Orsolya Bálint

columnist, critic, member of KÖM by L1 Association

member of L1 Association (2015 – 2017)

10 Questions – 10 Answers
Where would you like to wake up tomorrow morning?
In my own bed, cuddling with my children, but a lot later than usual.

Can you name a book, a movie, a piece or a song, which you think is about you?
Poppy, the bohemian, cheerful, always-looking-for-the-silver-lining girl from the movie Happy-Go-Lucky and the mother from Boyhood are a lot like me.

What was your greatest rebellion as a teenager?
My hair was long since I was little, because my dad always said long hair makes a girl pretty. When I was 16, I got a pixie cut, without prior warning. I didn’t want to be pretty but bright. Sometimes I still wonder if it was the right decision.

What would you do, if you wouldn’t be doing what you do now?
I would stand there where the people I write about now. I have tried myself in various art forms from painting to acting, dancing and playing music, but writing has been the most rewarding and exhilarating for me, so I think I’ve found my calling.

What are the first three items on your bucket list?
Just to write, without task, limitations or deadline. Learn gaga, the movement language of Ohad Naharin. See the Aurora Borealis.

What is your greatest fear?
Losing my lust for life.

What superficial things do you waste your time with?
I am passionately collecting inspiring photos, artworks, songs, film scenes, ideas and notes and then don’t do anything.

Which historical figure or fictive personality would you like to share a cup of coffee/tea or a glass of wine with?
Endre Ady, László Nagy, Julio Cortázar, Samuel Beckett, Ohad Naharin, Louise Bourgeois, Mary Wigman, David Lynch, Cormac McCarthy, PJ Harvey, Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, John Cage, Pál Frenák, Wes Anderson, William S. Burroughs, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marina Abramovic, Björk, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Tom Stoppard, Joan Miró, The Strokes, Jirí Menzel, Boris Vian, Kurt Vonnegut, Bill Murray, Frida Kahlo, P. Howard, Nils Frahm, Sofia Coppola, Che Guevara, Darth Vader – coffee for me, anytime.

Is there one fact about you, which would surprise others if they would know it?
I might seem fragile, but I am a tough girl.

How do you see yourself in ten years?
I am still working a lot, but mainly on my darling projects including the Critics’ Self-Educating Workshop KÖM by L1 Association, which we aspire to establish as an internationally renowned professional workshop for dance writers and theoreticians by that time. Since my children are slowly growing up, I have more time to travel to international festivals and work on my own artistic projects.

(May 2015)