Szeged Contemporary Dance Company ends record-breaking season with sold-out shows, international tours

The Szeged Contemporary Dance Company has concluded one of the most successful seasons in its 37-year history, boasting sold-out performances, critical acclaim, and major international tours – the company informed Szegedify.

Tickets for the company’s new production, Amadeus, sold out in just seven hours after going on sale at Müpa Budapest. The production, featuring live music, will premiere in Szeged on Oct. 10 before two performances in Budapest’s Festival Theatre on Nov. 19–20. An international premiere is planned for Dec. 4 in Brussels.

“Performing 108 shows in a season is challenging even for large companies; for us, with 14 dancers, it’s an extraordinary achievement,” said artistic director Tamás Juronics.

The company’s global ambitions were underscored by tours in France, Belgium and South Korea. In Paris, Szeged Contemporary Dance Company delivered 14 performances – including Carmina Burana and Black Swan – in what managing director András Echéry-Pataki described as “truly being thrown into the deep end” in one of Europe’s most competitive cultural hubs.

Echéry-Pataki said the company is planning to expand further in France, Belgium, Finland and Italy in the 2025–26 season. In Belgium, Szeged Contemporary Dance Company became the most-watched ballet troupe in 2024.

The company was also a guest of honor at the 21st Busan International Dance Festival in South Korea, where it performed Carmina Burana for the first time that far from home.

Domestically, the company maintained strong audience demand for family-friendly productions like Cinderella and The Nutcracker, the latter of which was recently redesigned with updated technical elements while retaining a traditional aesthetic.

The company also revived Lear this season and continued its acclaimed Black Swan, which has been performed 49 times since its premiere last year. Lead dancer Miriam Munno received major national honors for her performance, winning Best Contemporary Female Dancer from the Hungarian Association of Dance Artists (Magyar Táncművészek Szövetsége), while Juronics shared Hungary’s Best Creator award with Gergely Czár for the production.

Looking ahead, Szeged Contemporary Dance Company plans to premiere The Divine Comedy in the spring, assigning its three sections – Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise – to three choreographers, including Czár and two international artists.

“The most important thing is feeling the audience’s passion for these works,” Juronics said.

Photos: Zoltán Tarnavölgyi / Szeged Contemporary Dance Company