Gábor Pete
My short
dance cv: I was born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1976. Besides
dancing, I am a mathematician (researcher and professor). After some childhood experience in folk dance and karate I
began dance in August 1999, at an intensive workshop by Katalin
Balla, which experience immediately led me to start doing contemporary dance and improvisation seriously. Since then, I am
learning through workshops and performances; working with Katalin and her
students, and with David
Zambrano have been the most influential. I also worked a lot with
Gyula Berger and Ákos Hargitay (L1
danceLab), and the workshops of Hanna Barbara, Karl Frost,
Julyen Hamilton, Ferenc
Kálmán, Daniel Lepkoff, Steve Paxton, Sten
Rudstrom, and Min Tanaka were
extremely inspiring and helpful.
I feel improvisation to be
the best technique to widen and deepen my body language and my perception and
thinking about life and theater. In theater I like to watch and show and share
the ways of creating structures, the decisions that lead to one chosen
possibility out of many.
Click here for an explanation
(sorry, not yet) about improvisation and mathematics: What is the connection,
and why are they so important (at least to me)? Here is a site-specific
improvisation research series I tried to run in Berkeley: Improvised
place & improvised time. And here is my sister's (Nóra Pete) Függőkert (Hanging Garden) dance project
in Budapest, and a
photo where my wife Katalin
Pálinkás is dancing. Below is the detailed history of my dance activity,
with some photos from performances.
Participation in performances:
October 16-17,
1999, Western Railway Station, Budapest: Szeged Express: Nine, seven.
Site-specific performance in the spaces of the railway station and on the
train leaving for Szeged. Part of the series of performances organized by the
Workshop Foundation to popularize dance. T.u.v.(g.)produkció, choreography and
direction by Katalin Balla.
May 23, 2000, Brno: Fruit Castle, at the International Festival
'Pod Sklem' of Contemporary Dance. T.u.v.(g.)produkció and Group Hétfo,
choreography and direction by Katalin Balla, based on work with the dancers.
Aug. 3, 2000, Pepsi Island Festival, Cökxpôn Ambient Garden, Budapest:
Crab soup, Gyula Berger and Friends Dance Company, choreography and
direction by Gyula Berger. Four movements, improvisation by Gyula Berger,
Celesta Haraszti, Zizi Mészáros, Gábor Pete; music by Burton Beerman.
Aug. 8, 2000, Pepsi Island Festival, Cökxpôn Ambient Garden, and Dance- and
Theatre Tent, Budapest: Matrix project No1 and No2, Cie 2in1 Ákos
&Mimi and their Guests (Zsófi Fóti, Eszter Gál, Ákos Hargitay, Ferenc
Kálmán, Michaela Pein, Gábor Pete, Vicky Shick), structured improvisations.
November 3,
2000, Theatre Szkéné, Budapest: At once - but dance! Improvisation by
Eszter Gál, Ákos Hargitay, Michaela Pein, Gábor Pete.
November 11,
2000, Cökxpôn Ambient Festival, Trafó (House of Contemporary Art), Budapest:
Cellar dream. Gyula Berger and Friends Dance Company, choreography by the
company, direction by Gyula Berger.
November 24,
2000, Banán Klub, Budapest; March 17, 2001, Hajdúböszörmény; June 6-7, 2001,
Theatre Bárka, Budapest: Two days in Venice. T.u.v.(g.)produkció,
choreography by Katalin Balla and the dancers (Gábor Pete and Gyöngyi Vad),
direction by Katalin Balla.
December 3,
2000, "Impulzus 2000" Conference on Dance Therapies, Budapest:
Improvisation by Group Hétfo.
March 11,
2001, Theatre MU, Budapest: Little Rose. Gyula Berger and his Friends
Dance Company, choreography by the company, direction by Gyula Berger.
February 10, 2002, International House at UC Berkeley: Circles. Solo improvisation.
April 13, 2002,
International House at UC Berkeley, A fruit
with nails. Solo improvisation.
July 25, Aug 8, Aug 22, 2003,
Danswerkplaats Amsterdam: Informal showings of the Rabbit Project, by David Zambrano and 18
dancers from 12 countries, and Jennifer Monson as a guest.
January 16,
2004, 5th Solo Festival, Theater MU, Budapest: Citrancs (A name for a grapefruit). Structured
solo improvisation. Photos
at www.terasz.hu.
July 20 and 24, 2004, Verbier Academy and Festival,
FestOFF: Teleportation.
Site-specific perfomance with 5 dancers and 2 musicians in TeleVerbier ski-lift
terminal.
