Reka Zalai clocked out for lunch on Thursday within the high quality assurance division of an Audi car manufacturing facility in Hungary.
However as an alternative of heading to her bizarre spot within the manufacturing facility’s lunchroom, she walked to a close-by convention corridor close to the manufacturing line to look at a efficiency of an expert modern ballet troupe.
The Ballet Firm of Gyor, a metropolis in northwest Hungary that’s dwelling to the sprawling automotive and motor plant, started rehearsing on the manufacturing facility in January after being pressured to shutter their rehearsal corridor in response to hovering vitality costs.
With nowhere to rehearse and scheduled performances approaching, the troupe approached the Audi manufacturing facility, a long-time sponsor, which provided to host the dancers in a heated room on the plant for a couple of weeks throughout the coldest winter months.
In a transformed convention room on Thursday, the dancers honed their pliés and pirouettes, whereas row upon row of latest vehicles might be seen in a distant lot by the ceiling-high home windows, and staff handed by outdoors wearing brilliant pink coveralls.
Laszlo Velekei, the ballet firm’s director, stated that having the ability to preserve the continuity of rehearsals after the dancers left their theatre was important to preserving them in high type.
“A very powerful factor in a dancer’s life is that they cannot cease,” Velekei stated. “There’s a saying that we regularly repeat to 1 one other: if you happen to miss at some point (of rehearsal), it is no drawback. Should you miss two days, then the dancer begins to really feel it. Should you miss three days, then the viewers notices, too.”
The Gyor Ballet’s rehearsal corridor is considered one of dozens of Hungarian cultural establishments which have briefly shut down for the winter season in response to exponentially rising vitality costs. Heating payments for some have risen tenfold since final winter, whereas excessive inflation and a weakening foreign money have compounded a dire financial outlook.
Hungary’s authorities in July declared an “vitality emergency” in response to rising costs and provide disruptions linked to Russia’s battle in Ukraine. It additionally made cuts to a well-liked utility subsidy program that since 2014 had saved the payments of Hungarians among the many lowest within the 27-member European Union.
Should you miss at some point (of rehearsal), it is no drawback. Should you miss two days, then the dancer begins to really feel it. Should you miss three days, then the viewers notices, too.– Laszlo Velekei
Reka Jakab, a press spokesperson for Audi, stated the ballet firm wished to present one thing again for the plant’s 12,000 staff in return for the rehearsal house.
“They provided to present one open efficiency for them every week, and so they have been additionally open to giving entry to the rehearsals each time the employees have free time,” she stated.
She stated many staff had by no means seen a ballet earlier than, however the responses have been very optimistic.
“A number of individuals stated that they’d positively attend the following efficiency within the theatre.”
Zoltan Jekli, a dancer with the Gyor ballet, stated that the troupe had overcome a number of the limitations of the brand new house by outfitting the ground with a layer of soppy PVC foam and bringing their very own gear to make it really feel like dwelling.
“At any time when I come right here, it fills me with good emotions and reminiscences and I believe everybody (within the troupe) feels the identical,” he stated. “We do not have the sense that we’re coming right into a automotive manufacturing facility. We wish to be right here.”
Zalai, 28, stated she’s “all the time been amazed by ballet,” however that seeing it up shut and getting an opportunity to interrupt from her each day routine had been a very particular expertise.
“I used to be actually recharged by this half-hour. Time stopped for me,” she stated.