Greta Gellért, a graduating student in modern dance at the Hungarian Dance University (HDU), was lucky with her internship which provided an opportunity for everyone to spend a full semester as an intern. Gréta spent her internship at the Central European Dance Theatre and at Dart Dance Company-Berlin, the latter together with Bora Mohácsi.
“I was lucky to be in two completely different places during my traineeship. I started at the Central European Dance Theatre (CEDT) in Budapest, and then I came to Berlin to join the student programme of the Dart Dance Company. I was not on my own, because my classmate Bora Mohácsi arrived here a month earlier”, said Gréta.
The university’s graduate student said that on both occasions she was immersed in a real creative process.
“In Budapest I was involved in the rehearsal process of a new production of the company, choreographed by László Mádi. We rehearsed for six hours a day. It was exciting to see how a piece is made and how professional dancers work. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it.”
At Dart in Berlin, the task was different, as the HDU students took part in ballet and modern classes with Bora Mohácsi.
“The classes were surprisingly varied, with different guest teachers every time, so we got to experience very different approaches and styles, which I am convinced will be very useful in my career.”
Gréta Gellért felt that the time spent at CEDT and in Berlin cannot be compared to university days and years, because these are professional companies. It is understandable that the Hungarian Dance University’s task is to train dancers like it has been in the past seven decade.
“It was at the Central Europe Dance Theatre that I first experienced what it was like to be a dance artist, a real dancer in a play. It took me a while to adapt and pick up to speed, because at university the expectations are very different. It was an eye-opening period because I discovered a lot of my shortcomings. But in hindsight, I consider it a great success that I was able to figure them all out before I left university, because it gave me time to work on them. I see that I partly have the foundations, or perhaps I should say the foundations, that I will need in a company, and partly not. There is no problem with doing the movements technically correct. However, we had to realize that this is only the basis of dance. This is where I really understood what it means to put yourself, your own personality and style into the dance, because that is what makes it truly art. Sometimes that’s still missing. It’s true that it can be developed just like technique, and obviously you need a routine, but I found that in Berlin they put much more emphasis on it.”
The HDU students together with director of DART Kinga Varga
At CEDT, Adrienn Horváth and László Mádi worked mainly with Greta Gellért, while at Dart, in addition to the guest teachers already mentioned, the members of the company and its director, Kinga Varga, who was constantly present, monitored the creative processes and the operation of the student programme.
“It was a great opportunity to work at different companies. We’ve been able to build relationships and work with a lot of inspiring artists, which has added a lot to our knowledge. Now I feel that I gained most of my knowledge and experience in these few months because it was a motivating and open environment.”
