URBAN VERBUNK Brings Back the "Don't Lie to the Planet" Dance Show

Budapest dance company URBAN VERBUNK is bringing back Don't Lie to the Planet, its most ambitious stage production, following a 2023 premiere and a string of sweeping successes in 2024. Directed and choreographed by artistic director Moussa Ahmed, the show fuses Hungarian folk dance with classical masterworks, pop hits and large-scale stage effects to confront the questions facing the planet today. GROOVE Media built URBAN VERBUNK's website and helped grow its social media audience.

A Dance Show About the State of the World

The production is structured around the four classical elements, fire, water, earth and air, with artificial intelligence acting as a fifth element and narrator. Through that frame the dancers move through environmental crises such as water scarcity and wildfires, historical and social wounds including the Holocaust, racial discrimination and famine, and the ethical questions raised by AI and its growing influence on society. The company presents the show as a call to action and a plea for sustainability, as well as a celebration of the planet's beauty.

Water, Fire and Five-Meter Gates

The staging is built to feel cinematic. Audiences can expect:

• A pool filled with more than 2,500 liters of water
• A flaming floor
• Five-meter-tall aluminum gates
• A 40-square-meter trampoline surface
• Choreography performed upside down

The score sets classical works in crossover arrangements next to contemporary pop hits, backed by symphonic orchestration. Music director Miklós Szitha, music producer Pierpaolo Guerrini, known for his work with Andrea Bocelli, and orchestrator Ádám Tóth shaped the sound, with visual design by ODPictures. The mix is designed to reach pop fans as well as theater and opera audiences. The show also includes Vivaldi the Way We Like It, a dance performed in water that has been seen by more than 15 million viewers on social media.

From Premiere to Return

Don't Lie to the Planet premiered on December 5, 2023, in the main hall of the National Dance Theatre in Budapest, with guest performers Elina Nechayeva, Petar Markoski and Patrik Zdroba joining the company. In 2024 the show traveled to venues such as the Hírös Agóra cultural center in Kecskemét. Its return run includes an April 4, 2025, performance at RaM-ArT Színház in Budapest, with tickets through the official Jegy.hu event page.

About URBAN VERBUNK

URBAN VERBUNK describes itself as "Evangelists of Traditional Dance in a Modern World." The company reinterprets Hungarian folk dance for contemporary audiences, pairing it with classical music, pop artists and striking visuals. Its artistic director, Moussa Ahmed, is a Harangozó Gyula Prize and Junior Prima Award winner, and the company has performed at Lincoln Center in New York, at the Rio Olympics and in a UEFA-commissioned project for the 2020 European Championship.

GROOVE Media and URBAN VERBUNK

GROOVE Media designed and built urbanverbunk.hu, the company's official website. On social media, GROOVE Media began as URBAN VERBUNK's consultant, shaping a content approach that helped the company's channels take off completely organically, and then took over as its social media manager. The work reached behind the camera too: GROOVE Media helped plan the company's social media shoots and brought in talent and guests for the dancers to interact with on video. Read the full story in the URBAN VERBUNK case study.

Learn more on URBAN VERBUNK's official shows page, and explore the artists and brands in GROOVE Media's client work.