A ballet class on Zoom, under the direction of Beatrice Cordua, the first ballerina to dance “The Rite of Spring” (Le Sacré, by John Neumeier, 1972) naked. The online class offers students rigorous training in so-called “sylphic studies”. TANZ cast members learn to master their bodies and minds, with the aim of transforming the repulsive into the sublime.

TANZ is a work for the stage, created in 2019 and directed by Florentina Holzinger. Taking romantic ballet as its starting point, it raises questions about the legacy of dance, the cult of beauty inherent in this tradition and establishes links between ballet, comedy and pornography.

Florentina Holzinger studied choreography at the School for the Development of New Dance (SNDO), the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Her solo diploma work “Silk” was awarded the Prix Jardin d’Europe at the lmPulsTanz Festival 2012. She collaborated with Vincent Riebeek for a trilogy of pieces, Kein Applaus für Scheiße, Spirit, and Wellness (2011-2013). Her second solo work premiered in 2015 - Recovery is an experimental consideration of a traumatic accident she suffered and critically explores various types of female representation as well as the potential of female corporeality. She subsequently began pursuing martial arts as a way of training for a life as an artist. Florentina is also the co-author and performer of the body series Body and Freedom, initiated by the Berliner Festspiele in 2016. In her latest work, Apollon (2017), the Viennese choreographer hacks George Balanchine’s ballet gem of the same name (1928). She is currently working on TANZ, a ‘misinterpretation’ of the ballet Les Sylphides, a performance that will bring together a cast of professional actors and classically trained dancers. The work will be launched in October 2019 in Vienna.