January 13, 2005, Theater MU, Budapest, and May 3, 2005. Trafó,
Budapest, 4th Duo Festival: Testvér
és hézag (Brother and sister and gap). Duett with
my sister Nóra Pete. Thanks to Katalin Balla. Lights by Károly
Mahr. Prize from the audience. Photos
at www.terasz.hu.
Continuous training and research:
1999 - 2001: Katalin Balla, Improvisation, contact improvisation,
composition, weekly classes at Trafó (House of Contemporary Art),
Budapest
1999 - 2000: Ferenc
Kálmán, Improvisation and Body Mind
Centering, weekly classes at Trafó
1999 - 2001: Gyula Berger,
Creative modern dance, weekly classes at Trafó
Winter 1999/2000: Ákos
Hargitay, performance-independent regular work
2000 - 2001: Gyula
Berger, performance-independent regular work
Spring 2001: Weekly
Improvisation Workshop with dancers and musicians.
2001 - 2002:
Regular classes in Modern dance, Music resources for dancers, and Capoeira at
the University of California, Berkeley
2001 - 2002: Monthly Master Class
series in contemporary dance of Axis Dance Company, Oakland,
CA
Fall 2002: Off the ground dances - aerial dance workshop, Jo Kreiter, San Francisco, CA
Summer 2003: The Rabbit Project - A six-week research
project with David Zambrano and 18
dancers from 12 countries, with guest teachers Jennifer
Monson (improvisation) and Tom
Koch (Alexander technique)
Fall 2003: Aikido classes at Indiana University,
Bloomington, IN
2003 - 2004: Contact improvisation jams in
Seattle, WA, and Berkeley and San Francisco, CA. E.g., the
Valencia Jam by Ali
Woolwich.
Spring 2004: Mia
Rovegno, Viewpoints, San Francisco, CA
One- and two-week workshops:
Aug 1999:
Katalin Balla, Improvisation and composition
Oct 1999:
Vertigo,
Contemporary technique
Nov 2000:
Vicky Shick, Composition
Jan
2000:
Ákos Hargitay, Deep hop
March 2000:
Katalin Balla,
Foot-head - improvisation
May 2000:
Éva Gálik, Limón
June
2000:
Martin Keogh, Contact improvisation
Aug 2000 Tanzwochen 2000,
Vienna:
David
Zambrano, Improvisation for performers, Flying
low
Frey Faust, Axis
syllabus
Nov 2000:
Ferenc Kálmán, Body Mind Centering
Dec
2000 :
Julyen Hamilton, Improvisation in performance
Jan 2001:
Daniel Lepkoff, Improvisation
Feb 2001:
Hanna Barbara, Plug in
for excitement - improvisation and composition - workshop and audition
May
2001:
Frey Faust, Axis syllabus
June 2001:
Katalin Balla,
Elements - improvisation
Dec 2001:
Márta
Ladjánszki, Contemporary technique
Jan 2002:
Daniel Lepkoff and Oleg Soulimenko,
Improvisation
Jan 2002, Amsterdam:
Julyen
Hamilton, Improvisation
June 2002:
Ákos Hargitay, Free fall - contemporary
technique
June 2002, Palic, Serbia:
Min
Tanaka, Body Weather (butoh)
July 2002, Lázárfalva, Transylvania:
Katalin Balla, "Contact"
improvisation
Aug 2002, Tanzwochen 2002, Vienna:
David Zambrano, A dance web - a Pro Series
project
Jan 2003:
Katalin Balla,
Voice and improvisation; Contact improvisation
Jan 2003:
La Compagnie du Solitaire,
Improvisation
Jan 2003:
Attila
Csabai, The Xabay method
June 2003:
Katalin Balla, Improvisation
Sept 2003:
Katalin Balla, Improvisation with
classical music
Feb 2004, Berkeley:
Karl
Frost, Contact improvisation
March 2004, San Francisco:
Sten Rudstrom, Wild in tandem
July 2004,
Verbier, Switzerland:
Steve Paxton,
Material for the spine
Aug 2004:
Katalin Balla, Sounding space -
improvisation for musicians and dancers
June 2005:
Katalin Balla,
choreography
Aug 2005
: Katalin Balla, Roasted duck -
choreography
Oct 2005, Berkeley:
Karl
Frost, Being there
(Workshops without named location took place in
Budapest.)
I am grateful to these two beautiful studios in Budapest for
giving me rehearsal space: the
MMS Mozdulatművészeti
Stúdió (Studio for the Art of Movement)
and
L1 danceLab.
