Bence Mezei is a dancer, performer, choreographer based in Budapest, Hungary and Ljubljana, Slovenia. His artistic practice spans dance, acting, writing, directing and choreography. He is a member of the Obie Award-winning New York performance group Nature Theater of Oklahoma and has been collaborating with the company since 2016. In addition to his work with Nature Theater, Bence has collaborated with and danced for various international choreographers, theater and dance companies over the past decade, including Lionel Hoche, Anh Ngoc Nguyen, En–Knap Group, Club Guy and Roni, Hodworks, Dollardaddy’s among many others. Coming from dance as his first language, Bence approaches his works through a strong sense of rigour, rhythm and musicality, using language, dance and choreography to explore the dynamics of individual experience within the collective context.
UTOPIANOW (in search of a beautiful life) is the first choreographic work by young Hungarian dancer Bence Mezei, a member of En–Knap Group at the time. This solo performance miniature draws from a fundamental question about beauty: Where and how do we search for it? Bence searches through action and in relation to something—to the body, the object, the music and the space. He builds and demolishes. Each time, he directs himself towards the ultimate goal and tries to create something that might last, even for a moment. Yet the final form keeps eluding him: it falls apart, transforms into something other than intended, and takes an unexpected direction. The search for a “treasure” is ultimately a journey in which what matters more than the destination are the individual moments, steps, glimmers and shifts.