Author: Ingeborg Zackariassen.

Upon entering the auditorium at Cricoteka, the audience was gathered in the foyer at the bottom of the stairs, receiving an introduction to the performance delivered by producer Pawel Lyskawa. As refreshing as it was to have all the dancers’ names read out loud—a novelty in the dance world—it was also clearly stated that The Four Seasons by Maciej Kuzminski; the performance we were about to see; is simply “a celebration of life.” The declaration sounded like a disclaimer designed to set a limit to critical minds’ potential expectations of a more conceptual approach.

Central Europe Dance Theatre – Four Seasons by Maciej Kuźmiński. Photo by Grzesiek Mart.

Surrounding a premiere, there is often anticipation in the air, as the audience don’t know exactly what they will be presented with. Theatres and other art spaces can be a refuge, a place of beauty, a place to leave your worries behind. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Stages are also places that hold great potential for resistance, places in which art can challenge and surprise.

And here, at the bottom of the stairs of Cricoteka, before the introduction, there had been an inherent possibility, and from some audience members even a slight expectation, that a contemporary dance work named The Four Seasons could contain a critical angle.

The programme notes claim that The Four Seasons “draws inspiration from the rituals of Central and Eastern Europe, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens and set to the timeless music of Antonio Vivaldi.” The composer’s seminal work The Four Seasons was published in 1725, exactly 300 years ago the music coming out of the speakers here has more of a 1970’s sound quality to it, with its synthetic voices and instruments, with classical harmonies offering a consistent–if at times a little predictable–backdrop onto which the movement is painted.

Central Europe Dance Theatre – Four Seasons by Maciej Kuźmiński. Photo by Grzesiek Mart.

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons movements are part of a larger body of 12 total concertos, including The Four Seasons. The title of the larger work is Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione, and the most common English translation is The Contest Between Harmony and Invention. Here, in Kuzminski’s choreographic interpretation, the potential for invention seemed to have shied away to give more space to harmony. That quickly becomes problematic as it raises the question: Can there be beauty without friction?

When the light hits the stage, a single man is revealed on the floor, stage right, half naked in skin-coloured underwear, surrounded by a light-pattern reminiscent of a fairytale forest with a contemporary, male version of Michel Fokine’s Dying swan, but in reverse. The dancer’s movements are fluid, almost Makarovaesque, while his face stays unflinching and stoic from beginning to end. The skilled mover pairs his masculine physique with soft, feminine movements: Could this be a nod to Vaslav Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun? It is an interesting beginning, and the simple presence of the solo comes across as ornamental yet intimate and introspective. This is largely due to Marcell Hován’s “less is more” − expression, which he keeps throughout, and which serves as a minimalist juxtaposition to the rest of the performance. Because as soon as the solo fades and Kuzminski’s work starts to journey away from the simplicity of the sculptural solo, The Four Seasons, much to my surprise, places itself in a neo-classical mode of presentation. [Here it might be necessary to disclose that my reading of the work is from a Scandinavian viewpoint. In the northern as well as certain central parts of Europe, the independent contemporary dance presented in similar venues to this one has been moving in an array of directions, rarely, if ever, including the neo-classical. While the large institutional theatres and opera houses keep presenting classical and neo-classical ballets today, it’s become increasingly rare for the independent field to include this genre of dance in this realm. Following the introduction of the interchangeable Blackbox theatre – which has its roots in the American avant-garde and was created to offer a canvas for any stage expression to fit into– the intimacy inherent in this format has created a norm of less classical expressions.]

The rest of the ensemble enters one by one from the wings, all wearing the nude-coloured underwear so often present in neo-classical ballet, and the choreography, at first impressive in its combination of fluidity and sharpness, is danced well. However, the clever movement compositions and unexpected dynamic changes can’t sustain the long duration of the work.

Central Europe Dance Theatre – Four Seasons by Maciej Kuźmiński. Photo by Grzesiek Mart.

One by one, the dancers change underwear for everyday outfits, bringing what happens on stage closer to a contemporary reality. There are a few moments when the presence of the dancing bodies is strong enough, like when a slow embrace, a stark contrast to the repetitive patterns of the ensemble, creates a simple image of tenderness, an intimate moment that could last longer. Amid the multiple costume changes and smoke machine interventions, I start to wonder if any intentions beyond aesthetic beauty have gone missing?

The Four Seasons is promoted to “offer a fresh perspective on Hungarian traditions and explore the tension between the community and the individual”, something that made me search for the political dimension of the work. Not every performative work has to be explicit in its political stance, but I must admit to stepping in with certain expectations, as Kuzminski’s 2019 work Plateau, a collaboration with director Paul Bargetto, was censored by right-wing politicians. The work is described on the website as being a controversial work – exploring the shattered reality of contemporary Poland, set against a backdrop of surveillance capitalism, conspiracy theory and religious fanaticism. Kuzminski’s work Every Minute Motherland, which premiered in 2022 – here with Bargetto as dramaturge — positions itself clearly politically. The choreographer’s website states: “From Mariupol to Kharkhiv, and everywhere else the war has come, culture and artists have been made deliberate targets in an attempt to destroy the Ukrainian nation. This project is an act of resistance to these crimes and a statement of solidarity with Ukraine.”

So why has The Four Seasons been left so harmonious without comment on the state of the world? When placing Kuzminski’s earlier political stance in front of the current political landscape in Europe–and in this case the Hungarian one—as a looming backdrop, one could have been likely to assume that using fragments of folkdance could open a door for commentary, but if that was the aim, the target was missed.

Then again, the world and its seasons don’t care about human traditions, but to end on a poetic note, although it’s as much a scientific truth: It’s the Earth’s tilted axis that causes the seasons in the first place.

Four Seasons by Maciej Kuzminski, Danced by Central Europe Dance Theatre, Tadeusz Kantor’s Centre for Documentation/ Cricoteka in Krakow, Poland. (Pre)Premiere, 7th of February 2025.

This text was written by Ingeborg Zackariassen within the framework of the Beyond Front@: Bridging Periphery project.