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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Eszter Salamon: Mothers & Daughters

Nov 10–11, 2024
Rue Ravenstein 23, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium

In typical European-experimental-choreographer fashion, Eszter Salamon lives “between” major capitals (Budapest, Berlin, and Paris, in case you’re wondering). Also typical: a dance is never just a dance but also a philosophy of dance. This Festival d’automne premiere, Mothers & Daughters, for example, is “a choreographic approach to the mother-daughter relationship” that “maps out an ethical and sensory framework of collective intimacy.” Still, Salamon’s work, now in its 25th year, scratches all sorts of old-fashioned itches. It is lavishly theatrical, masterfully paced, and a surprise every time. Not your average auteur, Salamon seems to reinvent herself with each outing. Or nearly—Mothers & Daughters expands on a 2019 duet for the choreographer and her mother, also a dancer and utopianist (Gyarmati Erzsébet had a major role in elevating dance to the level of music in Hungarian public education). In the 2019 piece, the pair moved with entrancing slowness—touching sole of foot to sole of foot, bridging their bodies one over the other. Now two mother-daughter pairs join them, for a triple duet. —Apollinaire Scherr