In this magnificent vision of dance history, the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble and the Ballet Company of Győr explore the extremely compelling and complex relationship of folk dance and composed music in the 17th and 18th centuries, and through the art of Béla Bartók, the folk music experience of 20th-century modernism. Wherever he collected folk music, Bartók always showed great interest in the different dances, whether they be those of the Serbs, the Romanians, the Rusyns, the Bulgarians or the Roma. The experience of music was key to his understanding of the art form, something that is directly embodied in dance: in the dancers’ vivid physicality, movements, and visceral response to the tempo, rhythms and character of the music.
Pure Source, a production that draws on many art forms, paints a captivating panorama of the European dance scene, and conjures up an electrifying and inspiring historical tableau, where distant lands will appear in close proximity to each other, as will the Baroque world of three centuries ago, the colourful everyday life of Transylvanian villages and the vibrant reality of today.