Prime Minister Viktor Orbán inaugurated the largest cultural development of the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 European Capital of Culture programme year. With the opening of the ActiCity Centre for Dance and Movement Arts, Veszprém will be enriched with a new cultural and artistic centre: a home for people and groups practising dance and other forms of movement in Veszprém, which have been working in undignified conditions and have been constantly struggling due to lack of space.
The HUF 11.2 billion investment is a fitting expression of the European Capital of Culture’s concept of cultural infrastructure development: a building that had been empty and dilapidated in the centre of the city for almost twenty-five years, the former Heim Pál Children’s Hospital has been renovated and given new functions that will contribute to meeting the cultural needs of the city and the region for decades to come. ActiCity will be a new meeting point, providing space, training and performance opportunities for dance and movement groups previously scattered and confined in small places across the city.
When the idea of ActiCity was born, the aim was not only to save the valuable buildings in the centre of the city, but also that associations and groups dealing with dance, sports, and movement arts in the city could find a home in decent conditions. After the opening of the newly renovated building, visitors will be able to familiarise themselves with a variety of dance styles, such as classical ballet, jazz ballet, folk dance, hip-hop, modern and contemporary dance, and with sports like wall climbing, taekwon-do, aerial gymnastics and aerial dance, zumba and aerobics, or even petanque and yoga.
The building has a total of twelve rehearsal rooms, a climbing course suitable for competitions, an event hall with a capacity for hundreds of guests, a restaurant, and a café. The main building houses ballet and other forms of dance and movement, while the annex building with a glass corridor houses folk dance groups and wall climbers of Veszprém.
The designers have also thought of making ActiCity open to all ages, so from autumn, children will be looked after in a themed childcare area while parents dance or exercise, or parents can work comfortably at communal workstations in a separate room while their child attends a ballet or folk dance class.
The ActiCity Dance and Movement Arts Centre will enliven the „cultural corridor” that will be created, thanks to further developments, connecting the institutions of the cultural district (University of Pannonia, Hangvilla, Petőfi Theatre, Antall Csermák Music School, Laczkó Dezső Museum, Eötvös Károly County Library) as a pedestrian and recreational zone.
