Celebration of an Oeuvre

On 28 April, the Small Hall at the National Dance Theatre will host a special premiere. Joe Alegado, a multi-faceted dance artist and choreographer born in the Philippines and based in Budapest, has condensed 52 years of artistic impulses into one performance. We talked to the creator of the piece about Bits and Pieces.

Formerly a dancer with the Ballet Hispanico of NYC, Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, and José Limón Dance Company, you have performed all over the world, but has been living in Budapest for quite some time now. How does an internationally renowned dancer come to Hungary and decide to live here?

After leaving the performance stage, I dedicated more of my time creating as well as working on my teaching projects. My assistant, at the time, was Blanka Csasznyi. She organized some teaching work for me at her former dance school (currently the Budapest Circus Arts and Contemporary Dance College).
The founding director of the school, Iván Angelus, offered me the possibility of writing a thesis paper for the Bachelor program. After completing this thesis, he invited me to write a Masters paper on my methodology in the classroom. This was the first time I had written down the process which, in the end, described the development of Shifting Roots - the Alegado Movement Language. Throughout my work on my Bachelor and Masters thesis, Iván made it possible for me to obtain my Residence Permit by offering BCDC as the supporting partner in my application to the Hungarian government.
The Hungarian Residence Permit helped establish Budapest as my home base.

What do you think about the Hungarian contemporary dance? It fits in with the world trend?

I travel a lot throughout Europe teaching and choreographing, so I'm not always in Budapest when some dance companies are performing but, the few I've seen, do reflect the current flow of today's contemporary dance world.

Bits and Pieces, a short performance of solos, duos, and trios spanning your entire creative output, will debut at the Budapest Dance Festival. If you look back over your career, what are the major milestones that have influenced your art and your creative being?

I would like to take this moment to clarify the performance at the Budapest Dance Festival. This dance performance is a new program. I am creating (with input from the dancers) the entire evening using the single most defining characteristic of my work - the hand gesture. So, even though these different works will not have been performed before, they do utilize hand gestures that span my'entire creative career'.
In answer to the second part of your question:
- my second dance teacher, in my hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas created a safe place for me to choreograph. Larry Roquemore offered me the space and the dancers so that I could create whatever I wanted. He never told me what to create but, instead he would guide me towards always searching for my own choreographic voice.
- the physicality of sports contributed a lot to  how I move people on stage.
Most of the hand gestures I use to this day were born in the different sports I played - many years before I began dancing.
Every dance company I have worked with has contributed to my classroom and my choreographic voice but, having experienced the Limón repertory gave me the opportunity to connect with, not only a movement concept, but also a movement philosophy that opened different doors within my entire makeup as a human being.
From the movement principles, to the musicality of Limón's works, to the spiritual conversations initiated between my body, mind, heart and soul - each and all contributed to the communication taking place inside my artistic journey.

What kind of scenery brings the show to life? Does it reflect the (cultural) diversity of your life?

I believe that when expressing an idea coming from deep inside, there is no particular cultural definition of a people but, rather, a voice originating from a need to reveal glimpses of the human condition. 
My hope is that those glimpses will bring to life connections that stir the imagination and awaken parts that have been asleep.

The performance also features Katarina Vlnieskova and Blanka Flóra Csasznyi, who embody the true spirit and nature of your movement language. How can you describe this "knowledge"?

For me, the act of expressing what is buried inside is a courageous act in itself. We as artists gravitate to what we feel can be the vehicle for that expression. I am truly grateful to have people in my life who feel they can express their inner world by moving through the doors they have helped open in mine.

You are a truly multifaceted artist, and in addition to dance, you have published a book of fiction entitled Chimera Man. Writing is similar to the art of dance in that it is an artistic form of expression through which we can show our innermost being. What inspired you to write the book and do you plan to continue or showcase it in other art forms?

The day after the pandemic shut everything down in Budapest, I began to write. There was nothing, that I can remember, inspiring this need to write. It seemed to come out of nowhere. But, of course, inspiration will find a way to come out - even within the most unusual circumstances. I had never written a book yet, I found myself writing as if I was creating a full length choreography. At times, it was constructed from a music composer's perspective in that I followed an instinct for story development related directly to chord changes for a musical composition. Other times, I would build characters and their story lines by visualizing movement transitions for the stage.
In the end, I created a choreography of words, connecting them in such a way as to give them life - just as I would for dancers in my choreographic works. I imagine I will, at some point in the future, put into words what Shifting Roots - the Alegado Movement Language means to me. That would be a creative project to really explore.

Diana Tompa