My name is Dora Juhasz, I'm the General Manager of the contemporary dance company
called Compagnie Pal Frenak.
It's a French Hungarian dance company based in Budapest,
working with international dancers.
And we are one of the most famous contemporary independent dance company in
Hungary.
It means that we don't have a venue of our own.
It means that we are renting rehearsal spaces.
We are working in strong collaboration with different kind of Hungarian
institutions.
And we are performing everywhere in the world, mostly in Europe but
sometimes overseas.
The company itself is quite cutting edge, exciting.
We are doing amazing important dance pieces based on classical ballet
techniques, but also very organic, very special methodology based on
the invention of Pal Frenak, who is the founder and choreographer of the company.
We are doing a lot of education programs, as well, with youngsters, with people with
hearing disabilities, with special groups of people, and professionals, as well.
That's what is in our mission, and
we found very important to be the ambassadors of the cutting edge,
thought-provoking, contemporary dance, not just in Hungary, but also Europe wide.
The Institute somehow changed the whole methodology,
how we work back in Hungary, in my organization.
And as we are one of the leading dance companies and
leading independent dance companies in Hungary,
I found really important to be the ambassadors for the Cycle as well, and
make my artists and the other colleagues understand how we should plan and focus.
And change the perception of artistic and general management as well.
And I think it's crucial in my region to figure out how to create a long term
strategy.
How to make different kinds of projects happen,
even if you think that it's not possible.
So what the Cycle gave to me, it was more like an approach, a way of thinking,
a mindset that we have to create a different kind of special and
unique ways of funding and creating big A level projects.
In our case A level doesn't mean that we can plan far in advance.
For instance, our Cuban project which I would like to share,
with you is more about like a sea type popping up, but amazing exciting project.
The company was invited to Cuba to perform at the Dance Festival
at Santa Clara and Havana as well, at the end of 2013.
It was in December, but the invitation arrived during the summer, so
it meant that we had a very short time to prepare the whole thing.
So we decided to, based on what I learned here and what I brought home,
we decided to create a whole campaign and strategy how to make that happen.
It was based on the Cycle,
we were thinking about how to market this opportunity.
How to create a very strong and personal message based on our Cuban dancers.
For him, it was the first time to return to his family.
They left Cuba, he left Cuba for a long time ago.
And it was an important opportunity to dance in front of his family and
his beloved ones with the Pal Frenak piece, which he means and
which he feel that is the most important artistic project he has ever done.
So it was a very nice personal story and motivation in that, and
also a very important cultural motivation to go there and
present the Hungarian contemporary dance in a special surrounding in Cuba.
So, what we did, we figured out who could be our family around this project.
We figured out how to reach and approach the people in the cultural ministry,
in the government to support this project.
But we relied on also audience.
We have never done a crown funding campaign before, but
we decided to do one in collaboration with the film company who did that amazing
documentary about the process.
So we did a very successful campaign, the crown funding campaign,
where we reached our audience and
convinced them how important is that to bring this piece of art to Cuba.
And we found amazing individual donors through technique of story telling.
And we let them know how important is that for the company and
what that could mean for the Hungarian and French art scene.
So finally we had a very successful tour, that very moving experience for
the whole company.
And I think it was the good example that a strategical thinking and opening up and
pushing our boundaries in the management field as well,
it can lead us something amazing, something truly great and
that we are going to be able to share our amazing piece of art with the audience.