joined with the Liszt Institute in Brussels we are organizing a professional day on November 25. Within the frames of this the artistic director of Szeged Contemporary Dance Company, Tamás Juronics will participate in a podium talk alongside with costume designer, Bianca Jeremias. At the same time an exhbithion of the pieces’ scenery and costumes will open. This way we are making the already fruitful relationship with the Hungarian cultural institute even stronger and for the future we are planning more programs related to our performances in Belgium."

In connection with Scenes from a Marriage Tamás Juronics said that they always deal with important topics that meet the viewers' thoughts. They examine human and emotional systems of relationships that affect the viewers in this topic. "Marriage is one of the most stressful and questionable topics of the 21st century. It affects every family, there is no one who is not in some relation with it. The institution of marriage is looking for its place, it has countless dramas, so it is an ideal theatrical material since its diversity and ability to take the audience on an intense emotional roller coaster. Several historical threads will run through the performance raising accurate social dilemmas."

Tamás Juronics closed the reviewal by saying: he believes that their hard work has finally paid off. "The secret of our success is that we tell stories and create characters. Through these a high level of dancing and acting character forming skills can unfold. I use a strong theatrical language that is justificated and receives positive feedbacks both at home and abroad. We are on a square field full of a loads of work where we are happy to perform a lot and have many people watching us."
Belgian tour on Youtube – Szeged Contemporary Dance Company Channel!
Jan 26, 2024
Audition | for the 2025/2026 season
Jan 10, 2025