Réka Szabó, Zsófia Szász – The Symptoms:

On Wingless Angels

Work-in-progress presentation

A 57-year-old woman who, three years ago, put the company she built from scratch and led for 20 years into hibernation. Now, she is at a loss for what to do with herself in this World: with her knowledge, her creative drive, her aging, and her longing for an environment that is both inspiring and feels like home. She grapples with her losses, her depression, and the struggle against a pervasive, all-encompassing sense of futurelessness seeping under her skin – all while maintaining an embarrassing passion for contemporary dance. For her, contemporary dance is a political statement.

A 27-year-old dancer-creator whose career is just beginning. She yearns to be seen, heard, and recognized. Primarily, she wants to dance, but also to create and express herself in any other way possible. She wishes to be accepted by the World, yet her body and soul do not conform to expected norms. Her desire for connection and her experienced loneliness are in constant tension. She wants to heal and be healed, to smooth things over, to investigate, and to understand deeply. Curious, honest, sensitive, and uncertain—even as she tensely chases her future, she hopes that contemporary dance will conquer humanity.

The setting is Hungary, where contemporary dance is currently an endangered species – sentenced to extinction by cultural policy. It is a country where, over the last 16 years, much of what these two women believe in has withered away: a value system based on professionalism, the recognition of the power of internal motivation and curiosity, free and independent thinking, a culture of debate, transparency, and the substantiation of claims with facts and arguments.

The two women begin a conversation: Réka Szabó asks Zsófia Szász to help clear the clutter in her head, her heart, and her professional past – to use dance as a reflection of the chaos she currently inhabits. This dialogue has been unfolding intermittently since November 2025 through words, movement, writing, and drawing.

The duet between these two women—through their personal vulnerability and curiosity—is an evolving, living imprint of today’s world and the role of art within it. This performance offers an insight into their experimental, "present-tense" thinking; it is the second stage of a longer work process.

For Zsófia, beyond the act of creation, experiencing a sense of community that spans generations is vital. For Réka, it represents the possibility of a fresh start, engaging in dialogue with the youth, and the beginning of building a new creative environment as part of her program titled Rendrakás (Tidying Up).

Creators-Performers: Réka Szabó and Zsófia Szász

Outside Eye: Lili Raubinek

Lighting: Kata Dézsi