ArtMenők & HODWORKS: IDOL

We look up to our idols, we worship and imitate them. An idol is a person or role model that we can follow by common consent. Idol. Who do we see when we hear this word? What normative notions do we use to select them? Where does it lead us if instead of functioning in an inclusive way, we constantly fail while we try to follow exclusively designated idols who are in fact strangers to us?

Idol, a joint production by ArtMenők and HODWORKS, creates a space where able-bodied and non-normative performers can take to the stage together, creating a world they want to live in their everyday, personal spaces. The two companies suggest that the field of contemporary performing arts may be the most appropriate starting point for the pervasive social change that has long been called for. This kind of rethinking and revising of the often strict rules of domestic contemporary dance is very timely.

The liberating novelty of the international production of Harmonia (HODWORKS & Unusual Symptoms), which premiered in 2021, is now continued in a local, Hungarian context. Adrienn Hód has been collaborating with ArtMenők since autumn 2022, in the form of in-depth rehearsal research. The focus of the sessions was to allow young people with different abilities and non-normative bodies to explore, accompanied by HODWORKS dancers, previously unknown terrains in a safe space where they can express themselves through their own choices. During the creative work, participants worked on intensive attention control, conscious body use and coordinated work with space, and the resulting performance is adapted to the performers’ skills, contrary to normative expectations, so that they can present themselves in an inclusive space, within a flexible framework.

About

HODWORKS, founded by Adrienn Hód in 2007, is active in the Hungarian and international contemporary dance scenes. The company collaborates with freelance artists and explores boundary-pushing directions, often focusing on the physicality of the exposed body. Their performances have been selected three times by Aerowaves and have received multiple awards, including the Rudolf Lábán and Imre Zoltán prizes.

ArtMenők, the youth program of the Artman Association founded in 2020, collaborates with HODWORKS to connect young people with and without disabilities through shared themes and decisions. This leads to equal creative and performative processes that culminate in movement theater performances. "Idol" is their second major stage production. ArtMenők promotes inclusion through artistic collaboration..

Adrienn Hód is a Hungarian choreographer working internationally in the fields of contemporary dance and experimental movement. Her works, often at the intersection of dance, theater, and performance, explore human physicality free of taboos. Hód employs guided improvisation in the rehearsal space, which appears structured on stage. In 2007, she founded the dance company HODWORKS with freelance artists.