The dance performance “The Power of Love” tells the story of Abelard and Heloise and follows the ancient scenario: a teacher and his student fall passionately in love, which ends tragically. The Horizont International Contemporary Dance Festival begins on the 23rd with a dance performance by the Miskolc Ballet.
According to the basic story, Heloise was under the tutelage of her uncle, the respected canon. She stood out from the other girls early on with her sharp wit. Abélard was a scholarly priest and an excellent lecturer, famous far and wide, who was impressed by the young girl’s education. Therefore, he persuaded the uncle to let him move into their house, and as payment he offered to educate the girl in the high sciences. The teacher and his student fell in love, but their love was discovered and the man was thrown out of the canonical palace. The lovers then kept in touch with each other through secret correspondence. When the man found out from one of the messages that his beloved was expecting a child, he ran away from Héloise and they got married. This angered Héloise’s guardian, so Abélard sent his wife to a convent to save her life. He, on the other hand, could not avoid revenge, hired pribés stripped him of his manhood. After that, they could never be each other’s. Heloise outlived Abelard by more than twenty years. When she died, she was buried next to her husband.
The dancers from Miskolc worked on the meeting and tragic separation of Abelard and Héloise. Choreographer-director of the performance Attila Kozma explained to our portal that, in his opinion, the root of the tragedy is that the church did not accept liberalism that was not appropriate for the times. The fundamental conflict that led to the tragedy of the two people was that, due to their outstanding intellect, they were able to tune in to each other to such an extent that it was inappropriate in the dogmatic religious environment of the time, and therefore not acceptable.
According to the choreographer, it was quite difficult to show this story, preserved and unfolding in the correspondence, in dance. Therefore, they let their imaginations run free, and as creators, they all put in what they think about this love, creating the visible version together. As he said, one of the biggest challenges of the rehearsal process was the lack of a story, because despite this, the scenes still had to be put together in such a way that they fit together and tell something about the two people and their environment, while also keeping in mind that the finished work could be consumed both content-wise and visually.
About the two main actors, Attila Kozma said that Boglárka Kepess, who plays Heloise, captured her with her fragility, she has been dancing with the company for a long time, but she has not yet been given a leading role. Although he has an excellent comedic vein, it was thought that he would be tried in a dramatic role. Ondrej Potuzník recently arrived from the Czech Republic. A calm, intellectual character, the role suits him structurally. According to the director, it was a good decision to entrust the task to them, both of them solved their roles well.
Baked Buttercup he told our portal that although he played comedic characters before, he still feels good in this dramatic role, which he is starting to feel in his body and in his own. According to his confession, he already saw that he would be able to identify with the character when they watched the film about the life of Abélard and Héloise. In his opinion, Heloise is somewhat like him, a bit frivolous, but also serious.
The show’s set and costume designer Mara Bozókithe music Gábor Barva and Tamás Mohila created especially for this performance, which can be seen in the Game Theater from April 23.
Tags: Miskolc Ballet presents heartwrenching story
